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Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

September 16, 2020 by Sweet Ordeal Leave a Comment

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Take a bite into this super moist delicious cupcake. Chocolate and pumpkin flavors blended to perfection. The cupcake has only 3 ingredients, so does the frosting. Quick and easy, but so scrumptious. While low in both calories and sugar, nobody has to know these Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes are on the healthy side.

Enjoy a 130 calorie cupcake vs. a typical 420 calorie chocolate frosted cupcake. And the sugar?  Yeah, go from a typical 46 gram sugar cupcake down to 10 grams. 

It’s not sugar free, but it’s a whole lot better and you’d never know from the delicious taste.

Cupcakes with rosette frosting.

Wondering how so few ingredients?

Start with a chocolate cake mix, and there’s a lot right there. Skip the eggs and oil, and instead, add a can of pure pumpkin. Water is added to make the batch go a bit further.

There you have it, 3 ingredients for the cupcakes. 

The frosting is amazing by any frosting standards. Again, 3 ingredients is all you need. A small box of chocolate pudding, some milk, and lastly, frozen whipped topping. 

This is the same recipe as my Pumpkin Pudding Frosting, only using chocolate pudding instead. In fact, swap out the pudding for any favorite flavor you want to use.

Frosted Fall cupcakes.

 

Making Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

You’ll need 2 muffin tins and 20 cupcake liners. Preheat your oven to 350°, but you’ll probably be done making the cupcakes before the oven is hot. 

In a large bowl, mix the pure pumpkin with the water. Add to that the cake mix and stir thoroughly.

About the cake mix…chocolate is always delicious, but a spice cake is also really great mixed with pumpkin. I made both for this blog. 

Divide the batter up evenly between the 20 liners, and it’s time to bake.

Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean. 

Shaved chocolate topping frosted Fall cupcakes.

Making a batch of pudding frosting

Pudding frosting is so easy and so great for piping. I try to use it every chance I get, because it’s so user friendly. In addition, this frosting is not too sweet.

I always use my mixer for pudding, so start by adding the milk and turning the beaters on. Add the dry pudding mix to the milk, which helps to avoid getting those annoying lumps. 

Next, add in the whipped topping. Once it’s all blended, refrigerate the frosting until the cupcakes are cool enough. 

Not mentioned in the recipe, I grated some dark chocolate into the frosting. I also added some on top. Can you ever have too much chocolate?

Chocolate frosting on pumpkin flavored cupcakes.

Coffee options

Adding a teaspoon of coffee to the cake and/or frosting is delicious. There’s such a connection between the two that’s indisputable. 

So, if you love that extra bite in your chocolate, add some coffee. 

Piping the frosting on Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

I love Wilton’s 1M frosting tip. That, and the 2D. Together, I don’t really need anything else, especially for cupcakes.

The bigger the tip, the fewer imperfections show. 

In other words, smaller tips seem to show more imperfections, but that might be all in my head. 

Plus, bigger tips frost faster. 

You don’t need to pipe this frosting at all, it’s just my preference. You might prefer spreading it on, which looks great, too.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

Print
5 from 7 votes

Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes

A low calorie, low sugar cupcakes with decadent chocolate and pure pumpkin flavors.
Prep Time10 mins
Active Time20 mins
Total Time30 mins
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Autumn, Fall Favorites, Halloween treats, low calorie, low sugar
Yield: 20
Calories: 130kcal
Author: SweetOrdeal.com

Materials

  • 15 oz. can pure pumpkin
  • 15.25 oz. box Devil's Food cake mix, (or Spice cake mix)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1.4 oz. box sugar free chocolate fudge pudding mix
  • 8 oz. tub sugar free frozen whipped topping, thawed

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350°. Prepare muffin tins with 20 cupcake liners.

Cupcakes:

  • In large mixing bowl, beat pumpkin and water. Add cake mix. Blend thoroughly scraping sides.
  • Divide batter evenly into liners. Bake until toothpick comes out mostly clean, about 20 minutes.
  • Cool on wire rack.

Frosting:

  • Add dry pudding mix to milk and beat until smooth and no lumps remain.
  • Add whipped topping, stir until combined.
  • Refrigerate until cupcakes are cool. This frosting pipes really well.
  • Keep cupcakes refrigerated. Enjoy.

Notes

Optional: add 1 teaspoon coffee to either the cake mix, the frosting, or both. Coffee is a great compliment to chocolate. 

Nutrition

Calories: 130kcal | Carbohydrates: 24g | Protein: 2g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 249mg | Potassium: 61mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 10g | Vitamin A: 84IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 781mg | Iron: 2mg

Looking for other cupcake recipes? Try these out:

  • Caramel Apple Spice Cupcakes
  • Chocolate Vanilla Cupcakes
  • Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
  • French Toast Cupcakes
  • Brown Butter Cupcakes

This recipe was inspired by Hungry Girl recipe for Brownie Muffins. I remember eating these years ago, but the recipe only makes 12. That wasn’t enough for my frosting recipe, so I added some water and spread them out to 20 cupcake liners, which is where Chocolate Pumpkin Cupcakes came from.

Since I’m a major frosting girl, I knew a cupcake was in the making so I’d have something to frost. 

I love hearing from my readers

At the top of my blog is a light purple “P” for Pinterest. Here you can follow me on Pinterest, in which case, I’d love for you to comment and post a picture of your cupcakes. 

Also, below you can rate and comment on this recipe. 

I sincerely hope you enjoy this recipe and wish you happy baking.

Chocolate Pumpkin CupcakesChocolate Pumpkin CupcakesCopyright © Sweet Ordeal. All content and images are copyright protected. Do not use any images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, make sure to re-write the recipe in your own words and only list ingredients making sure to link back to this post for the original recipe and directions.

Filed Under: All Recipes, Cupcakes, Desserts, Uncategorized Tagged With: chocolate, comfort food, easy, low calorie, low sugar, pudding, pumpkin

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Hello...and welcome. I love sharing a great recipe and I hope you find your next favorite right here. I'll be sharing recipes from appetizers to desserts, easy and moderate, some are even healthy and low-calorie. There's also a few dog treat recipes for any dog lovers out there.

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