These Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes look just like real pumpkins on top! You’re going to love this easy frosting trick to make cute fall cupcakes!

Pumpkin Frosted Cupcakes

These pumpkin cupcakes not only look like pumpkins, but they taste like pumpkin too!

We used a 2-ingredient pumpkin cupcake recipe to save time, so you’ll have plenty of time for decorating. But believe it or not, it isn’t very tricky at all to make the frosting look like pumpkins since we used a mold! This is such a fun fall frosting hack!

If you’re looking for a truly wow-worthy fall dessert, you’ve got to try this one! So much pumpkin flavor! And they really do look like cute little pumpkins!

I’ve included a few helpful step-by-step photos so you can see exactly how we made them. Let’s get baking!

Ingredients

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For the Cupcakes:

1 box spice cake mix (15.25oz box)
1 can pumpkin puree (15oz can)

For the Frosting:

8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened (not melted)
3 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Gel food coloring: Bright Orange, Leaf green

Helpful Kitchen Tools

Instructions

To Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F and line a muffin pan with cupcake liners.

Combine the cake mix and pumpkin puree in the bowl of a stand mixer, or a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer. Beat until well incorporated and smooth.
Scoop the cupcake batter into your prepared muffin pan, filling each liner no more than 2/3 of the way full.
Bake for 12-17 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before frosting.

To Frost The Cupcakes

In a large bowl, beat together the softened cream cheese and butter, until fluffy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar, vanilla, and cinnamon, until creamy and smooth. Scoop out about a cup of the white frosting into a separate small bowl.
Mix in orange food coloring, a few drops at a time, until the frosting is bright orange in color. Scoop the orange frosting into a piping bag.
Mix green food coloring into the small bowl of white frosting and scoop into a piping bag with a small round piping tip.
Pipe a dollop of green frosting in the center of the pumpkin molds, where the stem is. Fill the rest of the pumpkin molds with orange frosting by using the piping bag to swirl the frosting around the inside of the mold.
Place cupcakes top-down into the frosting molds. Press in gently so the frosting sticks, but not so much that it pushes frosting out of the mold. Place the mold in the freezer for 10 minutes to set.
Take the molds out of the freezer and gently remove the cupcakes. You may want to give them a little wiggle to loosen up the frosting.
Use the green icing to pipe a vine and leaves on top of the frosted cupcakes.

Prep Tips

Cake Mix – We used spice cake mix for our cupcakes, but you could also use cinnamon cake mix (like we did for our cake mix pumpkin cookies). Be sure to get a box that is 15.25oz for the right ratio of cake mix to pumpkin! Some box mixes have recently changed their amounts and that could affect how the cupcakes turn out.
Pumpkin – Be sure to use 100% real pumpkin puree for this recipe. By contrast, pumpkin pie filling has sugar and pumpkin spice seasoning already added, so this would be a bit much when combined with the cake mix.
Frosting – While I am all about time-saving shortcuts, for this recipe homemade icing will work best. I often find that store-bought icing does not hold its shape as well and that is crucial for this recipe!
Decorating – Depending on how many molds you have, you may need to frost the cupcakes in batches. Also, I highly recommend NOT skipping the freezing step, as this will help the frosting set and stick to the cupcakes before you remove them from the mold. Warm frosting might not stick as well.

More Pumpkin Cupcake Recipes To Try

Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)

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Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes

These Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes look just like real pumpkins on top! You're going to love this easy frosting trick to make cute fall cupcakes!

Prep Time20

Cook Time20

Decorating Time20

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American, Holiday

Keyword: cupcakes, pumpkin, Pumpkin Shaped, Pumpkin Shaped Cupcakes

Servings:

Calories: 453kcal

Author: Stacey aka the Soccer Mom

Cost: $12

Equipment

Muffin Pan
2 piping bags
Silicone Mold shaped like pumpkins