Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting… oh my gosh these are incredible!!! Think “the most popular fall drink that exists” in cupcake form – yes, there’s even some coffee in these! Perfectly spiced, not overly sweet pumpkin latte-inspired vegan cupcakes, topped with a completely dairy-free cream cheese frosting, and stuffed with a gooey pumpkin sauce filling. You’ll actually recognize the pumpkin sauce from a post earlier this week… I told you it would be a fall hack! I have used this one jar of sauce for so many things already, homemade PSLs, pumpkin pie French toast, spread on biscuits, and for these cupcakes!
I was inspired by my apple cider cupcakes last year. So yummy and so perfect for fall. I knew I had to make a pumpkin version and with the popularity of pumpkin spice lattes (and seeing the jar of pumpkin sauce sitting in my fridge) I decided to make the PSL in cupcake form!!
So many reasons to love these!
If you love autumn and fall flavours you will have so many reasons to love these cupcakes. They’re perfect for Thanksgiving dessert, Sunday baking or a fall movie night! What’s you go-to fall movies to watch? We recently watched Notting Hill because we just booked our honeymoon to London and Dublin! So it seemed appropriate. And I have to say, this may be a controversial opinion but I do NOT like Julia Roberts’ character in that movie… she’s kind of the worst! But that’s a conversation for another day I think.
I’m a little sad that Greg and I will be missing Thanksgiving to be on our honeymoon. Thanksgiving is always one of my favourite holidays because its fairly low stress, but gets everyone together AND gives you a reason to indulge in alllll the fall comfort foods. We always do vegan seitan ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, roasted fall veggies, and some sort of spiced dessert like gingerbread cake from my first cookbook, cupcakes or carrot cake! I think we will try to host our own little late Thanksgiving once we’re home, because I need an excuse to make these cupcakes again. I mean, no one needs an excuse for cupcakes, but they’re so cute I feel like everyone will be totally impressed.
The details…
The last thing I will say about these cupcakes is that despite their slightly more advanced look, they’re pretty simple. The cupcake batter is suuuuper straight forward to make. I promise! The pumpkin sauce is also crazy easy, 5-ingredients and only 10 minutes required. So even if you didn’t take my advice earlier this week and make some already, you can do it now just before making the cupcakes and it won’t set you back too much time.The frosting is super easy as well and only a few ingredients! Gotta love it!
Assembling these cuties…
As for assembly, I promise you can do it! To hollow out a little pocket inside I used the round end of a frosting tip to cut out a little chunk, but I also tried it with a knife and it worked great! You can also use an apple corer! Just make sure you don’t go all the way down and poke a hole in the bottom, you don’t want the filling to leak! I have a little tutorial video on my Instagram which I’ll link here in case you’re a visual learner. It took me a few tries to nail down the exact method but once you get going its kind of relaxing and calming!
Print
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Total Time: 2 hours, including cooling
- Yield: 12 cupcakes
Description
Pumpkin spice latte-inspired cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, stuffed with a gooey pumpkin sauce center.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cupcakes:
- 1/2 cup nondairy milk like oat or soy
- 1/2 cup brewed coffee, cooled
- 1 cup cane sugar
- 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp vinegar
- 2 1/4 cups flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1/4 cup vegan butter, softened
- 6 oz vegan cream cheese (I use the PC Plant-Based or Daiya Brand)
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 5–6 cups (approx) powdered sugar
Pumpkin Sauce Filling:
- 1/2 cup pumpkin sauce (approx) for filling
For Decoration:
- 6 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
- extra pumpkin spice for dusting on top
Instructions
- Grease or line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners. Preheat oven to 375 F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the nondairy milk, coffee, sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, vanilla and vinegar and stir until combined and sugar is dissolved.
- In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt until combined.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until just combined (make sure to scrape the bottom so there are no dry ingredients hiding). A few small lumps are okay, try not to over-mix or the cupcakes can get a bit gummy. Just mix until it is all combined.
- Divide between 12 muffin cups (approx 1/3 cup of batter for each). Bake in preheated oven for 18-20 minutes, until golden brown and a few cracks appear on top. You can insert a toothpick in the center and pull it out- if it comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging, they’re done! Just make sure there isn’t any wet batter on the toothpick. Let cool completely before filling and frosting.
- Make the cream cheese frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer or regular mixing bowl, add the vegan butter, cream cheese, lemon juice and vanilla extract and cream together with the stand mixer paddle or a hand mixer until combined. Add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time, beating to incorporate into a smooth and thick frosting.
- Once cupcakes are fully cool, then remove a portion of the center using a knife, apple corer, etc and set aside. Fill with a few tsp of pumpkin sauce, then cover with a little piece of the removed center.
- Using a frosting tip and piping bag, add a swirl of frosting onto each cupcake. Stick a cinnamon stick half in the side, then dust some pumpkin spice on top (if desired). Store in a large airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
Hey Liv, could I replace the 1/2 cup cold coffee with an extra 1/2 cup of milk? Thanks!
These are soooo delicious! How do you get your frosting to be so white? Mine is so not white.
★★★★★