Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes

I’m back from vacation and have an amazing gluten-free cupcake recipe to share with you! A few weeks ago, I shared with you a recipe for gluten-free pumpkin bread and I’m back again with another delicious pumpkin dessert recipe, Gluten Free Pumpkin Cupcakes!

I couldn’t let the left-over pumpkin pie mix go to waste so I decided to play around and see if I could come up with. The design was inspired by a recipe out of this Cupcake Deck my husband gave me and then I came up with my own recipe for the gluten-free pumpkin cupcake. I am really happy with how it turned out! When I had my ultimate taste-tester (aka my husband) try them, this was his response, “Umm, these are by far the best cupcakes you have EVER made. They taste like pumpkin flavored Cinnabons”.  I couldn’t have described them better myself! Thanks hun :)

Here’s what you need:

Cupcakes:
-1 1/2 cups of Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten-Free Baking Flour
– 1 tsp. baking powder
– 1 tsp. baking soda
– 1 tsp. Xanthan Gum
– 1 tsp. cinnamon
– 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
– 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
– 1/2 brown sugar
– 1/2 granulated sugar
– 1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract
– 1 1/4 cup Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Mix (or any other kind of pumpkin pie mix, this is just what I prefer)
– 4 1/2 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 1/3 cup water (or 3 eggs)

Frosting:
– 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
– 6 oz of cream cheese
– 1 tsp. gluten-free vanilla extract
– 3 cups of powdered sugar
– 1 tsp. cinnamon
– 1-2 tsp. of milk (or milk alternative, rice, soy, almond)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees

2. Line muffin tin cups with paper cupcake liners

3. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients together and set aside

4. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the melted butter, sugars, eggs and pumpkin until smooth (the batter will be thick)

5. Fill each liner 3/4 full with batter and bake until the top feels firm and a toothpick can be inserted in the center and comes out clean (about 25 minutes)

6. Set aside the cupcakes to cool

7. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla until smooth

8. Add the powdered sugar and mix until smooth and creamy

9. Transfer 1/4 cup of frosting to a separate bowl and stir in enough cinnamon to make the frosting a light brown color

10. Frost the cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting

11. Spoon the cinnamon frosting into a small self-sealing freezer bag and cut a tiny hole in the corner to make a piping bag (or use a piping bag if you have one!)

12. While holding the bag with one hand and guiding it with the other, make two circles on top of the cupcake and one small dot in the middle

13. Using a toothpick, start at the center of the cupcake and move the toothpick toward the edge (repeat pattern around cupcake)

14. For best results serve them warm! 5-7 seconds in the micro will do the trick :)

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did!