No surprise here…I’ve already begun embracing all things “fall” related. I’ve pulled the decorations up from the basement, I started burning my pumpkin spice candles, and I’ve already indulged in a few pumpkin spice coffees from Dunkin Donuts.
Have I mentioned I love fall?
Well, along with my love of fall comes my love of fall baking, and today I have a recipe for you all that is easily one of my absolute fall favorites. This is a recipe that I actually had originally posted on Tina’s blog almost a year ago, but I think that it’s awesome enough to re-share it again: Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes.
Okay, these cupcakes are not only absolutely scrumptious, but they’re healthified, too…you are welcome. Whenever I whip up a batch of these, I tend to make the following modifications to the original recipe:
- unsweetened applesauce for vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup Egg Beaters for 3 whole eggs.
If anything, I find that substituting the applesauce for oil almost always makes for a more moist, sponge-like cupcake, but it really hits the mark in this recipe. And if it makes it healthier, than why not, right? 
The frosting, on the other hand, is not exactly healthy. However, when is frosting ever supposed to be healthy? I’ll take a healthified cupcake + not-so-healthy (but oh-so-delicious) frosting any day. It all evens out.
The frosting I like using with these pumpkin spice cupcakes is my Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese frosting. It’s honesty just a perfect match.
So if you’re looking for a perfect fall recipe that’s full of flavor and sure to be a crowd pleaser, then you definitely have to give these guys a try. I promise you won’t regret it.
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes & Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
(Adapted from this original recipe)
Makes 24 cupcakes, or 12 cupcakes and 1 9-inch cake
Ingredients:
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 (15oz.) can pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
- 3/4 cup egg substitute
- 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/3 cup water
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- Honey Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Paper-line or grease 24 muffin cups.
Blend cake mix, pumpkin, egg substitute, applesauce, water, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice until moistened. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour batter into prepared muffin cups, about 3/4 full.
Bake for 18-23 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted into center comes out clean. After 10 minutes, remove from pans, place on wire racks, and cool completely.
Prepare frosting according to directions and spread evenly on cupcakes. ENJOY!
I think I need to go pick up a box of spice cake now…I’ll catch ya’ll later!
Question for the Afternoon:
What are some of your favorite fall treats? (pumpkin, apples, cider donuts..all of the above?)
Welcome to Sweet Tooth, Sweet Life! I'm Courtney, a 28-year old personal trainer living in Upstate, NY. I enjoy all things related to food, fitness, and fashion, as well as feeding my huge sweet tooth. To find out a little bit more about the girl behind the blog, check out my 
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I could eat a gallon of cream cheese frosting. It’s so damn delicious! These look great and I appreciate the re-post since I don’t think I had found you or Tina a year ago!
Gina @ Running to the Kitchen recently posted..Rhinebeck mad dash 10K race recap
those look delicious! I just posted a recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip muffins that i made on Sunday. i LOVE pumpkin!
gahh I love all things pumpkin I got my starbucks latte yesterday and it was heaven!
That frosting looks amazing! I’d make them right away, but my husband doesn’t like pumpkin anything! THE HORROR! And it would probably be a bad idea to have an entire batch of these laying around.
Emmarie @ Bananas and Beer recently posted..Living Room Shuffle
These sound great!! My favorite fall things are apples and Anything related.. but I’m developing pumpkin love!
Sweet and Savvy recently posted..What’s Labor Day without a burger?
Those look SO good! Thanks for posting AND including a print feature…I actually printed it instead of saying I want to
My favorite fall treats are: pumpkin spice coffees (DD or Sbucks), flavored creamers, Chili (football season) and spiced oatmeal (check that one out on my blog today!)
http://www.navigatingnorth.com/2011/09/structure-return-of-food-post.html
Claire recently posted..Structure & Return Of A Food Post
Hi Courtney! I recently started reading your blog and love it. Those cupcakes sound amazing and I actually used your oatmeal raisin chocolate chunk cookie recipe yesterday. We definitely share a love for baking and all things pumpkin! It’s funny I actually wrote a post yesterday about healthy substitutions for cooking.
Thanks, Jacqui!
Oh wow, those look great! I love anything pumpkin and anything apple in the fall!
Samantha @ Because I Can recently posted..Monday Love Labor Day Edition (Day 12)
Errr can I just have a bowl of the icing?? Sounds delicious! I love stewed apples in the fall with cinnamon…so sweet and delicious!
Khushboo recently posted..Knowledge without college
These look delish Courtney!!! I ADORE pumpkin and all things fall too!! So I’ll get excited for the season with you
!! Happy Tues!!
Katie @ The Purposeful Woman recently posted..Shopping with Little Bud
You know am your fellow pumpkin lover! Its pumpkin spice latte day at starbucks! Woot Woot! Need one of those and one of these cupcakes ; )
Happy Tuesday girl!
katie Carso recently posted..Fit Flash and { Store }
Ok, I’m definitely going to have to go get one tomorrow. I can’t believe that I forgot about that! Boooo.
Oh man, I hope I’m able to find an excuse to bake these really soon because they look like heaven! My husband doesn’t like pumpkin (I just don’t get it!), so if I bake a batch of these bad boys, I’ll need to find people to share them with otherwise they would easily and quickly ALL end up in my belly! Thanks for sharing!
Must try this soon. I love all things pumpkin and this sounds sooo good. Adding pumpkin to my shopping list right now!
Sylvia @ Frolic Through Life recently posted..Labor Day Weekend -Un-
I love all things pumpkin flavored, from pasta to cake to coffee! I just can never seem to get enough of that great pumpkin spice flavor!!! I’m so happy its fall! I’ve totally put out decorations and buring pumpkin candles as well! The frosting on those cupcakes looks so great, I love how professional they look and wish mine would look that way!!!
Trainer Kjirsten @ Balanced Healthy Life recently posted..Labor Day Recap and Weekly Workouts
Those look so good! I love that fall is here and pumpkin stuff is going to be everywhere. And I totally agree with you that applesauce makes a moister (is that word?) baked good. Vinegar does that in a lot of stuff too, and you don’t get a vinegar flavor. Yum!
Rosa – Fitness, Food, Fulfilled recently posted..Family Dinner Fuels an Eight Miler
Vinegar, really? I’ve never heard of that one! How do you use it/substitute it?
No subs needed, just add about 1 Tbsp to the batter and you’re good to go. I use regular vinegar for chocolatey baked goods, but apple cider vinegar for anything with fruit as a component.
Rosa – Fitness, Food, Fulfilled recently posted..Family Dinner Fuels an Eight Miler
That’s so great to know! Thanks for sharing
I love pumpkin! Cupcakes, ice cream, coffee, bread you name it. This year I want to try making pumpkin cinnamon rolls!
Brooke @ BittersweetBrooke recently posted..Things You Don’t Know About Me V
I loooove pumpkin. In everything…its amazing. I need to make these NOW! Thanks for sharing! Yummy!
Allison recently posted..Fast Food? Think again.
Anything pumpkin-y or spice-y (ie, spice cake). And candy corn! It’s the only time of year I eat candy corn. Yumm!
Kerry @ Half Healthy, Half Nuts recently posted..Slow Moving Foot Syndrome
I’ve been following your blog for roughly a year now and love everything about it. I nabbed this recipe last year and made it at least five times. My family and friends loved it. I even gave it to a top celebrity’s manager and he devoured it. Keep the pumpkin recipes coming because in my opinion, this is when your cooking is at it’s prime.
Hahaha, thank you, Lisa!
I will definitely see what I can do about delivering some more pumpkin recipes this fall season. Thanks for the confidence booster!
These look delish (in fact I might be drooling…just a little)! I recently found my love of pumpkin so I will definitely have to try these babies. My favorite fall treat is Starbucks Caramel Apple Cider. Nothing screams fall to me like the warm spicy goodness of cider.
Lyndsie @ highcottonlivin.com recently posted..Pizza and Soccer
These look to die for!!!
Lauren recently posted..Hello world!
it’s 3pm. the afternoon slump. and now i’m craving pumpkin pie. with whipped cream. and hot chocolate. thanks…
colleen @ thegiftofmondays recently posted..i should be good at death by now
Wow, must make these pronto. Thanks for re-posting, and I love your substitution ideas!
Kathryn @ Flopoodle recently posted..Flopoodle: Labor Day Weekend Edition
this morning i had a pumpking donut in celebration of my 2-years.
it was delightful, but i have a feeling that it was missing honey cinnamon cream cheese frosting. holy cow, lady – that looks DELICIOUS! xo
Heather recently posted..Two Years
I just made a pumpkin smoothie this morning! mmmm! It totally hit the spot when I walked outside and the 113* heat had gone away.
Julie H. of Spinach and Sprinkles recently posted..Labor Day?! ….. Wasn’t that Friday?! …..And the new baby is a……….
holy moly that frosting looks delish. I have started keeping blocks of cream cheese in my freezer “just in case”. I mean hello life is better with cream cheese!
Ruthie Hart recently posted..Whole wheat pumpkin muffins
I love all of those treats, but cider donuts are pretty awesome!
Erica @ For the Sake of Cake recently posted..Who Knew?
Omg. I want. If you send me a batch to me I will actually die of happiness — I have no kitchen access in this freaking dorm!!
Nevermind my tweet. your blog finally loaded for me. I HAD to see these. I remember them from before but you have reminded me how much I need to make them. Yay for fall pumpkin baking!
Tina @ Faith Fitness Fun recently posted..Reminiscent of Childhood
These look delicious. I starred them in google reader. Yum!
Jess@atasteofconfidence recently posted..Our Trip: Yellowstone
Be still my heart
. Those sound amazeballs!
Lindsay@ In Sweetness and In Health recently posted..Why I Chose OT
Pumpkin flavoured pasta???? Where do you get that? That sounds amazing!
Heather recently posted..Work (out) to the Bone!
Oh… and how do you get your icing to look so pretty?
How do you frost your cupcakes so perfectly? These look amazing!
I’m SUCH a pumpkin addict, too! Try a tall coffee from starbucks with one pump of pumpkin spice. It will change your world!
Sarah @ Food and Love Diaries recently posted..California Love
These look amazing and are exactly what I’m craving right now! With school starting up again, I’m calling it fall. My favorite fall treat is cider donuts. I do not eat them often, but I love to get them from an orchard about twice over the season.
Laura recently posted..Zucchini Enchiladas
Umm YUM. Coming soon to my kitchen!
Ari @ Ari’s Menu recently posted..Skinnified Sunday: Rachael Ray’s Pesto Presto Chicken
How do you frost your cupcakes to make them look so nice. When I try, it just looks like a blob of frosting on top!!!
Sue
For these cupcakes, I used a pastry bag with a star tip
Oooo I’m so excited to try these! And I am officially inspired to start pulling out my fall decorations! It’s still warm here so it makes it hard to make the switch, but I’m convinced now!
I just opened every single link you gave on your guestie on Gabriela’s blog.
WOW. Girl.
I could die and go to frosting + cupcake heaven.
Seriously you are an amazing baker and love your photography!
Thank you, Averie!
omg i made these cupcakes last night (with just plain cream cheese frosting though) and they are DELISH! i brought them into work and they’re almost completely gone–everyone’s been raving about them
thanks for the recipe!
Courtney- Can I use just egg whites in this recipes? I only have the egg beaters-WHITES cause that’s all I eat but will it work? And how much should I use?
I would think so – typically when replacing egg whites for eggs, you want 2 whites for each egg. So in this case that would be 6 egg whites (not sure how much that translates to in the container…a cup?)
I’ve never tried all whites, so I’m not sure how it will effect the texture, but I’d love to know if you try it!
Love how easy this recipe can be. I love Fall baking too.
What is the size of the cake mix you used? The reason I asked is because there are now 15 oz and 18 oz cake mix. I believe Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker changed their box weight recently.
Lea @ Healthy Coconut recently posted..Rustic Pasta
I’d love to make these for a pumpkin carving party on Sunday. I have the same question as Lea. Do you know what size and type of cake mix you used?
I’m pretty sure that I used a Betty Crocker spice cake, and probably an 18oz?
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