Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe
These pumpkin cupcakes are made with whole grain flour and no processed sugar, and you know what? They still taste delicious! (gasp!)
For those of you who read my blog regularly or follow me on Facebook, you probably know that I do not feed my son any sugar. In fact, he eats really, really clean, and I’m really really proud of that.
So as I’m sure you can imagine, Halloween proves to be somewhat of a challenge every year. The older he gets, the harder it is to deal with.
But I’m a clever girl, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve. One of which is this recipe. While other kids are chowing down on sugar galore, my little guy will be happy to eat these cupcakes. And frankly, so will I!
More Halloween Cupcake Recipes
Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe Card
Healthy Pumpkin Cupcakes With Chocolate Pumpkin Frosting
Ingredients
Cupcake Ingredients
- 1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup unsweetened almond milk
- 2 large egg whites
- ½ cup oil (light flavored)
- ½ cup honey
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp. ground ginger
- ¼ tsp. ground cloves
Frosting Ingredients
- ½ cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup unsweetened apple sauce
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Line your cupcake tins with cupcake papers or grease the tin itself.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together your pumpkin, almond milk, egg whites, safflower oil, honey and vanilla extract.
- In a second mixing bowl, whisk together your flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves.
- Whisk the flour mixture into the liquid mixture and blend well. If your batter is too thick, add a little extra almond milk (about ¼ cup at a time until you reach a thick, yet runny consistency.)
- Pour into tins, and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
- For the frosting, place all ingredients in a small mixing bowl, and whisk until well blended.
- Remove cupcakes from oven, allow to cool and spread frosting over the tops.
Notes
Nutrition
This recipe from the Gracious Pantry archives, originally published on 10/25/2010.
Oh, yum! I can think of some kids who would LOVE those!
Sarah – Ya, I’m one of them!
Wow – sounds great!
Leslie – Thanks! They were pretty yummy! Can’t wait to make another batch for Halloween!
I could eat that frosting by the spoonful 🙂 The cupcakes look great!
Lauren – Ya, I won’t lie. I ate some by itself…. and it was good!
Great recipe, can’t wait to try it! My son started Kindergarten this year and about once per month I have to bring in snack for the entire class, these may be next on the list! Any other ideas you have for portable, non-refrigerated, healthy snacks that will please 24-5 year olds?
Dawn – I have several muffin recipes that are really kid friendly. Those are always a hit with the kidlets.
What an awesome recipe! I can’t wait to try them! I have 7 month old twins and am hoping to control their sugar intake when they get older and am so glad you give such great options to do that!
Ashlee – Thanks! Let me know how they turn out for you. They are definitely a favorite around my house!
Adorable munchkins you have, btw.
Very cute! I love that you used honey to sweeten these. For some reason, I am always cautious about the combo of honey and chocolate – it sounds slightly off to me, but I will have to give it a go!
Alisa – When I lived in Germany, there was a small company that made nothing but chocolates sweetened with honey. All I can say is, it’s a good thing I did so much walking there, otherwise, I would have had a free ticket flying home simply because I would have come home as a blimp. The combination is heaven!
Have you tried using pumpkin in place of oil in brownie and cake “mixes”? Very yummo. Of course, unsweetened applesauce works, too, depending on the recipe. Applesauce tastes and “works” better in a light-colored baked good (like yellow cake), while the pumpkin is A-mazing in chocolate and devil’s food cakes, brownies–even chocolate-dipped truffles! Try experimenting with “pumpkin truffles” next… Mmm… 🙂
Charlena – YUM!! Pumpkin truffles??? Holy cow woman! That sounds incredible! You’ve got yourself a deal. I’ll try it!
Oh my goodness that looks delicious! When my kids both ended up in braces at the same time it was a good excuse to give up trick or treating. We started a new tradition of going to a movie instead!
Tami – That’s fantastic! What a wonderful tradition. I’m sure the kids will continue that for a long time to come.
Great recipe. Honey & chocolate hey…, interesting.
Anna – I’m really surprised by how many people think the combination is “interesting”. lol. When I lived in Germany, it’s the only way I ate chocolate. It was fabulous! Must be a European thing.
These sound so yummy! I was wondering if you could substitute the honey for agave nectar? It would reduce the glycemic load even more. I have to watch that.
Mary – Yes you can. I’ve started to avoid agave due to the controversy around it. But either honey or agave will work.
This is so cool? I’m curious. Has your son EVER had any sugar at all? Ever?
dM – No. Not a drop. I realize this will change in the future, especially when he gets into school. But for now, he’s refined sugar-free! (He’s had honey and agave. Just none of the white stuff)
Yum!! These are so good! Had to cut my hubby off after he ate about 6! I made them a bit smaller so I got 24 out of the recipe, knowing that it would probably be difficult to stop at just one! Yup – good idea! LOL!
PS. Love the idea about the pumpkin truffles – can you do that one for Christmas this year? I always seem to be the one that does all the Christmas baking, and now that I’m eating clean, I need some better options 🙂
Chrystal – Yay! So happy you liked the cupcakes! 🙂 I will see what I can do about the truffles. I need to find a recipe to start with. Do you have one?
I don’t have a recipe that I have tried, but I found one on the Food Network recipe you might be able to work with 🙂
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/behind-the-bash/pumpkin-truffles-recipe/index.html
The reviews are a bit mixed, but I’m sure you can make it awesome!
Chrystal – Thanks! I’ll give it a shot!
hi!! do you think its also possible to make a cake out of this recipe?? i’m in need for a pumpkin cake recipe for halloween, and this sounds yummy…thanks for your answer!! Ulli
Ulli – Good question. It might work but you would have to experiment with the baking times and temperatures a bit. I would say…. maybe try baking at a lower temperature for a longer amount of time. I’m sure it will work, I just don’t know how long it would take to bake it. Wish I could be more help.
thanks for your answer, i’ll just try it!! 😉
Ulli – Please let me know how it turns out! (I might have to make one too!!)
hi!! just wanted to tell you that i made your cake, its sooo delicious (i just ate what i cut away from the top yet, but that was gooood!!)!! i doubled the amounts and baked for about 60 minutes! i’ll post pictures tomorrow on my blog if you are interested (its in german, but you can still look at the pictures) thanks again!! Ulli
Ulli – Fantastic! I can’t wait to see your photos! (I read/speak German – my family is from Stuttgart and I lived there for a year as an au pair).
my frosting didn’t come out right. I think I will try less cocoa powder next time, but i did combine the frosting I made with sugar free chocolate frosting I bought at the store and it was yummy.Thanks for the recipe!
Haylo – Next time, just add a bit more apple sauce. It should work pretty well.
I just wanted to let you know that I thought the cupcakes needed a tad more salt. Like maybe 1/2 tsp instead. Otherwise, wonderful!
And I noticed your comment to Haylo–Is there supposed to be applesauce in the frosting?? It’s not listed in the ingredients!
Selena – I try to cut down on my salt intake, so my recipes reflect that.
I added the apple sauce to the recipe. Thanks for pointing it out!
Thank you! Good to know there was another ingredient needed. The frosting was funky without! 🙂
Selena – Glad it worked out!
I tried this recipe and the cupcakes turned out great but I’m not sure what I did to the frosting to make it so bitter? I’m not a huge sweet tooth but it wasn’t sweet at all and I added a bit of agave to try to sweeten it but to no avail. Any thoughts on what I did wrong? Otherwise these are yummy! 🙂
Kelly – It sounds like something went wrong with the apple sauce or honey. You can always add more honey (or agave) to taste, but you may need to adjust the consistency of the frosting with a bit more cocoa powder. With this recipe, its safe to play around with amounts. You just have to readjust the other ingredients to get the texture right. Hope that helps.