Why is it that as soon as October comes around, all you can think about is pumpkin, pumpkin, pumpkin? No worries! These cupcakes will satisfy even your most intense pumpkin cravings. The center is piped with a dab of sweetened condensed milk to add an extra ooey-gooey bite of sweet flavor, and each cupcake is piled high with nutmeg buttercream frosting. These cupcakes require a giant glass of milk, cool autumn weather, and friends and family to share them with.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Ingredients: *Makes 12-14 cupcakes

Cupcakes

  • 1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. cinnamon
  • 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
  • ½ cup butter at room temperature
  • 1/3 cup plain Greek yogurt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/3 cup mini chocolate chips

Frosting

  • 1 cup butter at room temperature
  • 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
  • 4 Tbsp. milk
  • 2 Tbsp. sweetened condensed milk (+ more for stuffing if desired)
  • 4 cups powdered sugar
  • 2 tsp. cinnamon
  • 2 ½ tsp. nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp. salt

Instructions:

Make the cupcakes

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 12-count muffin pan with butter or line with cupcake liners and set aside.
  2. In a small bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice until well combined and set aside.
  3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the brown sugar and eggs together until combined. Add in the pumpkin, butter, yogurt and vanilla and mix until combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients into the bowl and stir until just combined. Don’t overmix!
  4. Spoon the batter into the prepared cupcake cups about 2/3 full. If you have extra batter, make a second batch.
  5. Bake for 17 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  6. Cool completely before frosting.

Make the frosting

  1. In the (clean) bowl of the standing mixer, beat the butter, vanilla, milk and sweetened condensed milk until smooth (See notes).
  2. With the mixer on low, slowly add the powdered sugar, then the cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Increase the speed and beat on high speed for 1 minute. Add additional powdered sugar or milk if needed for the right consistency.

Assemble the cupcakes

  1. If desired, fill a tipped piping bag with sweetened condensed milk. From the top of the cupcake, gently stick the tip into the cupcake and pipe the sweetened condensed milk into the center of each cupcake.
  2. Frost the cupcakes and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Notes:

*If you prefer your frosting to be not as sweet, replace the sweetened condensed milk with 1 Tbsp. of regular milk.

For more recipes like this, visit Kiwi & Carrot, produced by our food blogger, Sarah Romero.