How to Make Pumpkin Cupcakes Look Like Little Pumpkins
These easy pumpkin cupcakes are soft, moist, and packed with warm pumpkin spice flavor. They’re topped with cinnamon cream cheese frosting and decorated to look like adorable little pumpkins using one simple piping tip. They’re perfect for Halloween parties, Thanksgiving dessert tables, bake sales, or any fall celebration.
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Let’s start off with just how CUTE these are!
And when you see how simple it is to decorate them, you could have your very own cupcake pumpkin patch in your kitchen! I have a video showing how to pipe the same style pumpkins frosted on cookies here. Be sure to click that link to see the quick video.
Easy Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
I love the creamy white frosting with the cinnamon speckles, and I just added a drop of brown food coloring for the stem, you could make it green as well.
And now for the taste: OMG, I just love the deliciously creamy texture of cream cheese frosting, and now add to it some vanilla and cinnamon, and WOW, what a great warm flavor. You could add pumpkin pie spice to it as well.
pumpkin shaped cupcakes…
How to Make Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes
The pumpkin shape is created entirely with frosting. You don’t need fondant, special cupcake toppers, candy pumpkins or a complicated decorating technique.
Use a 2D piping tip and pipe four curved sections from the top of the cupcake toward the bottom. Add a small brown frosting stem and you’re done.
Here’s how to make ridiculously cute pumpkin cupcakes without being an expert cake decorator.
- 1. Make the pumpkin cupcakes
- 2. Make the cinnamon cream cheese frosting
- 3. Fill your piping bag
- 4. Pipe the pumpkin shape
- 5. Add the stem
What else to make with pumpkin puree
I just love simple recipes like this, they are easy to put together, and since the cupcakes taste amazing… everyone will love them.
Tips for baking the cutest pumpkin cupcakes:
- Use the proper pan; I prefer THIS shiny stainless cupcake pan
- Glassine liners: they don’t stick to the cake part, and they hold their color
- Uniform cupcakes: making sure they are the same size, I use a scoop… It’s less messy than lots of other methods of filling cupcakes
- Next, be sure the oven is really preheated well. Cupcakes (like cakes and muffins) start to rise as soon as they go in the oven, so if the oven just comes to temperature and you open the oven and put the cupcakes in… the temperature can easily drop, and depending on how long the oven was open for… it could affect the baking.
Useful items:
- piping bags I use
- piping tip I use to make the pumpkins…. and it also makes my signature rose cupcake!
More flavor options:
If you’re looking for a fun chocolate frosting on top of these cupcakes
- Chocolate sour cream frosting it’s soft and creamy
- Chocolate fudge frosting… they are both yummy
- Multi color pumpkin cupcake options
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting on Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes
Pumpkin Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 2 cups sugar
- 4 eggs
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/2 cup butter melted and cooled
- 1/4 cup oil
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Line 24 portion cupcake pan areas with liners.
- In a large bowl whisk sugar and eggs.
- With a spatula stir in flour, milk, pumpkin, butter, oil, baking powder, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice until smooth.
- Pour into pan and bake for 20-25 minutes or until tested with a toothpick just come out clean, not overly dry.
- Allow cupcakes to cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out cupcakes onto a cooling rack until completely cool.
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 3 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1/3 cup butter I use salted butter if unsalted is used add a small pinch of salt
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In the bowl of a mixer whip cream cheese with butter and whip it until it’s silky smooth.
- Add in the powdered sugar along with the heavy cream and cinnamon.
- Place the frosting into piping bags,
- reserving a small portion for the stems you can color brown or green using food coloring or a bit of cocoa powder for brown.
- The stems were piped with a small leaf tip.
- The cupcakes were piped with a 2D tip.
- Pipe 4 striped from top to bottom on the cupcakes then add the stem.
- Serve cupcakes the day they are made or place in the refrigerator for best results.
Icing recipe has 43 cups of powder sugar ???
Oh my goodness, that is certainly a typo… sorry, I adjusted it to reflect the proper amount 3-4 cups of powdered sugar, add 3 cups and add a little more if you want it sweeter or thicker.