These pumpkin cupcakes are super moist, incredibly delicious and topped off with cream cheese frosting (with a dairy-free option). Can be made with gluten-free, 100% whole grain or all-purpose flours.
Well. I can’t say that I’ve tried every pumpkin cupcake recipe in existence but I have tried over 40 and these are definitely, without a doubt, the best I’ve ever had!
I wish I could take credit for it but it’s adapted from an Ina Garten recipe. I posted this recipe a few weeks after I started blogging in 2011 and it’s so good, I figured I should test a gluten-free version, reshoot the pictures and post it again.
If none of the three flour options work for you, try my paleo pumpkin cake!
Some highlights from the latest reviewers if you need convincing:
- This is the lightest and fluffiest cupcake I’ve ever made.
- It was the most MOIST cupcake I have ever made or eaten. So delicious and amazing!
- One of the moistest cupcakes I have ever made even when I changed the recipe.
- And my favorite: My daughter ate 5 in a short while and she was full. I did not even bother to feed her dinner.
All of the reviews above and in the comments refer to the whole wheat version but I can assure you that the gluten-free version is just as delicious as the whole wheat version, which is just as delicious as the all-purpose flour version!
I shared my pumpkin cream cheese muffins two weeks ago and several of you have already made them and loved them.
So you might be wondering what the difference is between the two pumpkin batter bases. They’re really similar. This one has more sugar, more oil and more pumpkin than the other (for the same yield).
I’d say the difference is in the crumb. These are more cupcake-like.
These pumpkin cupcakes are sweet enough without the cream cheese frosting but what would a cupcake be without cream cheese frosting? I used a scaled down version of my healthier cream cheese frosting. It pipes really well!
This Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting would also be a great choice!
If you need a dairy-free version, try this vegan maple cream cheese frosting on them. Just note that it’s very soft and you won’t be able to pipe it on!
If you’re looking for a great cupcake recipe for Halloween, these pumpkin cupcakes are for you! And if you want something a little orange and something a little black, try these whole wheat chocolate cupcakes, which can also be made with AP flour or gluten-free flour!
And both of these cupcakes would make the perfect base for these spider cupcakes. Aren’t they cute?! :)
If you’re not feeling the cupcake love, try these iced pumpkin cookies from A Dash of Sanity or these pumpkin chocolate chip muffins from Melanie Makes!
Pumpkin Cupcakes (gluten-free, dairy-free, whole grain, all-purpose flour options)
- Prep Time:
- Cook Time:
- Ready in:
- Yield: 10 cupcakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125 grams) whole wheat flour, whole spelt flour, all-purpose flour or 1 cup (134 grams) 1-to-1 gluten-free baking flour for a GF version
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 large eggs (50 grams each, out of shell), room temperature
- 1 cup (240 grams) canned pumpkin puree
- 1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar, raw sugar or coconut sugar
- 1/2 cup (120 milliliters) olive oil1 (or another neutral-tasting oil that's liquid at room temperature like canola oil)
- 8 ounces (225 grams) cream cheese, room temperature3
- 2-4 tablespoons (28-56 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature4
- 2/3 cup (80 grams) powdered sugar (you can add more, if desired)
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cupcakes:
For the frosting (use this →vegan maple cream frosting for a dairy-free + non-pipeable version):2
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line a muffin pan with 10 muffin liners.
- In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg.
- In a larger bowl, whisk the eggs, pumpkin puree, sugar, and oil.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir just until combined. Do not over mix!
- Divide the batter among the liners, filling each about 4/5 full, and bake for about 20 -24 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Once the cupcakes have cooled completely, prepare the frosting.
- In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It's okay if it looks a little crumbly.
- Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until totally combined and then beat in the salt and vanilla. If it's firm enough for your needs, frost your cupcakes now. The frosting yields enough for just slightly more than 2 tablespoons per cupcake.
- If you want it firmer, refrigerate for about an hour, stirring the frosting after about 30 minutes. Don't let it chill too long before frosting your cupcakes, though, because it gets quite firm, like a cream cheese tart filling. If that happens, just bring it to room temperature and then frost. The frosting firms up once refrigerated so if you want the softer frosting texture (rather than a cream cheese tart filling kind of texture), let the cupcakes come to room temperature before serving.
- Store frosted cupcakes in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.
For the frosting:
Notes
- If you use olive oil, the batter will taste like olive oil but the taste disappears after baking.
- Here is the original frosting recipe I had listed on this recipe. I thought it was way too much for only 10 cupcakes and this newer version has less sugar.
– 1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, softened
– 12 ounces (340 grams) cream cheese, softened
– 1/8 teaspoon salt
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 1/2 teaspoon maple extract - optional
– 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (you can use more or less) - also optional
– 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) powdered sugar - If you live outside of North America and have the kind of cream cheese that's meant for toast (that comes in a little plastic tub) rather than American style brick cream cheese, then get 300 grams of cream cheese, place it in the center of a cheesecloth, and wring out the liquid until you have 225 grams of cream cheese left.
- If you want to pipe this frosting, use 4 tablespoons of butter and if you just want to slather it on, use 2. Or 4 if you just want it a little firmer!
Adapted from Ina Garten's Pumpkin Cupcakes
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124 comments on “Pumpkin Cupcakes (gluten-free option)” — Add one!
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Anon – Wow, you're really creative! Thanks for sharing your changes. Now if I only had access to jello. :)
For the cranberry cupcakes I used raspberry jello. Just putting the jello dry right out of the package and added chopped dried cranberries. For the Pina Colada all I did was add pineapple and coconut. And for the star fruit I used the passion fruit juice and added the flavorless gelatin and diced star fruit and refrigerated it so that it was like normal jello, when I put the wet ingredients together I added it then mixed it all together. When adding the jello like that the cupcakes take about 22 minutes compared to 17, they don't really rise as much but they are super moist. I use jello a lot in my cupcakes to help with the different flavors.
Anon – I'm so happy to hear that the recipe is working out for you! When you make the other flavors, what do you do in place of the pumpkin? Use mashed fruit? I'd love to know what you're doing so I can try it out too! Thanks for taking the time to leave feedback. I really apprecrate it. :)
I am so in love with this recipe. I use it as a base for other flavored cupcakes. Right now I am making a piña colada cupcake along with a passion fruit star fruit cupcake. The last batch that I made were raspberry cranberry. I think this is the best recipe that I have come by so far.
where do you get the passion fruit?
I’ve never bought passion fruit. Do they not have it at full-sized grocery stores? I bet Whole Foods would have it! Good luck with finding it. :)
Looks delicious. Would love for you to share your pictures with us over at foodepix.com.
Mouth watering cupcake! My saliva is already drooling at the side of my mouth. LOL. Better bake some to stop my drooling saliva.
I don't know how much brown sugar costs there, but I'm guessing it's expensive. You can make your own brown sugar by adding 1 tablespoon of molasses to one cup of granulated sugar. It tastes and works exactly the same. Or there's always the Asian shops, although maybe it's around the same price as Broken English.
Thanks for the link! I've spent way too much time on there just now, admiring their large selection of Reese's products.
I'll let you know if I find proper canned pumpkin anywhere! I'm always on the lookout.
They have it at KaDeWe every year for some outrageous price (I didn't even bother to look, as I wasn't lookin for it, but did notice it sitting there.)
I think I may have seen some sort of pumpkin pie filling at Broken English in Kreuzberg, too (that's where I get proper brown sugar when I run out of stuff I've brought from home). I think that Karstadt am Hermannplatz (in the basement) had it too, but that may just be muffin tins. It all sort of blends together.
Oh, and americanfood4u.de!
Guess I'll make do with the three cans I have on hand :)
Where have you found Libby's?! Hopefully not at Kaufhof for 8 euros a can. I would even be happy with the pie mix stuff. Whenever I visit Texas, I bring back almost two suitcases full of baking supplies, so I'm afraid that's how I have canned pumpkin. I've looked at Metro in Friedrichshain and they don't have it and I'm afraid that if they don't have it, normal grocery stores won't have it. Sorry I'm not much of a help. :(
I'm an American living in Berlin and was wondering where you get pure pumpkin puree here – obviously pumpkin is in season right now, and is accessible in that means, but the only canned pumpkin puree I have ever seen here is the Libby's Pumpkin Pie mix, which I don't really want since it's pre seasoned. I have a few cans of pumpkin and squash that I've brought over from the States, but would love a local source.
I'm happy that you tried and liked them! Thank you so much for leaving such nice feedback. :)
These are absolutley devine! I halved the recipe (made 5 perfect muffins) and switched around the ingredients a bit, decreasing the sugar (substituting with some stevia).
I also made a cream cheese frosting but used the light tub variety, vanilla, a small amount of icing sugar and stevia to sweeten.
Perfect, moist muffins with a light smear of cream cheese frosting and sprinkle of walnuts.
YES PLEASE!
Hi Olivia! I hope they turn out the way you hope they will. Let me know how you like them! Thanks a bunch for stopping by. :)
Sent here by Cookies and Cups
and absolutely LOVE this blog,
cant wait to try some of the recipes :)
Hey cookies and cups! If you're not used to (or think it's absolutely disgusting like I used to) whole grain baking, you should really try these cupcakes. They really honestly don't taste like they're whole wheat! But keep the sugar in the cupcakes at 1 cup if you're not used to reduced sugar stuff. Thanks for the comment! :)
What a great site!! So glad you commented on mine and it led me back! You might just convert me to whole wheat yet :)
Hi Miryam! I think so, too. Sometimes it's interesting to see how many calories you're normally eating per day, but I don't worry about it. I just try to make sure to eat whole grains when possible and reduce the sugar. And use olive oil instead of butter. So basically everything you do. :)
I just made some last week, of course they are gone, they were really good!!.
What a great idea of using a calorie count analyzer. I guess for those that are trying to count their calories it would be very effective. I never have counted calories, but then again, if your diet is healthy I guess you won't need to do that ;-)
I used the Caloriecount recipe analyzer for the cupcake part (also using 2/3 cup sugar). It got a B-. I think that's quite good for a dessert!
– 193 calories
– 12.1 grams fat (which comes from the olive oil)
– 2.3 grams fiber
– 10.6 grams sugar (which is unrefined)
– Vitamin A 77% GDA
To me, icing is obviously unhealthy. You can't make healthy icing with fake sugar and fake butter and fat-free cream cheese. So if you want to skip the icing, I totally understand. Just sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top of the cupcakes before baking. They're sweet enough and lovely that way. The cream cheese icing is just something special.
I just did the calculations on this recipe using SparkRecipes.com and if you use exactly what you said (including the 2/3 cup sugar instead of 1 cup and low fat cream cheese instead of regular) each cupcake is still 442 calories…and 27 grams of fat. Not really healthy :-/ I wish they were, because they sound delicious!