Gingerbread pumpkin cupcakes make for one of the best fall desserts! Moist and tender pumpkin cupcakes spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and more! Finished with a creamy spiced cream cheese frosting.
All of the fall baking spices are OUT at the grocery stores. There are free-standing displays, end-cap displays and little jars of nutmeg and pumpkin pie spice everywhere. That combined with, of course, tons of canned pumpkin. One of my favorite of these spices (and truly underrated in my opinion) is ground ginger! It adds such a lovely little kick to baked goods like these gingerbread pumpkin cupcakes.
Given this, I definitely wanted to make a fall cupcake that used lots of ginger. My mind drifted to combining pumpkin and ginger, stepping it up one notch and pulling in some ingredients traditionally used in gingerbread (think molasses, cloves, and allspice). After a few trial runs, I’m happy to share these gingerbread pumpkin cupcakes!
The best part? I took a bunch of favorite fall spices and made a creamy spiced cream cheese frosting to go on top of these tender and moist cupcakes.
Ingredients Needed
Flour, measured correctly.
Baking soda and baking powder as rising agents
Spices: Ground ginger, cinnamon, ground cloves, allspice, ground nutmeg, and salt.
Melted Coconut Oil or Avocado Oil
Brown sugar and white sugar
An egg
Vanilla Extract
Molasses
Milk of any kind – I personally used almond milk in my cupcakes
Canned pumpkin – not pumpkin pie filling, just plain old pumpkin
In addition, you will need cream cheese, butter, and powdered sugar for the frosting.
How to Make Gingerbread Pumpkin Cupcakes
Step 1: Make the Cupcakes
You’ll start by whisking together the dry ingredients (excluding sugar), including the flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices, and salt. Since there are so many lovely spices in here, definitely make sure you don’t skip whisking the dry ingredients together first! This mixes all the flavors on the front end, since after you add the dry ingredients to the wet you don’t want to work the batter too much.
Then, you’ll mix the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl. Use a stand mixer, stand mixer, or just your arms and a whisk.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until the flour is just incorporated.
Step 2: Make the cream cheese frosting
To make the frosting, make sure that both the butter and cream cheese are softened and at room temperature. Start by beating the two of them together with a pinch of salt until fluffy. Then, add the rest of the ingredients. I like to start my mixer on slow speed to incorporate the sugar. Once I’m confident that powdered sugar won’t go flying everywhere, I kick it up to high speed and beat the frosting until smooth.
Step 3: Frost the cupcakes
Make sure that the cupcakes are 100% cool before frosting. You can use a knife, pastry bag, or a ziploc bag with a hole cut in the corner. This ziploc method was my way of frosting cupcakes for years before I finally bought myself some cake decorating supplies.
Tips & Tricks
How do I store leftover cupcakes? Any unfrosted cupcakes can stay out at room temperature in an airtight container for 1-2 days. For any frosted cupcakes, make sure to put them in an airtight container in the fridge.
Make sure to use canned pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling. Avoid pumpkin pie filling since it has a lot of other spices and ingredients mixed in.
Measure flour correctly! I will forever and always link this guide from King Arthur Baking.
Use room temperature ingredients, which mainly affects the egg and milk in the recipe. Warm ingredients combine better into the batter, which at the end of the day means that your cupcakes’ texture will be beautifully moist and tender. Leave the ingredients out for an hour before baking. If you are unable to wait, then I can completely relate. You can heat the milk for 15-20 seconds in the microwave. As for the egg, place it in a bowl of warm water for 5-10 minutes.
Don’t overwork the batter! When I say mix until just combined, it truly means just combined. Overmixing sadly leads to tough cupcakes.
Garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon, or some candied ginger! Completely optional, but I’m just a fan of decor.
Did You Make This Recipe?
If you tried this recipe then I’d love to hear from you! Leave a rating or comment letting me know your thoughts. If you take a picture of the end result, feel free to share it with me on instagram at @toppedwithhoney. Looking forward to seeing your lovely cupcakes!
Want to try some other cupcakes? I shared my favorite chocolate cupcakes a few weeks ago, check it out if you’re feeling it.
Gingerbread Pumpkin Cupcakes with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1¾ cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp Ground Ginger
- 2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Allspice
- 1½ tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- ¼ tsp Salt
Wet Ingredients
- ½ cup Melted Coconut Oil or Avocado Oil
- ⅓ cup Brown Sugar
- ⅓ cup White Sugar
- 1 Egg, at room temperature
- ¼ cup + 1 tbsp Molasses
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Milk, any kind
- 1 cup Canned Pumpkin Puree
Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 oz Cream Cheese, one block
- 4 tbsp Butter, softened
- 3 cups Powdered Sugar
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- ¼ tsp Ground Cloves
- ¼ tsp Ground Cinnamon
- 1 tbsp Milk, any kind
Instructions
Cupcakes
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a 12-tin cupcake pan with liners.
- In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and salt. Set this aside for now.
- In a separate, larger bowl (it can be the bowl of a stand mixer or just a large mixing bowl), beat together the oil, sugars, egg, molasses, and vanilla until combined. Then add the milk and pumpkin and continue beating until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients into your large bowl of wet ingredients. Fold everything together until just combined (no more streaks of white flour). Make sure to not overwork the batter.
- Use a cookie dough or ice cream scoop to spoon an equal amount of the batter into each cupcake tin.
- Bake for 22-25 minutes. The cupcakes will be ready when a toothpick comes out clean and the tops spring back when you gently press them.
- Let the cupcakes cool for 5 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frosting
- Add the butter, cream cheese, and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat them together on medium speed until fluffy (30 seconds – 1 minute).
- Turn off the mixer and add the powdered sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and milk into the bowl. Start beating the mixture on low speed until the sugar is incorporated.
- Turn the mixer up to medium-high speed and beat the frosting until it is smooth and creamy.
- Once the cupcakes are 100% cool, frost them using either a knife, pastry bag, or ziploc with a hole cut out in the corner. Enjoy!
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