Easy Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Pumpkin spice cupcakes are not my thing. But I know a lot of people love it, and I understand why. It’s a mixture of warmth and fall with some sweetness. Pumpkin is actually good for you too so you could probably say they are slightly more healthy than other cake varieties. But when it comes to dessert I don’t care if it’s healthy, it’s not supposed to be. Eat the full fat, full flavor cake without feeling any kind of way about it. I’m simply skipping it because I don’t like cake.. or pumpkin. But I will say, I like the SMELL of cake, and these? They smell wonderful.

In another life I was a cupcake queen. Okay, it was actually THIS life but it feels like a lifetime ago. Pretty odd for someone who doesn’t even like cake to be a cupcake queen. However, it’s kind of where my baking blog can be traced back to? Back when I was working on getting my wedding photography business off the ground and still working a 9-5 job, I was forced into the cupcake business. This is also the height of like cupcake wars and all that as well. But, I worked at a university and one day I brought in some cupcakes for a coworkers birthday. Nothing special, I think they were funfetti? But everyone kept saying how good they were and could I make cake again. I said sure, because I loved baking and it was simple enough. Well, the more I brought cake in, the more people kept asking when are you bringing cupcakes again. People were making requests and I was regularly told I should open a bakery. But I didn’t want to open a bakery. I just loved baking and experimenting with flavors.

So back then I could bake lots of things but the idea of baking cake from scratch? It was intimidating. I always heard and saw on baking shows how many things could go wrong, and how many different types of cake there were. I didn’t even like cake! So.. I just used boxed cake mix. It was easy and people liked it. But when I started experimenting with flavors I started doctoring the box mixes. I would add ingredients or change ratios of what you’re supposed to add. People were always shocked when I told them it was just boxed cake mix that I made a little fancier.

These days I can bake a cake from scratch just fine. But I know for a lot of people, baking a cake feels how it felt to me. It’s above my paygrade so to speak. So, I thought I would share one of my MOST POPULAR cupcake recipes that I promise anyone can do. Funnily enough, they are pumpkin which I also don’t care for. So these are my EASY pumpkin spice cupcakes. I promise, you can do it!

So I ALWAYS used Betty Crocker super moist cake mixes. My mom always bought that brand of boxed baked good stuff and the few times I bought another brand people didn’t seem to think they were the same. So, you can use any brand you prefer, but my results are based on that brand.

I also swap out the water for milk and use a little bit less oil as the pumpkin will make the cake moist and we don’t want the cake to have too much moisture.

I frost these with a cinnamon brown sugar cream cheese frosting but you could do plain cream cheese frosting, buttercream, or even just a can of frosting if you don’t want to make the frosting from scratch. This recipe is about keeping it simple!