Vegan Pumpkin Cupcake Recipe

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This vegan pumpkin cupcake recipe is the perfect fall treat for the pumpkin season. The cupcakes are fluffy, moist, and full of pumpkin spice flavor, and they are made with a silky vegan cream cheese frosting that is also pumpkin flavored!

What you'll need to make this vegan pumpkin cupcake recipe

Dry Ingredients

• white whole-wheat flour: I love white whole-wheat flour for this recipe because the texture is perfect for pastries. The color is light, so the orange color in the cupcakes is not darkened, but the flour isn't bleached so it still has the fiber of the whole grain. However, if you don't have any of this flour on hand, white all-purpose flour will work great. Whole wheat flour will also work, but the texture and color of the cupcakes will vary slightly.
• sugar: I used white sugar to keep the color of the cupcakes light, but you can use coconut sugar or brown sugar if you prefer.
• baking powder
• baking soda
• ground cinnamon
• nutmeg
• allspice
• ginger: you can also use pumpkin pie spice instead of this spice combination if you have some on hand.
• sea salt

Wet Ingredients

• pumpkin purée: when buying your can of pumpkin puree, make sure it has only pumpkin as the listed ingredient. Make sure you are not buying pumpkin pie filling- this comes with sugar and spices already in it and it would change the flavor profile of the recipe.
• ground flax seeds and water: this will be your egg substitute.
• apple cider vinegar
• liquid coconut oil: I used liquid coconut oil (the kind that doesn't solidify at room temperature) You can also use any kind of liquid oil like canola oil, sunflower oil, or vegetable oil. Olive oil will also work, but it has its own unique flavor, so keep that in mind if you decide to go with it.
• vanilla extract

Pumpkin Spice Frosting Ingredients

• powdered sugar
• vegan butter: I like the plant-based butter from the brands Miyokos and Kite Hill in this recipe.
• vegan cream cheese: again, Miyokos and Kite Hill cream cheeses work great in this recipe.
• pumpkin puree: dab the pumpkin puree with a paper towel or kitchen towel to get rid of the excess water. Pumpkin puree has a lot of water content and this will make the frosting too watery and runny if you don't remove the extra water. Start off with 2 tablespoon of pumpkin puree and you should remove about 1 tablespoon of water and only have 1 tablespoon of pure pumpkin when you're done.
• cinnamon
• vanilla

The full instructions and ratios are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. If you try this recipe, it would mean so much to me if you could leave a star rating and a comment (:

Tools needed

• muffin pan
• muffin liners
• kitchen scale (optional): this is not a requirement because you can use measuring cups instead. However, I find that it can sometimes be tricky to get the correct amount of flour using a measuring cup, so I find that weighing my flour is the best way to ensure I am measuring correctly. This is why I have included the grams for this recipe in the recipe card. You can make this recipe just using measuring cups, but make sure you are measuring correctly. Here is a great video showing how to correctly measure flour.
• stand mixer or electric hand mixer
• piping bag: You can use a large Ziplock baggie, but I much prefer using baking piping bags like these because they are sturdier.
• frosting star tip: I used this kind from Wilton.
• two large bowls

How to make the pumpkin cupcakes

Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 175*C.

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix them well. 

In a separate large mixing bowl, combine the wet ingredients and mix those.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet and combine them well, being careful not to over-mix. 

Line a muffin tin with muffin liners. Divide the batter up into the muffin cups- you will get about 12 cupcakes. 

I used an ice cream scoop to scoop up the cupcake batter into the muffin tin, to make sure I added the same equal amount to each muffin cup.

Bake the cupcakes for 25-30 minutes. I baked mine for exactly 25, but your oven might vary. 

You can check that they are done by sticking a toothpick through the center of a cupcake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cupcake is ready.

While the cupcakes are baking, it's time to make the homemade cream cheese frosting.

In the bowl of a stand mixer (or you can also use an electric hand mixer instead), add the vegan butter and vegan cream cheese. Mix those for several minutes (3-5), until the mixture is super creamy and smooth and the whole mixture has lightened in color.

Add in the cinnamon, vanilla, pumpkin puree, and one cup of powdered sugar. Mix again until all of the powdered sugar is well incorporated. 

Keep adding about 1 cup of powdered sugar at a time until you have added all of the powdered sugar and you have a smooth buttercream texture.

Once the frosting is done, place it in the fridge to chill. 

Once the cupcakes are done baking, remove them from the oven. Place them on a cooling rack and allow them to chill at room temperature. 

After they have reached room temperature, I like to put them in the fridge for 20-30 minutes, so they are fully chilled. This is because if you frost them while they are still warm, the frosting might melt off. 

When both the cupcakes and the frosting have chilled and the frosting is hard, remove them from the fridge.

You may need to whisk up the frosting for just a few seconds to loosen it up again. Then add the frosting to a large piping bag with a star tip on the end. 

Pipe pumpkin frosting on each cupcake. I also added a cinnamon stick to mine and dusted on more cinnamon for some extra decoration, but that part is optional.

Note: if you don't have piping bags or a star tip, or you just don't want to bother with the fancy frosting process, you can take a spoon or a butter knife and spread the frosting on top of each cupcake without making them super fancy. 

Store these cupcakes in the fridge for 3-4 days and enjoy!

Video

If you liked these vegan cupcakes, you might also like these other fall recipes

apple pie

pumpkin cheesecake

apple oatmeal bars

pumpkin pie

Making muffins or pumpkin bread from this recipe

These fluffy pumpkin cupcakes taste amazing as they are, but the base of the recipe is also super versatile and you can change it up if you're not feeling like making cupcakes!

You can easily make these cupcakes into vegan pumpkin muffins instead. You can just skip the frosting, and add pumpkin seeds, chocolate chips, or walnuts in the batter, bake them in the muffin cups, and turn them into a delicious fall breakfast!

You can also use this exact recipe but make a vegan pumpkin bread instead. Pour the batter into a loaf pan and bake it. You will need to bake it for more time than the cupcakes, but you can tell when it's done by performing the toothpick test. You can make the same frosting recipe and spread it on top.

Can you make these with almond flour, coconut flour, or oat flour?

These will not work with almond flour or coconut flour. You can use oat flour instead of whole wheat pastry flour, but the cupcakes will not be as fluffy.

How to store these vegan pumpkin spice cupcakes

Store these cupcakes in an airtight container in the fridge. They are very moist because of the pumpkin, so they do not do well when left at room temperature.

It can sometimes be tricky to find an airtight container tall enough to cover the cupcakes with the frosting, so you can also put them in a deep pan and cover it up with plastic wrap or foil.