Name: Pumpkin Muffins with Cream Cheese Frosting
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 35 min
Yield: 24
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 8 oz (200 g) cream cheese, at room temperature; 4 oz (100 g) butter, at room temperature; 1 tsp vanilla; 4 c (454 g) powdered (confectioner’s) sugar; 2 c (285g) flour; 2 tsp baking powder; 1/2 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 1 tsp cinnamon; 4 eggs; 3/4 c (140 g) sugar; ½ c (60 g) brown sugar; ½ c (115 g) melted butter; ½ c (115 g) light olive oil; 2 c (200 g) grated carrots; 1 ½ c (340 g) canned, or cooked pumpkin; 1 c (70g) shredded coconut (organic is best, propylene glycol free)

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Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting will be the highlight of anyone’s lunchbox, and no one will bother that they’ve chock full of nutritious ingredients, too!

Originally published November 17th, 2012.

These pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting are so moist, light and delicious, they’re more like a cupcake in flavor, but healthy like a muffin, so we’ll stick with that!

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Edited: November 2023 One of my neighbors asked me if she could pay me to make these for her family because they loved them so much. She was most shocked that her husband was a fan as he usually doesn’t eat anything relatively sweet! And yes, I made a batch and delivered them (for free).

Why Are these Pumpkin Muffins so Good?

These healthy pumpkin muffins are full of Vitamin A with almost 4 cups of pumpkin and fresh carrots! Besides the nutrition factor, the best thing about these pumpkin muffins is that they are very light, and taste delicious!

Like most teenagers nowadays, my daughter is spread too thin. Between school, homework, mock trial, homework, swimming, homework and, well–you get the picture. I don’t like it one bit, because I know it affects her health.

The stress of trying to keep up her grades, and getting everything done to meet deadlines is just too much to put onto the shoulders of a teenager. Add to that an attempt to get a decent amount of sleep (this one’s almost a joke); it’s simply overwhelming.

There’s not much a parent can do to help except make sure their child is eating properly, so I send her to school with soup and nutritious meals. I feel good when I can make her a treat that’s also giving her some added veggies and vitamins.

This pumpkin muffins recipe is much different in taste than all my fruit muffin recipes, but those are really healthy, too.

Potato pumpkin gnocchi with butter sage sauce
is a meal that also has added nutrition over normal gnocchi.

In case you have a fresh pumpkin, here’s how to cook it!

Pumpkin Muffin Variations

If you decide to add even more goodness to this pumpkin muffin recipe, you can toss in a cup of

raisins
cranberries
chopped nuts

You can also easily add some cinnamon, nutmeg or mixed spice.

Love all things pumpkin? Try this pumpkin chocolate chip loaf, next!

You can also use this pumpkin cream cheese muffin recipe to make two round cakes, but make sure to adjust the baking time as it will be longer than 30 minutes. Here it is baked in the round cake pans and filled and topped with Grand Marnier orange cream cheese frosting.

Pumpkin Muffins
with Cream Cheese Frosting

by Christina Conte inspired by this pineapple carrot cake Makes 2 dozen cupcakes or 2, 8″ round cakes

FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW

Ingredients

flour
baking powder
baking soda
salt
cinnamon
eggs
sugar
brown sugar
melted butter
light olive oil
grated carrots
canned, or cooked pumpkin
shredded coconut (organic is best, propylene glycol free)

Make the Pumpkin Muffin Batter

Sift the first 5 (dry) ingredients into a bowl and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs and sugars for about two minutes, then add the oil and butter, and mix well. Next, add the grated carrots, pumpkin and coconut and mix until combined.

Now add the sifted dry ingredients and stir until well mixed.

Put paper cupcake liners in a pan, then fill with batter about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350º F (175º C) about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a pumpkin muffin comes out clean.

Place on cooling rack. Meanwhile, make the icing.

Make the Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

cream cheese
butter, at room temperature
vanilla
powdered (confectioner’s) sugar

Beat cream cheese and butter, then beat in the vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth.

Decorate and Serve!

Pipe or spread onto the pumpkin muffins, as desired.

These freeze well, but I would advise freezing the muffins plain, and keep the icing in the refrigerator until ready to use. You can serve them on a cake platter if you like.

Finally, take a big bite!

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Let’s talk about shredded coconut

If you do add the coconut, make sure to always check the ingredients, because the most popular US brand (I’m sure you can figure out which one) of shredded coconut is not only packed with sugar, but contains propylene glycol.

COCONUT, SUGAR, WATER, PROPYLENE GLYCOL (PRESERVES FRESHNESS), SALT, SODIUM METABISULFITE

I have read that we should avoid it in personal care items because it alters the structure of the skin (yikes). Yet they’re putting it in our coconut? I love Lets Do…Organics brand. Moreover, not only does this coconut not have any added sugar or preservatives, but it actually tastes like coconut. It makes my macaroons, coconut cakes and all my other coconut filled recipes taste like I’m using fresh coconut! #NotSponsored