These Gluten-free Pumpkin Cupcakes with Gingerbread Cream Cheese Frosting are tender and flavored with warming spices. The perfect easy fall, Christmas, or Holiday dessert! These cupcakes can be made dairy-free and refined sugar-free as well!
Easy christmas holiday desserts
I am a firm believer that healthier holiday recipes can in fact, be just as delicious as the real deal. I’m not saying we have to ditch sugar, but rather focus on quality ingredients so we can indulge, while still feeling our best! These cupcakes live right up to that – all the cozy, warm spices you love in pumpkin and gingerbread cake with a more-wholesome cream cheese frosting that can actually be made paleo/dairy-free and refined sugar-free!
If you’re looking for the perfect holiday dessert that blends cozy fall flavors with Christmas spice, these Pumpkin Cupcakes with Gingerbread Cream Cheese Frosting are truly unmatched. They’re moist, warmly spiced, incredibly soft, and topped with a fluffy cream cheese frosting infused with molasses, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg (although you can totally leave out the gingerbread vibe and do regular cream cheese frosting!). Whether you’re baking for a Thanksgiving, a Christmas party, or you simply love anything pumpkin spice, this recipe needs to be on your festive baking list!
Why You’ll Love These Pumpkin Cupcakes with gingerbread cream cheese frosting
These cupcakes are the perfect balance of fall and winter flavors, making them a standout dessert during the holiday season.
- Moist & tender pumpkin cupcake base
- Easy one-bowl batter – you can even use store-bough frosting if you want to make them even easier!
- Perfect for holiday gatherings, gifting, or cozy baking days
- Smells like pumpkin spice heaven (who needs Bath & Body works!?)
If you’re searching for easy fall cupcakes, holiday cupcake ideas, or a show-stopping gingerbread frosting recipe, this one hits all the marks.
Recipe video
Ingredients You Need
The full recipe and measurements are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post, but here’s an overview:
For the gluten-free Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Oat flour & oats: You can use store-bought or homemade. To make it homemade, simply grind old fashioned rolled oats in a high-powered blender until a super fine flour forms. If you need certified gluten-free oats, One Degree Organics makes an amazing one!
- Almond flour: Tiger nut flour or cashew flour work as 1:1 substitutes. Subbing anything else won’t create the same soft texture and I don’t recommend using anything else!
- Eggs
- Banned Pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling!)
- Maple syrup: Honey or agave also work!
- Coconut sugar: Monk fruit is a great lower sugar option, however if I do this, I usually do half monk fruit and half coconut sugar as the coconut sugar really adds a caramelized flavor to the recipe. You can also use this brown sugar monk fruit which will do the same thing while keeping it lower in sugar!
- Cinnamon & Pumpkin pie spice: You can use store-bought pumpkin spice or make homemade pumpkin spice mix!
- Coconut oil: This is used in the streusel. You can sub avocado oil or even butter, vegan butter, ghee, etc.
- Gingerbread men cookies: You can use store-bought or homemade! These are optional, but so cute!
For the Gingerbread Cream Cheese Frosting
- Cream cheese: dairy-free or regular will work! I like to look for one with great ingredients. Monty’s makes amazing dairy-free/vegan cream cheese!
- Diary-free/vegan or regular butter
- Monk fruit powdered sugar: I tried to keep this a little lower in sugar, so I opt for monk fruit powdered sugar, however you can use regular if it’s what you have on hand. You can also omit the powdered sugar glaze and use melted white chocolate!
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Molasses: this is optional! Feel free to omit if you don’t like it.
Steps to make gluten-free pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a muffin tin with spray oil OR use muffin liners!
- In a food processor or large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, blending or mixing well until no lumps remain. Careful not to over-blend. Then divide the batter amongst your cupcake tin, filling them 3/4 full.
- Bake the loaf for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when touched. Careful not to over-bake. Let the cupcakes cool completely before removing from the pan.
- While cooling, make the frosting. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It’s okay if it looks a little crumbly.
- Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until totally combined and then beat in the salt and vanilla. If it’s firm enough for your needs you can add to a piping bag and pipe right away.
- If you want it firmer, refrigerate for about an hour, stirring the frosting after about 30 minutes. Don’t let it chill too long before frosting your cake, though, because it gets quite firm, like a cream cheese.
- I like to grab gingerbread men cookies, cut the heads and arms off, and add them to the cupcake frosting! SO cute!
Recipe variations
- Dislike gingerbread? Use regular cream cheese frosting!
- Top the frosting with chopped, toasted pecans.
- Add white chocolate chips to the cupcake batter before baking. White chocolate and pumpkin are so delicious together!
How to Store Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
- Freeze unfrosted cupcakes for up to 2 months.
- Frost day-of for the best texture.
More healthy holiday dessert recipes to try
- Pumpkin Streusel Muffins
- Starbucks copycat pumpkin spice scones
- Healthier pumpkin S’mores bars
- Vegan pumpkin caramel pecan cheesecake
- Healthy pumpkin baked oatmeal
- Vegan pumpkin caramel twix bars
- Starbucks copycat pumpkin spice frappuccino
- Pumpkin spice chia pudding
- Pumpkin yogurt cup with chocolate magic shell
- Healthy vegan pumpkin ice cream (ninja creami or blender)
If you try this recipe & love, it’d mean the world to me if you left a star rating below & tag me in your creations on instagram @danishealthyeats!
Pumpkin cupcakes with gingerbread cream cheese frosting
Ingredients
Cupcakes
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp oat flour
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- 2 eggs, room temp
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
Cream cheese frosting
- 12oz Organic cream cheese, lactose free, or vegan cream cheese
- 3 tbsp grass-fed butter or vegan butter (I love the brand Monty's for dairy-free!)
- 1 cup monk fruit powdered sugar alternative *Or regular powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp molasses
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a muffin tin with spray oil OR use muffin liners!
- In a food processor or large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, blending or mixing well until no lumps remain. Careful not to over-blend. Then divide the batter amongst your cupcake tin, filling them 3/4 full.
- Bake the loaf for 20-22 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the top springs back when touched. Careful not to over-bake. Let the cupcakes cool completely before removing from the pan.
- While cooling, make the frosting. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It’s okay if it looks a little crumbly.
- Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until fully combined. Then beat in the salt and vanilla extract. If it’s firm enough for your needs you can add to a piping bag and pipe right away.
- If you want a firmer frosting, you can refrigerate it for about an hour, stirring after about 30 minutes. Don’t let it chill too long before frosting your cake, though, because it gets quite firm!
- I like to grab gingerbread men cookies, cut the heads and arms off, and add them to the cupcake frosting! SO cute!
Can they be made egg free? 🥰
Hi Alice! I haven’t tested any egg substitutions, so I can’t say for sure how the cake would turn out without them. You could try using an egg replacer, but I can’t guarantee the results will be the same. If you do experiment with substitutions, I’d love to hear how it goes!
I can’t wait to make these, they are so cute!
OMG yay! Tag me on Instagram, so i can see, if you do! (: