Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

These pumpkin spiced muffins swirled with a maple cream cheese topping are the perfect quick fall treat!

This recipe makes about 18 muffins.

Ingredients:

For the muffin base:

• 1 (15 oz.) can of pumpkin

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil

• 1 (15 oz.) box of yellow cake mix

• 1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

For the frosting:

• 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

• 1/4 cup sugar

• 2 Tbsp maple syrup

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/8 tsp salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. In a large bowl, stir together the pumpkin, eggs and oil until evenly combined.

3. Add the cake mix and pumpkin pie spice and stir until no dry streaks remain.

4. Scoop into a muffin tin, only filling up 1/2-2/3 of the way. A cookie scoop makes this much easier (this is the one I use). Mine made about 18 muffins.

5. Using a hand mixer or stand mixer, beat the cream cheese. Add the remaining ingredients and beat until combined.

6. Scoop about 1 Tablespoon of cream cheese filling on top of the muffins. Using a toothpick, swirl the cream cheese mixture into the pumpkin base.

7. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick comes out of the center with moist crumbs. Let cool before eating (I prefer them cold, straight from the fridge!).

Notes:

• I love using a silicon muffin tin! You don't need any muffin liners (unless you want to use them) and the muffins don't stick to the sides of the tin. You simply just place your hand under the muffin tin and pop all of the muffins out. Here's the one I use from Amazon (commissionable link).

• You can use spice cake mix to replace both the yellow cake mix and the pumpkin pie spice! I prefer the taste of the original recipe and spice cake mix is sometimes hard to find.

• Buying pumpkin pie spice is a lot cheaper at a dollar store than most grocery stores.

Love this recipe? Let me know by leaving a comment or messaging me on Instagram! I'd love to hear what you think.