Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting

Halloween week. Liam is nineteen months now and old enough to have decided on a costume, which he did by pointing at a pumpkin costume in the Halloween store with the authority of a child who knows his own mind. The same pumpkin as last year—or one exactly like it—because he is, evidently, a pumpkin person. I don't argue with people who know what they are.

We've been talking about names. Carefully, because we're eleven weeks from the anatomy scan and we don't know the sex yet, but carefully and with intent. Sean wants to save both male and female options and decide at the scan. I want to have a female name already because I have a feeling—the kind you have with these things that is not a method but is sometimes right. I keep coming back to Nora. Nora Donovan. I say it quietly to myself when I'm driving. It fits.

The pregnancy is showing now, undeniably—I was carrying small with Liam until seventeen weeks and I'm showing at fifteen this time, which is what the second pregnancy does with your abdominal wall, apparently. My colleagues on the floor have noticed. Margaret came back for a scan this week—she's doing well, the third-year check—and she looked at my stomach and said "another one?" with a smile that contained years. I said yes. She said "wonderful." She said it like she meant it specifically and I took it specifically.

With Liam insisting on being a pumpkin for the second year running and the whole house smelling like October, it felt only right to lean all the way in — so I made these pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting on a Sunday afternoon while he napped. There’s something steadying about baking when your life is quietly, beautifully expanding: the measuring, the folding, the waiting for something warm to come out of the oven. These are the kind of cupcakes you make for a season you want to remember.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla extract
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Line two standard 12-cup muffin tins with paper liners and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract until smooth and well blended.
Combine. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. A few small streaks of flour are fine.
Fill and bake. Divide the batter evenly among the lined cups, filling each about 3/4 full. Bake for 18–21 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Cool completely. Let cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before frosting — at least 30 minutes.
Make the frosting. Beat the softened cream cheese and butter together with a hand or stand mixer on medium speed until smooth and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating on low between additions. Add the vanilla and salt, then beat on medium-high for 1 minute until light and creamy.
Frost and serve. Pipe or spread the cream cheese frosting onto the cooled cupcakes. Dust lightly with cinnamon if desired. Serve at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Pumpkin Cupcakes With Cream Cheese Frosting — For the Pumpkin Person in All of Us