Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pumpkin Spice Cupcake Recipe

Who doesn’t love a good cupcake? Especially one that looks pretty too and suits those with food allergies?

This is another food allergy family tip that I always live by — always bring a dessert those with allergies in your family can enjoy!

Nothing breaks my daughter’s heart more than being told she can’t have dessert when all of her cousins can. She’s a sweet tooth girl after my own heart. So what do we do instead?

Always bring one to eat and share! Not only do we end up contributing more to the meal which always feels good, but we make sure that our girls are able to enjoy their time and meals without feeling left out.

So when Thanksgiving rolled around this year, I wanted to try a new Thanksgiving/Fall-related recipe, and my daughter wanted cupcakes.

So we ended up with Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes, and let me tell you — they were a hit despite my level of amateur baking and cupcake decorating experience.

So in my normal fashion, I won’t bore you with the details! Instead, let’s just dive on into the recipe for these cute little cupcakes!

GLUTEN-FREE, DAIRY-FREE PUMPKIN SPICE CUPCAKE RECIPE

Let me preface this with the fact that I’m sure there are so many other pretty decorated pumpkin cupcakes out there, but I’m a total amateur, and these were SUPER simple and something I feel like most everyone could do!

So now that I said that, let’s jump on in!

INGREDIENTS

• 2 cups gluten-free 1:1 baking flour (I prefer Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 Baking Flour)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 1 cup organic coconut sugar (or brown sugar)
• 3 eggs
• 1 can pumpkin puree (about 15oz)
• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2-3 cans cream cheese frosting
• 1 package plant-based food coloring
• 12 almonds for decorating
• 1 container green gel icing for decorating

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 2 12-count cupcake tins with cupcake wrappers. I used parchment paper tulip wrappers.
• In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, combine pumpkin puree, coconut milk, and vanilla, then set aside.
• In a microwavable safe bowl, melt coconut oil, then using a mixer, cream together your oil and sugars.
• Add your eggs one at a time, blending well each time.
• Once combined, slowly add in your four and pumpkin mixtures, blending until well incorporated.
• Spoon mixture into cupcake tins and bake for 20-23 minutes or until set.
• Allow to cool completely, then start frosting!

DIRECTIONS FOR DECORATING

For this part, you’ll need your cream cheese icing, piping bags (or zip locks with a small hole cut out in one corner), a decorating tip (if you have one!), your food coloring, green gel icing, and almonds.

A little tip for these, I store-bought my icing. I can make dairy-free cream cheese frosting, but it tends to break on me. And because I was taking these to a gathering, I didn’t want to take any chances!

If you want to make your own icing, by all means, do it!

Because I wanted to split these up into three colors, I went ahead and purchased 3 containers of cream cheese icing.

In each container, I started creating my colors! The first was simple because, well, it stayed white!

CREATING YOUR COLORS

Then using plant-based food coloring to avoid artificial colors, I created the following colors.

The second color I wanted to create was lavender. I did this by adding 12 drops of red and 4 drops of blue to one can of icing.

For the orange, I added 14 drops of yellow and 8 drops of red food coloring.

My colors stayed very light, but that was my goal! If you want deeper colors, simply add more food coloring!

TIME TO DECORATE

Once your cupcakes are completely cooled, you can start adding your icing colors to your piping bags! Divide your cupcakes into 3 sections of 8, and get to frosting!

Start by creating a ring around the edge of your cupcake, then frost in the center and create a mound of icing on top.

You can really mound your icing however you’d like!

Then simply add an almond in the center of each cupcake to create the stem.

Then add your green stems and leaves with your small green gel icing. Yes, I realize this is an artificial color, but we used so little of it that I didn’t want to create my own! If you want to or can, go for it!. Again, amateur, healthy-ish baker over here!

Then they were done! Really simple, and I even got asked if we bought these from a bakery!

So definitely give these delicious pumpkin spice cupcakes a try at your next gathering. They’re sure to please!

Do you think you’ll give them a try? Let me know in the comments!