Friday was our youngest sons first birthday! We had so much fun celebrating with our family! I decided I wanted his first birthday cake to be somewhat healthy and of course Gluten Free since our older son is GF (more to come on that btw!). I looked around and found this recipe from www.6bittersweets.com. She’s not GF, but she had a GF friend request pumpkin cupcakes so she modified a recipe to make it work. She adapted the recipe from SimplyRecipes. I made a few changes myself, so the recipe I’ve listed here is the one I made. Click on the links if you want to see the original recipe.
The original called for Bob’s Red Mill GF Flour mix, but I couldn’t find it at any of my stores. So I picked up Pamela’s GF Baking & Pancake Mix. The big difference is that it already had the tapioca flour, xanthan gum, salt, baking soda and baking powder in it so I didn’t have to add those. I didn’t add any additional baking mix to make up for those dry ingredients, so my cakes were super moist, but not under done.
Mixing all the wet ingredients, including the pumpkin. It looked super gross at this point 
Sifting the dry ingredients. Which for my recipe ended up just being the baking mix and the Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Filling the cupcakes, getting ready to bake! The original recipe said to “close the cupcake papers over the top”. I had no idea how to accomplish this so I didn’t do it. They turned out fine.
Cooling, getting ready for the frosting.
The finished products!
They got rave reviews and everyone wanted me to make more I highly suggest you try these, they are amazing!
Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes with Cinnamon Frosting
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 Tbsp molasses
1 Tbsp honey
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup pumpkin purée
2 cups Pamela’s GF Baking & Pancake Mix
1 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice (1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground
cloves, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest)
1/2 cup buttermilk (To make your own buttermilk, combine 1/2 cup of milk with 1/2 Tbsp of vinegar or lemon
juice. Stir and let stand 10 minutes before using)
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 Tbsp cinnamon (more or less to taste)
1 cup confectioner’s powdered sugar, sifted
Preheat oven to 350°F, and place rack in the center of the oven.
Cupcakes
Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses and honey, until as light and fluffy as it will be, about
2-3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add the pumpkin purée and vanilla and beat
until incorporated.
In a separate bowl, sift together baking mix and spices. Add the dry ingredients and buttermilk alternately to the pumpkin batter, in three additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
Set paper cupcake holders in a muffin tin. Spoon the batter into the cupcake paper cups.
Bake approximately 18 minutes (mine took exactly 22 minutes), or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out
clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
Frosting
Using an electric mixer, mix together cream cheese and butter until smooth. Add cinnamon and confectioners’ sugar
and mix to combine. Once cupcakes have cooled, apply frosting.
Happy birthday to your son! These look delicious and sound very tasty indeed.
The cupcakes were yummy! And it made the special family time even more fun!
Wegman’s has tons of Bob’s Red Mill products and they are GREAT! LMK if you want me to bring some in the suitcase….