Pumpkin Spiced Muffins

Last week my coworkers very kindly made me some treats for my birthday. One of the treats was pumpkin spiced muffins with a cream cheese frosting. They were in my opinion just plain awesome. I believe the exact words out of my mouth were “where have these been all my life?” Super moist, not too much pumpkin flavor and just the right amount of spice.

They were so good I asked for the recipe and made them last night for the Christmas party we went to. The recipe makes 24 cupcakes and is so easy to make there is no reason to not make them. I brought most of the batch to the party and left the rest at home. They came out of the oven too late for me to frost at home so I put the frosting into a piping bag and quickly frosted them when we arrived at the party.

Unfortunately I didn’t even get to try mine. My husband put them away when we got home and when I finally came down stairs this morning, my wonderful dog; whom I have dubbed our ungrateful rescue; had the container off the counter onto the floor and had his way with them. So they are people approved AND dog approved.

The only reason I am “explaining” this is I never got a final picture of the muffins finished thanks to my dog and I will take some of the blame, I had a little too much to drink at the party and didn’t help last night or this morning to keep them “safe”

Pumpkin Spiced Batter – preheat oven to 350’F

1 package yellow cake mix
1 package vanilla pudding mix
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ cup oil
½ cup water
3 eggs
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put all the ingredients into a bowl and with an electric mixer on low speed beat just till moistened. Move up to medium for a couple of minutes. Spoon batter into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Fill each cup about ⅔ full

Bake for about 20 minutes. Frost cooled cupcakes with the spiced cream cheese frosting.

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting
1 package (8oz) cream cheese – softened
¼ cup butter – softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
¼ tsp ground cloves