Food for Thought: Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting

This has to be the easiest pumpkin cupcake recipe... EVER. Just look! Mmm...

First of let me start by saying, I have NEVER liked anything with pumpkin... Dislike pumpkin pie, pumpkin coffees, pumpkin whatever, bleh!
Maybe it stems from being forced to eat it as a child - even the seeds, we'd make them in school and they'd MAKE me eat them. Ahh!!!

It has seemed to carry over into my adulthood, to where I wouldn't even bake or cook anything with pumpkin (except for a pie, on Thanksgiving only, because my boyfriend and Little Miss looooooooove it).

Pumpkin Spice candle from Yankee Candle... That I'll do. lol

So I thought I'd do something sweet for the two of them by making these pumpkin cupcakes but with my own spin on the Big Red Kitchen's recipe.

Here's what you need for the cupcakes:

That's it. Just two ingredients. No oil, no eggs, no nothin'. (Love it already, right?)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, pour in the cake mix and can of pumpkin. (Note: as the BRK points out, make sure it pure pumpkin, not pumpkin filling.) Mix until you have a nice golden, creamy batter.

Remember, there's no eggs! So you can sample.

This is where I got brave, real brave. I had read some of the reviews that the batter "lacked a little something" for some folks. I knew I wanted to add some ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg to kick it up a notch... so I did... And then I tried it.

And guess what? Well, I'm alive for one (lol) but I actually liked it. The pumpkin was not overpowering, it was creamy and smooth... I thought to myself "Oh-Em-Gee, I finally put on my big girl pants and ate pumpkin something and liked it". ;)

Anyways, NEXT pour the batter into your slightly greased pan & bake for about 20 minutes.

(This is right before they went into the oven)



Ahh I was so excited! They turned out sooo good & were so soft!

Now you could leave them just like this, but hello, anytime I can add cream cheese anything to food, I'm doing it! ;)

Tip: (And I can't remember where I read this) If you're using a store bought frosting, put it in a bowl and whip it for just a few minutes. You'll actually bring it back "to life" and it will go further.

I am so pleased with how they turned out. Plus they made the house smell yummy. :)

This recipe yielded 18 total cupcakes.