Pumpkin-Spice Cupcakes. Vegan. Gluten-free. Oil-free*
I know. It’s getting a little ridiculous. Another pumpkin recipe. I can’t help it! I told you I love all things pumpkin. The season is short – I must embrace it!
So, I made a pumpkin-spice cake for my sister’s birthday this past week. It was really good. The next day I tweaked the recipe just a bit and made delicious cupcakes. The next day I tweaked it even more, making them gluten-free, and a sharable recipe was born!
If you don’t care to make these cupcakes gluten-free, whole wheat pastry flour is fine. Also, use 1 TBS pumpkin pie spice if you’d rather not bother measuring out the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves.
I don’t generally make or eat things that are frosted due to the high fat content of frosting, even if it is vegan, but I’ve managed to keep the fat pretty low on these by only using no more than 1 tablespoon of frosting per cupcake, which is plenty and just right. Still, these are a treat and not something I’d recommend be eaten regularly. 🙂
*Oil-free if left unfrosted. The cupcake itself is oil/fat-free but Tofutti Cream Cheese is made with oil.
- 2 cups gluten-free flour blend i.e. Bob's Red Mill All-Purpose Baking Flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 cup unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 TBS lemon juice
- 3 TBS molasses
- 1 8 oz non-dairy cream cheese i.e. Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly oil 2 muffin pans, or fill with paper liners.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in large bowl.
- In a medium-sized bowl whisk together pumpkin, non-dairy milk, vanilla, lemon juice and molasses until smooth.
- Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until combined and most of the lumps are gone. Scoop into muffin cups.
- Bake 18-20 minutes, moving individual muffins to cooling rack once removed from the oven. Cool completely before frosting.
- To make frosting, combine Tofutti Better Than Cream Cheese (in the yellow and white tub. The blue one is hydrogenated - stay away!), maple syrup and vanilla. You may mix by hand, but I like the whipped texture you get from using a mixer. I used my KitchenAid Stand Mixer but a hand mixer would work too.
If you don't care to make these cupcakes gluten-free, whole wheat pastry flour should work just fine.
Use 1 TBS pumpkin pie spice if you'd rather not bother measuring out the cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cloves.