Autumn Spice Cupcakes With Pumpkin-Spice Frosting

This is an easy, festive recipe for autumn. I made this recipe with our nursing home residents in celebration of our October birthdays. They really enjoyed the aroma of the baking cupcakes and frosting them. We inserted pretzel sticks into the center of each orange-colored frosted cupcake to make them look like little pumpkins. What fun we had! This would also be a fun children's project. Enjoy! (Note: preparation time does not include time for cupcakes to cool.)

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Yields: 24 cupcakes

Ingredients

• Cake

• 1 (18 ounce) box  spice cake mix (I use Duncan Hines)
• 1  cup water
• 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin, pureed (I use Libby's Pumpkin Filling)
• 3  eggs

• Frosting

• 4  tablespoons butter, melted
• 4  tablespoons pumpkin puree (I use Libby's Pumpkin Filling)
• 2  tablespoons milk
• 1  teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3 -4  cups powdered sugar
• 1  teaspoon  orange food coloring (optional)

Directions

1. Cupcakes:
2. Preheat oven to 350°F
3. Sift cake mix into a medium mixing bowl until all lumps are removed. Then add water, pumpkin and eggs and thoroughly combine with a hand-held mixer.
4. Spoon batter into muffin pan cups lined with paper liners, filling each cup 1/3-full.
5. Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of thickest cupcake comes out clean.
6. Allow to cool on a wire rack for one hour.
7. Frosting:
8. In a medium mixing bowl, combine butter, pumpkin, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.
9. Add powdered sugar one cup at a time, blending with a hand-held mixer and scraping sides of bowl with a rubber spatula until a smooth and spreadable texture is met. (Note: You may use less or more powdered sugar per your preference. If frosting becomes too thick, thin with milk one drop at a time.).
10. If desired, add food coloring for an extra festive orange color.
11. Frost cooled cupcakes.