These homemade pumpkin spice cupcakes are light, fluffy, and packed with real pumpkin flavor–perfect for pumpkin lovers! You can’t have a cupcake with out frosting so I topped these spicy cakes with a refined sugar-free meringue that’s toasted to perfection.
HOW HARD IS IT TO MAKE THE MERINGUE FOR THESE PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKES?
This is my first Autumn on the East Coast and I’m loving every second of it. The colors and the crisp mornings are bringing out so many pumpkin spice recipes that have been circulating in my brain. Like these unbelievably delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes with healthy meringue frosting. I contemplated for like day wether or not I should add chocolate to these cupcakes to make them s’mores pumpkin cupcakes. Ultimately, I decided to keep them simple but if you wanted to throw in some chocolate chips, I don’t think it would be a bad thing…am I right?
If you have never made meringue before it looks and sounds a little intimidating but I assure it’s not! These cupcakes are actually simple AF and the meringue can be whipped up in a bowl with a $10 hand held electric mixer. As for the perfectly toasted frosting, popping these cakes into the oven on broil for 1-2 minutes will do the trick. You can count on this blog to never do anything too complicated. 😉
Can’t get enough pumpkin recipes? I hear ya! Check out these recipes on my blog even more
Chocolate Walnut Pumpkin Banana Bread
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
If you are still reading this far, you definitely deserve some vegan strawberry shortcake muffins and if you make this recipe or any other recipe from the blog, be sure to tag @peanutbutterpluschocolate on Instagram and check me out on Facebook and Pinterest!
Also, don’t forget to leave me a comment after the recipe card at the bottom. I really love chatting with all of you, hearing about how your recipe turned out and answering any questions you have.
Happy Baking!
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Toasted Meringue Frosting | GF & Dairy-Free
Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1 cup gluten free baking flour
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- ¼ cup and 2 tbsp unsweetened apple sauce
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 4 eggs room temp
- ½ cup granulated sweetener I used Swerve for this
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice I suggest buying it premade, but it's a combo of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice and ginger
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
For the Frosting
- 2 egg whites
- ½ cup maple syrup or honey
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 pinch sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners.
- In a mixing bowl, stir together all dry cupcake ingredients and then set aside.In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, pumpkin, applesauce, melted coconut oil and vanilla.
- Slowly mix in the dry ingredients until incorporated. Let the batter rest for 5 minutes.
- Fill cupcake liners about 3/4 full. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
- Begin to make your frosting. Place the maple syrup, vanilla and salt into a small pot or sauce pan and bring to a boil and then remove from heat.
- Meanwhile, use your electric mixer to beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Slowly add the hot syrup mixture to the egg whites while still beating with mixer. Continue mixing until the meringue cools down and stiffens, about 7-8 minutes.
- Once the meringue comes together, transfer it to a piping bag and pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes. Turn oven to hi-broil. Once oven is hot, return the cupcakes to the oven for 1-2 minutes or until frosting is toasted to your liking.
Hi! I was wondering what this recipe yields and it says baking powder twice? Did you mean baking soda for one?