Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting are tender and flavored with warming pumpkin pie spice. The perfect fall treat!
“Every single time this recipe delivers the lightest, moistest crumb I’ve ever had on a gf cupcake/muffin. I’ve been baking gf for 15 years. Thank you!!!”
While I truly appreciate the amount of bakeries offering gluten free cupcake options these days, I find most of them to be really dense and crumbly.
My Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting though?
Soft, tender, perfectly sweet and pumpkiny, heavily spiced, and buried under a cloud of cream cheese frosting. They are so incredible that you’d never, ever guess they’re gluten free!
Soft & Tender Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes
Whether you make these moist cupcakes for a fall party or potluck, as a pumpkin pie swap for Thanksgiving, or for any fall occasion in between, they’re great to feed a crowd because the taste and texture do not scream “gluten free”.
Especially when they’re finished with a flourish of crowd pleasing Cream Cheese Frosting, which is truly a cinch to whip up.
Grab a few gluten free baking staples, and let’s get to baking!
Try Gluten Free Chocolate Cupcakes
How to Make Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes
Start by mixing eggs, 100% pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, vegetable or canola oil, and vanilla extract in the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl if using a handheld mixer, until smooth and creamy.
Next, whisk together a gluten free baking flour blend, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a separate bowl. Add to the wet ingredients then mix until smooth.
Let the batter sit for 5 minutes, which gives the gluten free flour a chance to hydrate and absorb the liquid in the recipe then scoop 1/4 cup batter into each cup of a 12 cup, paper-lined muffin tin.
Bake for 17-19 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean.
How to Make Cream Cheese Frosting
Let the cupcakes cool completely then whip up the cream cheese frosting to slather on top.
To the bowl of your electric mixer, or another large bowl if using a handheld mixer, add softened cream cheese (regular or 1/3 less fat,) softened butter, vanilla extract, and pumpkin pie spice. Mix until smooth and creamy then scrape down the sides of the bowl and gradually add powdered sugar while mixing until the frosting is thick and creamy.
You can of course use a knife or spatula to frost the cupcakes, or you can get a more polished look by using a piping bag or Ziplock bag to swirl the frosting on top. Stuff the bag into a pint glass, fill with frosting then, if you’re using a Ziplock bag, snip the corner off and frost away.
Voila! I dust the tops with extra pumpkin pie spice which not only looks really pretty, but the scent hits your nose when you’re going in for a bite and is so lovely. :)
I hope you love these DELICIOUS gluten free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. They really are such a special treat! Enjoy!
More Gluten Free Pumpkin Treats
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Muffins
- Gluten Free Pumpkin Bread
- Soft-Batch Pumpkin Gingersnap Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Mini Crustless Pumpkin Pies
- Pumpkin-Spice Chocolate Covered Pretzels
- Homemade Pumpkin Spice Latte
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup pure pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable or canola oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup gluten free baking flour blend WITH binder, see notes
- 1 teaspoon heaping pumpkin pie spice
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 6 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/4 cup butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 4 cups powdered sugar
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees then line a 12 cup muffin tin with liners and set aside.
- Add flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt to a medium-sized bowl then whisk to combine and set aside.
- Add eggs, sugar, oil, pumpkin puree, and vanilla to the bowl of an electric mixer or a large bowl if using a handheld mixer. Mix until smooth and creamy then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add dry ingredients then mix until smooth. Let batter sit for 5 minutes.
- Scoop 1/4 cup batter into each lined cup (I use an ice cream scoop) then bake for 17-19 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool in tin for 10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Add cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and pumpkin pie spice to the bowl of an electric mixer or a large bowl if using a handheld mixer. Mix until smooth and creamy then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add powdered sugar gradually while mixing until thick and creamy. Once cupcakes have cooled completely, frost then dust with additional pumpkin pie spice if desired.
Notes
- I like Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1-to-1 Baking Flour for this recipe.
Nutrition
Nutritional values are estimates only. Please read our full nutrition information disclaimer.
Excellent! I used 1/2 cup stevia and 1/4 cup reg sugar. Will try all stevia next time!
So glad you were able to make it work for you, Pam! Thank you so much for your feedback and recipe rating!
Oh Wow! Another winner. Absolutely Perfect. I made these cupcakes today for my husband’s birthday. He loves Pumpkin Roll but an entire Pumpkin Roll is too much for just the 2 of us. I called them “Pumpkin Roll Cupcakes” and he was thrilled.
I used Maninis Multi-Use GF flour and made a 1/2 batch – just 6 cupcakes.
Thank You for the great recipe.
I made these today. They are so so delicious. I am keeping this recipe! I did make one small change to the frosting, and that was to add a teaspoon or so of lemon juice.
Made this yesterday and absolutely love them! The cream cheese frosting is the perfect top to these cupcakes that are so moist and delicious! I used King Arthur Gluten Free measure for measure flour. A new favorite!
Hello….. can you substitute honey for the sugar in this recipe? Thank you!
Hi Dawn! I haven’t tried this, but here is a guide I found if you’d like to give it a go!
These are amazing (and fool-proof)! I used Krusteaz gluten free flour for the first batch I made for just my husband and I and they didn’t last long! Then I made them with normal flour for my in-laws Thanksgiving get-together and everyone LOVED them! My father-in-law ate 3 of them before anyone could get a chance and he doesn’t even like pumpkin! These cupcakes were the first dessert to disappear. I’m no baker, but these came out perfect both times! I will make these for years to come :)
We made these cupcakes & found them to be very delicious. We did however, tweak the frosting, we chose a maple syrup butter instead. They are very moist & have great flavor.
Hi! My friend made these and they were incredible! Have you doubled the recipe and if so, are there any tweaks you made other than doubling the ingredients?
Thank you!
I’m so glad you loved them! You can double all the ingredients with no issue. :)
These were fabulous-moist and yummy. They melt in your mouth. Served them at my bridge card day and they were a hit.
How do you adapt these for your dairy free child?
You can use any dairy free frosting you like. We love Simple Mills vanilla coconut oil-based frosting!
Made these cupcakes today! They are the perfect combination of sweet and pumpkin spice. Texture was absolutely beautiful as these cupcakes were fluffy and moist. Definitely making again. Also love that the recipe makes just 12 muffins. The perfect amount to have on hand. Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
I am so glad to hear you love these cupcakes as much as we did, Erica!! Thank you so much for your recipe rating and review! :)
Do you need to refrigerate them after cooled/frosted?
No, they can sit on the counter for 4-5 days!
Those look fantastic! I am going to try them. I have one question…how do you get your frosting to look so nice?
I hope you love them, Ruthie! I scooped the icing into a Ziplock bag then snipped the corner off and just swirled it around. Here’s a tutorial to watch! https://youtu.be/uANBzCJ-RnY
Do you think these would work as mini-muffins? I think I’d bake them about 10-12 minutes and check. Other than baking time, would any other adjustments be needed?
I think they’d definitely work in a mini cupcake tin! They’d be so cute for kids or a dessert buffet (or whatever!!) I wouldn’t adjust anything but the baking time as you mentioned. Let me know how they turn out. :)