The Best Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes are beautiful when filled with a homemade pumpkin filling and topped with a swirl of cream cheese icing. Place a piece of sugared pumpkin on top to create a tasty fall dessert. These cupcakes are pumpkin-lovers’ dream!

I love pumpkin. Really! My dream is to plant a lot of pumpkins in our backyard, but I have not done this yet. I remember how my mom made the best pumpkin dessert, using a pressure cooker. I also remember one day when I went to school with a jar full of that dessert to eat during lunch. Well, nobody could guess what I was eating:)

This fall season, I was thinking of creating simple pumpkin cupcakes, but ended up with chocolate cupcakes filled with the pumpkin puree and topped with the delicious cream cheese icing. Being inspired by the maple icing of Apple and Olive Oil Cake, I made the cream cheese-based icing flavored with the pumpkin syrup. It is beyond delicious!

Why Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe Works

• These cupcakes full of pumpkin taste and flavor represent the fall season. They are the best to make for Halloween or Thanksgiving.
• Making the sugared pumpkin pieces, cupcakes, and the pumpkin filling in advance saves time in the day of serving.
• Using this easy-to-follow chocolate cupcake batter recipe allows to make plain or filled chocolate cupcakes of your choice.
• The sugared pumpkin makes an elegant sugared confection. Packed in an airtight jar, it becomes one of the best edible gifts.
• These cupcakes are fun to decorate. Get the kids busy in the kitchen, piping the cream cheese icing!

How to Make Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes – Step by Step

To make the sugared pumpkin, cut pumpkin into 1 inch x 1 inch / 2.5 cm x 2.5 cm cubes. Place pumpkin cubes, sugar and water in a saucepan and cook over medium heat for 35 minutes (photo 1). Drain pumpkin cubes with a colander * for 30 minutes. Keep the pumpkin syrup for later.

Preheat oven to 175 F/80 C. Arrange pumpkin cubes on the parchment paper * (photo 2) and dry in the oven for 2 to 3 hours. Let cool and roll pumpkin cubes, a few at a time, in caster sugar. 

To make the pumpkin filling, cut pumpkin into small cubes and cook with sugar and water over medium heat for 20 minutes, until pumpkin is soft. Drain pumpkin with a colander * (photo 3) and make puree, using a food processor (photo 4). Set aside. 

Preheat oven to 355 F/180 C. To make the batter, sift flour, cacao powder, salt, and baking powder and put aside (photo 5). Beat softened butter with sugar, using an electric mixer *, until the mixture becomes smooth and whitish. Add eggs, one egg at a time, and mix. Add sifted dry ingredients and milk, alternating, and mix just to combine (photo 6).

Pour/spoon the batter into cupcake liners *, filling up to 2/3 (photo 7). Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (photo 8). Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before decorating.

To make the cream cheese icing, place softened butter, sugar and 85 ml pumpkin syrup (remained after making the sugared pumpkin) in a bowl and beat with the electric mixer * till the mixture becomes creamy (photo 9). Add cream cheese at room temperature and beat till the cream becomes smooth and homogeneous (photo 10).

To decorate cupcakes, remove the center of cupcakes with a cupcake corer * and fill each cupcake with the pumpkin filling (photo 11). Place the icing in a pastry bag * with the open star pastry tip * (Wilton 1M) and pipe on top of cupcakes (photo 12). Decorate each cupcake with a piece of the sugared pumpkin. 

Expert Tips to Make Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

1. To make the sugared pumpkin, use a butternut squash. Use baking pumpkins labeled as “sugar pumpkins” or “pie pumpkins” to make the pumpkin filling; although, butternut squash works here as well.
2. Follow the tips of how to cut butternut squash via Fifteen Spatulas.
3. Make the sugared pumpkin in advance and keep in an airtight container. Instead of using the oven, let the pumpkin cubes dry on the parchment paper * for one to two days at room temperature. Then roll cubes in caster sugar.
4. Prepare the pumpkin filling ahead of time and store in the fridge for up to 1 week. 
5. Use canned pumpkin puree as a filling to decrease the sugar load.
6. Make cupcakes one day in advance, cover and store at room temperature. Unfrosted cupcakes can be frozen up to two to three months. To thaw, keep them in the fridge overnight.

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