Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

It's Fall and that means time for pumpkin recipes! Recently received this one from my mom. The cupcake recipe is from Real Simple Magazine, the frosting is mine. No offense to the deliciousness of Real Simple's frosting, mine's just better :). Here's what you'll need:

The Cupcake
One 18.5 oz box of Yellow Cake
The Ingredients on the back of the Cake Box (mine called for 1/3 Cup Oil, Water, and 3 Eggs)
1/2 tsp Pumpkin Pie Spice
15 oz Pumpkin Puree

The Frosting
16 oz Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter, softened
1 3/4 Cups Powdered Sugar (more or less to taste)
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners. Combine all cake ingredients, swapping out the water called for on the back of the cake box and replacing it with the pumpkin puree. Blend until smooth. Divide evenly between the 24 cupcake tins. Bake at 350 for 18-22 minutes**. Cupcakes are done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

**I also made mini cupcakes with this recipe. Those only need to bake for about 14 minutes.

While your cupcakes are baking, make the frosting. Combine all frosting ingredients in a large bowl and mix using an electric mixer. If you don't have one, get out the water bottle and sweat towel and prepare for a workout as you hand stir this sucker until it's smooth and creamy. Mix until fully incorporated, making sure there are no chunks of powdered sugar hiding amongst the frosting. Refrigerate frosting until you're ready to decorate the cupcakes.

Allow your cupcakes to cool before frosting so that the frosting doesn't melt off. If you'd like, you can transfer frosting to a pastry decorating bag, or a large ziplock bag (in which you'll cut a slit in one corner), and squeeze the frosting onto the cupcakes to get a pretty little dollop. If you have neither, you can spread the frosting with a knife, too. It's ok, I won't tell anyone you're old-school.


Oh, and if all of the above hasn't convinced you to make these yet, let me give you a direct quote from my roommate in the form of Texts From Last Night:

310: I will eat one tonight after the gym for the sake of irony.
310: Omfg
310: Just to warn you I may weight 200 pounds when I see you next bc I will have eaten all of the pumpkin cupcakes. So amazing!!

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, a new holiday favorite, straight from CaityBakes!