Pumpkin pie frosting is not frosting that is kinda sorta like pumpkin pie. It’s not a buttercream with some pumpkin mixed in, or a cream cheese frosting with a dash of pumpkin pie spice. Pumpkin pie frosting is honest-to-goodness pumpkin pie (minus the crust – although you could add that too if you wanted) piped onto cupcakes.
It turns out that pumpkin pie is perfectly pipe-able. Try out this pumpkin pie frosting as the ideal complement for any Fall cupcake flavor. I piped mine onto apple cobbler cupcakes. But, for other Fall cupcake inspiration, check out my top ten Fall cupcake recipes.
How To Make Pumpkin Pie Frosting
Emile Henry 9-Inch Pie Dish, Cerise Red
To make pumpkin pie frosting, you'll first need a pumpkin pie. For easier piping, I made a pumpkin pie without a crust. But, if you've already got a pie on hand with crust, you can either scoop the pie filling out of the crust or blend the crust into the frosting.
Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin 15 oz
My pumpkin pie isn't anything fancy. I used the recipe straight off of the can of Libby's pumpkin
I am reprinting it here (with my own verbiage), just in case you don’t have one on your can.
Ingredients
- 3/4 C sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 2 large eggs
- 15 oz canned pumpkin (pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling)
- 12 oz evaporated milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 F.
- In a large bowl, beat eggs.
- Stir in sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- Mix in pumpkin.
- Mix in evaporated milk.
- Pour into 9" pie plate (no crust needed).
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 350 F and bake for another 40-50 minutes, until a toothpick comes out dry.
- Remove from oven and leave on counter for two hours before use.
Notes
While you can load a slice of pie directly into the piping bag (as shown in the second photo of this post), I found that the pie piped better if I put it in a large mixing bowl and beat it for about thirty seconds to evenly distribute any moisture before loading it into my bag.
Final Tip
As you might guess, this technique works just as well with other similar pies, like sweet potato pie!
LOVE this idea–tasty inspiration!
What a delicious-sounding idea!
What a smart idea, I love it! A cute way to incorporate pure pumpkin pie on random treats. I bet it’d be good frosted on a sugar cookie, too!
Yummy! I like Heather’s idea of putting the frosting on sugar cookies.
what a beautiful and cute idea.Like the color of your frosting a lot
Genius! If there was a noble peace prize for spreading the joys of pumpkin, you would have my vote. So brilliant!
I also made extra pumpkin pie filling (for our Canadian Thanksgiving) and I baked in in 4×8″ pyrex dishes. We then used the filling in crepes. It worked out really well.
This will be perfect for my Halloween party…thank you!
This is genius!! I cant wait to try this out on some chocolate pumpkin cupcakes!
Oh my goodness this is brilliant!!!
What a scream – I love it!!!
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What a brilliant idea !
saw this post and knew i had to make it. so i am, right now. thank you so much for the idea. i knew i wanted to make pumpkin pie cupcakes but was at a loss!
Thank you for this wonderful idea!! I made a pumpkin tart yesterday and had some extra pumpkin filling. So today I baked it up, chilled it, stirred it up, and then plopped it right into my piping bag. It piped wonderfully!! I’m thinking about using this frosting to top gingerbread cupcakes for Thanksgiving.
I am thinking about using this idea on cupcakes for a wedding this weekend, but I’m not sure how many pies that would be!! How many cupcakes were you able to frost with one pie?
- Krista
Meet The Swans – If I recall correctly, I think I used about 3/4 of a pie for 12 cupcakes.
Once frosted, would these cupcakes need to be refrigerated, or would they be okay at room temperature? I’m thinking of making these to send to work for my husband’s co-workers, so I just wanted to know how to store them first. Thanks!
Allison – Technically (food-safety wise), you should prob refrigerate them. But, I kept them at room temp for several days and they were just fine.
Your inspiration lives on! You’ll love what Molly did at Cakestacks. I’m loving/baking/eating my way through your blog now!
Found you on pinterest…what a brilliant idea. I’m living in New Zealand and there is no canned pumpkin to be found. Could I sub in plain pureed pumpkin, or would I need to add anything to it? Thanks!!
Lyndsey – Your plain pureed pumpkin will work perfectly.
I love this idea! My mom always refrigerates her pumpkin pie, but I know other people who do not. What’s your verdict…do pumpkin pie topped cupcakes need to be kept in the refrigerator to be food safe?
pacegirlno3 – I kept mine in the fridge.
I just made the cup cake part of this and it is great! It was my first time working with Lemon Extract…I’m a newby at all this baking stuff, but these turned out so wonderful! I love the apple cobbler part of this. Now I am waiting for my pumpkin pie to cool and tomorrow we will have yummy cupcakes after dinner. Thanks!!
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Ok, I NEVER NEVER NEVER would have thought to use pumpkin pie as a frosting, but WHY NOT!! It’s one of my favorite things to eat so what a brilliant idea! I will definitely be doing this. Is it ok to tell you how much I love you for showing this?
Thanks Toodie! I’d so glad that you love the idea!
LOVE this idea! I just started a blog and have been searching for pumpkin recipes. Going to have to test this one out it sounds amazing!!
Kovscakes.com
does it work better when baked first and then spooned into piping bags? or raw?
thanks
Baked first.
Looks and sounds yummy. I love everything with pumpkin in it. I just finished making pumpkin cookies. I recently found out how healthy pumpkin actually is. Great article.
This is such a GREAT idea! (: I like to mail cupcakes across the US. Would i be able to freeze them and then ship them? Or should i ship them without freezing?
Thank you! (:
This is an amazing idea. I wish I thought of it. I used it for Thanksgiving cupcakes. If you’d like to see how they came out, I posted a photo on my blog, frostingandasmile.com.