Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes are the quintessential fall dessert everyone needs! My recipe makes this a simple but delicious treat you will love.
Hiding healthy fruits or veggies in dessert is one of my favorite things! Alongside these cupcakes, I absolutely love our homemade Carrot Cake Recipe and know you will as well!
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Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
These amazing Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes are so irresistibly fluffy and moist. The whipped cream cheese frosting is truly the icing on the cake. Pun intended!
Thank you, Wilton! A big shout out to Wilton for providing all the necessary equipment to create this stunner autumn themed dessert.
Ever since I began my journey into the world of baking, Wilton has always been my favorite brand. Whether it be something as simple as piping bags or something more extravagant like their Tilt-N-Turn ULTRA Cake Turntable. Their stellar baking products have been a lifesaver; especially when I had to bake 9 cakes in one day for an event a few years ago.
Check Out Fall baking Ideas:
Wilton has an incredible line of products perfect for your Autumn Themed Baking adventures.
Tips to Make the Perfect Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
• Don’t over mix the batter. Over mixing will cause the cupcakes to become dense, and lose that fluffy texture.
• Use a scoop to measure out the ingredients. Eyeballing it can run the risk of some cupcake baking faster or slower due to uneven distribution.
• Bake on the center rack in the oven. When the cupcakes are in the middle of the oven they bake more evenly.
How to Make the Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
• Use room temperature ingredients since this will help ensure a smooth and even frosting.
• Add the powdered sugar a little at a time. I like to do it in 3 separate parts.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Eggs
Granulated Sugar
Pumpkin Puree
Heavy Whipping Cream
Butter
Pumpkin Spice
Cinnamon
Salt
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
All-Purpose Flour
Cream Cheese
Vanilla Extract
Powdered Sugar
Red, Yellow, and Orange Candy Melts
Small Leaves
Tools used in this recipe:
cupcake liners, prep bowls, muffin tins
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Prepare your cupcake batter as directed in the printable recipe below being careful to add in dry ingredients gently so as not to create tough cupcakes. Line cupcake tins and fill each with a large scoop of batter before baking for around 25 minutes. Allow the cupcakes to cool before icing with the cream cheese frosting recipe.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
While the cupcakes are baking, prepare your cream cheese frosting using ingredients as directed below in the printable recipe. Using a 2D Wilton piping tip, pipe the frosting onto each cooled cupcake in a circular motion. Then sprinkle with your favorite sprinkles. I used these Autumn Sugar sprinkles.
How to Make Fall Candy Leaves
Following the directions as listed in the printable recipe below, heat your Candy Melts in the microwave until ready to pipe. Fill 3 Wilton piping bags with each color of candy melts and pipe out scattered dots of melted candy into a Wilton Candy Melting Pot.
Follow the directions given for swirling the candy melts and placing the leaves in the candy to create a fall leave look. Once hardened the leaves are easy to remove before placing on your cupcakes.
More Pumpkin Spice Recipes
If you are looking for more amazing pumpkin flavored recipes, make sure to check out our recipes linked below!
Full Recipe Instructions
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes
Ingredients
- Ingredients for the cupcakes
- 4 eggs
- 1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin pure
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream 36% fat
- 3 tbs melted butter
- 3 tsp pumpkin spice
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
- Ingredients for the frosting:
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 8 oz pkg. cream cheese
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- Ingredients for the candy leaves:
- 1/2 cup red candy melts
- 1/2 cup yellow candy melts
- 1/2 cup orange candy melts
- 18 small leaves- washed and dried
Instructions
- Beat the eggs in a bowl for a minute or two using an electric beater. Then add the sugar and beat for another 4 minutes until the egg mixture becomes pale and fluffy. Then blend in the pumpkin purée.
- Pour the heavy whipping cream and melted butter into the bowl and mix thoroughly.
- Sift the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and flour into a separate bowl. Then add the dry ingredients to the batter in thirds, while gently folding the flour mixture each time.
- Line 2 muffin tins with cupcake liners and fill about 18 of them issuing a large scoop. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.
- Meanwhile beat the softened butter, softened cream cheese, vanilla, and cinnamon. Once it’s well mixed, add the powdered sugar and continue beating until smooth.
- Using a 2D Wilton piping tip, pipe the frosting onto each cooled cupcake in a circular motion. Then sprinkle with your favorite sprinkles. I used these Wilton Red Sanding Sugar sprinkles.
- How to create fall candy leaves-
- In three separate bowls, melt red, yellow, and orange candy melts in the microwave in 30 second intervals.
- Fill 3 Wilton piping bags with each color of candy melts and pipe out scattered dots of melted candy into a Wilton candy melting pot.
- Using a toothpick, gently swirl the colors together, but don’t mix them entirely.
- Take a washed and dried leaf and gently dip one side of the leaf while holding onto the stem. Remove the leaf and place it onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for about 5 minutes. Peal the candy away from the leaf and discard the real leaf. Then top each cupcake with the fall candy leaves.
Nutrition
Disclaimer:
- Some of the links above are affiliate links.
- All opinions are mine. I only promote products that I absolutely love.
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Kel says
What leaned did you use and where can I find them?
Dina says
Hi Kel, can you please clarify what you mean by “Leaned”. Thanks 🙂
Danielle says
Am I able to have the cream cheese frosting on cupcakes overnight before consumption? Or do I need to apply the morning of eating?
Dina says
Hi Danielle, you can definitely frost these cupcakes the day before 🙂
Alex says
This looks and sounds AMAZING!! Quick question about the chocolate leaves, how far in advance can they be made? Thank you so much!
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you Alex! If you are using candy melts then you can make them up to a week in advance. Just store them at room temperature in an airtight container. If using chocolate chips I wouldn’t make them that far in advance. Hope that helps clarify and I hope you love these pumpkin spice cupcakes! 🙂
Aly says
Hi! I found this recipe really delicious to make and everyone absolutely loved them! Just a quick question though, do you by any chance know where you got the small leaves from?
simplyhomecooked says
Hi Aly, I’m so glad you enjoyed the pumpkin spice cupcakes 🙂 I actually made the leaves myself using melted candy melts. I have a detailed guide on how to make them in the blog post.
Adriana says
I made these yesterday and…OMG….they are so amazing!! Like seriously amazing! I doubled the recipe because I was making them for a work event and everyone loved them. Definitely a recipe I will make time and time again. I followed the recipe exactly as is except I did not make the candy leaves. I used the store brand full fat cream cheese and did not have any issues with the consistency. It was very very thick, but not in a bad way. Also, I doubled the icing recipe and I only used 2 cups of powdered sugar for the whole 4 blocks of cream cheese. Seriously, perfect! Thank you so much for sharing.
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you so much for the wonderful review, Adriana! I’m so glad you loved these pumpkin spice cupcakes!
Silvana says
I’m so in love with these chocolate leaves 🍁. Do you think it’ll be possible to use plastic leaves instead of real leaves. I don’t have access to the real ones.
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you Silvana 🙂 Plastic leaves will work as long as they have have some sort of stem-veins going through the leaf. The veins are what give the chocolate leave that life like look.
Silvana says
Awesome!!!! Thank you for your quick response and your recommendation. I can’t wait try it.
simplyhomecooked says
No problem Silvana 🙂
M says
I made these cupcakes today, they were tasty but not amazing. The icing was a little runny for me, it needed 1-2 cups more powdered sugar to thicken up for me.
simplyhomecooked says
Hello, M sometimes the cream cheese brand can change the consistency. Or if you use a low fat cream cheese, that will, make it more runny as well. Thanks for the feedback!
Katy | Her Cup of Joy says
These are the cutest pumpkin spice cupcakes. I really love the idea of making candy coating leaves! This would be so cute as a cake topper as well! I’m definitely trying this technique for a Thanksgiving cake!
simplyhomecooked says
Thank you for your lovely feedback Katy! 🙂