The easiest pumpkin muffins you'll ever make! This recipe uses 3 easy-to-find ingredients and takes almost no time to whip up. Add the (optional!) cream cheese frosting for an extra deluxe muffin!
DON’T FREAK OUT. But I am calling these muffins.
I know, I know. They have frosting. This seems to solidify a baked good’s identity as a cupcake, but hear me out! The frosting is cream cheese, which you would eat on a bagel which is perfectly acceptable to have for BREAKFAST.
Oh, and there’s also maple syrup in the cream cheese. Another point for breakfast.
ALSO. There is like, a lot of pumpkin in these. Which is a vegetable. Ergo, these are muffins.
And if not, I just gave you some solid arguments for eating cake for breakfast.
The Muffins
These are maybe the easiest muffins you'll ever make! All you need is:
- A box of yellow cake mix
- A can of pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
The pumpkin puree makes these muffins so moist and delicious, and the pie spice gives them just the right pumpkin spice flavor. It is so good!
The batter will be THICK. You can do your best to smooth out the tops if you want, but these will have kind of a wild, rustic look to them. (Cover them with frosting if you want!)
Just mix all the ingredients together, bake in a greased (or lined) muffin tin, and they're ready!
The Frosting
I love this frosting on a breakfast item! It is just cream cheese and maple syrup.
The addition of frosting was partially to make the tops look more uniform, but it's so good!
I like to use just a hint of maple syrup so it isn't overly sweet, but still adds that delicious fall flavor that I love.
The recipe calls for 2-4 tablespoons of maple syrup. I use 2, but you can go all the way up to 4. Any more than that, and the frosting starts to get overly runny.
More Pumpkin Recipes
When it's pumpkin season, I want pumpkin in everything! Here are some more pumpkin recipes I love:
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Stuffed Crescent Rolls
- Pumpkin Chili (the pumpkin makes it the PERFECT consistency!)
- Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Cheesecake with Gingersnap Crust
3-Ingredient Pumpkin Muffins (with an Easy Maple Cream Cheese Frosting)
Ingredients
For the Muffins
- 1 (15.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
For the Frosting
- 1 (8-ounce) brick cream cheese, softened
- 2-4 tablespoons maple syrup (see note)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease or line a muffin tin. Mix cake mix, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice in large bowl until combined. Divide evenly between muffin tin cups.Bake 20-22 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove and place on wire rack until cool.Beat together cream cheese and maple syrup in small bowl until smooth. Once smooth, pipe or spread on cooled muffins. Refrigerate if not eating immediately after frosting.
Leslie Nichole says
They look so perfect! I can almost smell them from here, yup! I’m making them. Thank you for sharing, they seem so simple.
Mandy Jackson says
So simple, and so good!! Hope you love them. Thanks for reading 🙂