Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes

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These Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes are packed with so much delicious flavor! Pumpkin spiced cupcakes are topped with a salted caramel cream cheese frosting and drizzled with more caramel – how good does that sound? Make these for an afternoon treat for cool fall days, or even for a Halloween family dinner.

For more seasonal food, check out The Ultimate List of Autumn Recipes for the Fall Season! Right-click and open a new tab to read next.

Pumpkin cupcake topped with salted caramel frosting and drizzled with caramel sauce. Text overlay says"Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes". Similar photos of the recipe/dish from various angles are used throughout and with different text overlay unless otherwise described.

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Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes

The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post. I highly recommend reading the blog post all the way through so that you don’t miss any tips or substitution suggestions and to ensure that you have all the ingredients and equipment required as well as understand the steps and timings involved.

People seem to have a love/hate relationship with salted caramel. I personally love it and it is my latest food obsession!

These pumpkin cupcakes made with canned pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spices and then topped with salted caramel cream cheese frosting. The final flourish is a drizzling of caramel on top of the frosting.

For simplicity, you can use a store-bought, ready-made salted caramel sauce, but if you want to make it from scratch you totally can! If you check out Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Cider with Maple Whipped Cream it includes a recipe for caramel sauce. Simply switch to a salted butter and add ½ teaspoon of sea salt flakes.

Why not throw an fall-themed afternoon tea party and serve a platter of these delicious pumpkin cupcakes? They’re perfect for the autumn season!

Ingredients & Equipment Used In This Recipe

You may have some of the ingredients for this recipe in your kitchen already – the full list with measurements is found in the recipe card.

For your convenience, any specialized or notable ingredients and equipment needed for this recipe have been listed below and linked to Amazon if available online.

This recipe uses American cups. They’re a handy piece of kitchen equipment to have along with a kitchen food scale. Having both in your kitchen means you’ll be able to make all of the different recipes on my blog as I use both cups and weighted measures.

How Do I Make Pumpkin Purée?

*Before it was readily available in the UK, this is what I used to do in recipes that used pumpkin purée.

Simply peel, de-seed, and chop a pumpkin (or butternut squash), steam until tender then purée in a food processor until smooth. Use as required in recipes.

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes

More Recipes Using Canned Pumpkin Purée

One of the hero ingredients in this recipe is canned pumpkin, so here are some more recipes using the same:

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Spice Recipe Tips

  • Why not use festive pumpkin-themed cupcake liners to bake your cakes in?
  • Use an ice cream scoop to equally divide the cupcake mixture between the cupcake liners.
  • The cupcakes should be ready in about 20 minutes – test their doneness by inserting a toothpick into the cakes. It should come out clean when the cupcakes are cooked through. Bake for an extra 2 minutes and check again.
  • Cool the cupcakes in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

Cupcake Frosting Tips

  • When making the frosting you want the end result to be creamy, smooth, and for it to hold a stiff peak. You may have to adjust the amount of powdered sugar and cream slightly to achieve the consistency you need.
  • You will need a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
  • If you feel like you are going to be making a lot of cakes and cupcakes in your future, I think it is worth investing in a set of piping tips so that you know you always have the right ones on hand for a recipe.
  • Do not overfill the piping bag with frosting, and make sure you squeeze the frosting down the bag to expel any air bubbles.
  • If you are not confident with your piping skills you can practice on some parchment paper first and scoop the frosting back into the bag to use on the cupcakes.
  • Use a squeeze bottle to drizzle the caramel sauce on the cupcakes. If you don’t have one, put the sauce in a food bag and snip the corner off and squeeze through to add the sauce to the frosting.

More Cupcake Recipes

Looking for more cupcake inspo? Check these recipes out next:

I’ve got lots of fun and easy Cupcake Recipes for Parties for you to try out – right-click and open these other recipes in a new tab so that you can read them after this one!

How Do I Make Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes?

Just check out the recipe card below with full ingredients, and instructions. You can print the card out too (don’t worry, the pics don’t print to save your ink!).

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cupcakes

Yield: 24
Cook Time: 21 minutes
Total Time: 21 minutes

Pumpkin spiced cupcakes topped with salted caramel frosting and drizzle with salted caramel sauce are a GOOD thing! Perfect for fall!

Ingredients

For the Cupcakes

  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • ¼ cup cornstarch (cornflour)
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
  • ¼ tsp kosher salt (sea salt flakes)
  • 1½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ⅛ tsp ground cloves
  • ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
  • ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
  • ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed
  • ⅔ cup white sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1½ tsp pure vanilla extract
  • 1 cup pure pumpkin purée
  • ⅓ cup whole milk

For the Frosting

  • 1 (8 oz / 225g) package cream cheese, softened
  • ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar (icing sugar)
  • 2 Tbsp salted caramel sauce
  • 4 Tbsp heavy whipping cream (double cream)

For the Topping

  • ½ cup salted caramel sauce

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and line a cupcake pan with cupcake liners.
  2. Whisk or sift the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a bowl.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the oil, sugars, eggs and vanilla until combined.
  4. Beat in the pumpkin purée.
  5. Gradually beat in the dry ingredients until combined.
  6. Use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter into the liners.
  7. Bake for 21 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
  8. Leave the cupcakes to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.
  9. To make the frosting, use an electric stand or hand held mixer and place the cream cheese, butter, (2 tablespoons) salted
    caramel sauce, powdered sugar, and cream.
  10. Beat on medium speed until smooth, creamy, and stiff peaks form.
  11. Transfer the frosting to a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
  12. Pipe swirls of frosting onto each cooled cupcake.
  13. Pour the half-cup of caramel sauce into a squeeze bottle and drizzle over the frosting.
  14. Enjoy and Happy Fall Y'all!

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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 24 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 195Total Fat: 8gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 5gCholesterol: 25mgSodium: 97mgCarbohydrates: 29gFiber: 1gSugar: 22gProtein: 2g

This site uses Nutritionix to provide estimated nutrition. Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.

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Make It A Meal!

You’ve made the dessert, but what about the rest of the courses?

Here are additional recipes to make a full meal!

There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy – please feel free to check them out too!


The post is part of the Crafty October series on The Purple Pumpkin Blog. Check out Crafty October from 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 for awesome Halloween ideas and inspiration; including recipes, printables, crafts, and more!

Crafty October on The Purple Pumpkin Blog

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