These vegan pumpkin muffins are rich, moist, and packed with spices. Top them off with rich cashew cream cheese frosting for an indulgent fall treat!
I know, I know. SO much pumpkin is happening on the blog this year. And I’m not done yet. To say I’m excited about fall would be a bit of an understatement.
I’ve seriously been accumulating a list of fall recipes since, like, about the time the first buds started sprouting on the trees in March.
This particular recipe is one that I first posted back in the early days of this blog and have been meaning to update for a while now. Pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting are a favorite, so this was one recipe I was quite happy to work on this year.
In addition to giving the photos a makeover, I tweaked the recipe a bit. The original muffins were a bit on the smallish side. I don’t get to eat pumpkin muffins that often, and I like ’em big when I do. If you made the original version and were happy with the size, just cut down on the recipe by a third, or make 18 muffins instead of 12, and cut the bake time down to 16 to 18 minutes.
The other issue was the frosting. Cashew cream cheese frosting was a new thing to me back then, and it turned out as more of a glaze. Since first making these muffins I’ve made a few batches of cashew cream cheese frosting for doughnuts and carrot cake, among other things. The new version is much thicker and creamier, but if you were in love with the old frosting just scroll down to the bottom of the recipe — I’ve included it in the notes.
To make these muffins, start by mixing all of your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Mix the wet ingredients in a separate bowl, then combine the two. Stir just until everything is mixed — don’t overdo it.
Drop the batter into paper-lined muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes.
Make the frosting while the muffins bake. Preferably soak your cashews in water for 4 to 8 hours, then blend them up in the food processor with some maple syrup, lemon juice, and vanilla. Give it a taste — it should be creamy, delicious and just sweet enough.
The muffins cool before loading them up with frosting.
Tips for Making Perfect Vegan Pumpkin Muffins
- Don’t overmix the batter. Doing so can overwork the gluten in the flour as well as causing your baking soda and powder to fizzle out prematurely. This is important any time you’re making muffins.
- These muffins will keep at room temperature in a sealed bag for about 3 days, and the frosting will keep in the fridge for about 3 days.
- You can also freeze the frosting and the muffins separately.
- Stir-ins like nuts and chocolate chips work great with these muffins.
- Did you forget to soak your cashews? Boiling them for 15 minutes works in a pinch, although soaking usually yields the best results for me.
- You can also freeze soaked cashews for later. Just leave them in their soaking water and seal them up in a freezer-friendly storage container. Then thaw by placing the container in a hot water bath or microwaving for a few minutes. I like to keep a stash in the freezer at all times for recipes like this.
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Vegan Pumpkin Muffins Cashew Cream Cheese Frosting
These vegan pumpkin muffins are rich, moist, and packed with spices. Top them off with rich cashew cream cheese frosting for an indulgent fall treat!
Ingredients
For the Muffins
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat pastry flour
- 3/4 cup organic granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups canned pumpkin puree
- 3/4 cup unflavored soy or almond milk
- 1/3 cup canola oil, or your favorite baking oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
For the Frosting
- 1 1/2 cups raw cashews, soaked in water 4-8 hours
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2-4 tablespoons unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
To Make the Muffins
Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Line 12 muffin cups with papers.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
- In a separate, smaller bowl, stir together pumpkin puree, milk, oil and vanilla.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir just until blended.
Divide the mixture among the muffin cups.
Bake for 23-25 minutes, or until the tops spring up when touched lightly.
Transfer the muffins to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
To Make the Frosting
While the muffins cool, place the cashews, maple syrup, 2 tablespoons of milk, lemon juice, vanilla and salt into the bowl of a food processor fitted with an s-blade.
Blend until smooth, adding additional milk to thin the mixture to the desired consistency.
Frost the Muffins
When the muffins are cool, remove them from the tins and spread with frosting. Optionally, garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
Serve.
Recipe Notes
This post was updated in 2018 to include a new (and improved) frosting recipe and to make larger muffins. If you prefer smaller muffins, cut down on the recipe by 1/3 (or make 18 muffins instead of 12) and only bake them for 16 to 18 minutes. The old frosting recipe called for 1 cup of soaked raw cashews, juice of 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 4 cups of powdered sugar and about 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk (as needed to get the right consistency).
Dude. DUUUUUDE. I need these in my life. Like, yesterday. I will be making these to celebrate the (eventual) arrival of fall! Yay! :)
Haha! Yeah, they were really good….I think everyone needs these in their lives. I hope you get to try them :)
Heck. Yes.
Yes, indeed :)
WHAAAT. These are so freaking cute, they need to get in my belly!!
Thx for sharing the recipe! xx Bianca
http://thefriendlyfig.com/
I hadn’t noticed, but yeah, they were pretty darn cute! Thanks Bianca!
Everything about this…get in ma bellay!! Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks so much Deryn!!!
These look amazing! Definitely going to try my hand at a gluten-free version. : )
Ohhh…please let me know how they turn out if you do! I always get questions on gluten free adaptations and don’t always have time to experiment :)
oh-my-goodness! those look so amazing!
They were pretty amazing. Thanks Kendy!!
LOVE THESE! I want them right now!
Awesome! Thanks Jill!!
Your banner is epic and so are these muffins!
Thanks Kelly! I designed both the banner and the muffins myself, so hearing that makes me happy. :)
I used King Arthur Flour’s GF all purpose baking mix for the gf version. They came out great! I also substituted 1tbsp of maple syrup for the nondairy milk in the frosting. Win Win!
Yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed them. Thanks for sharing and for letting me know the gluten free mix worked! I get questions all the time of gluten free subs and it’s good to have a blend to recommend that I know works with a particular recipe.
Hi! These muffins sound amazing. Is there a delicious vegan alternative for white powdered sugar that i can use for this recipe?
Thank you! Look for an organic powdered sugar – most (if not all) are vegan. Wholesome Sweeteners is one organic brand that’s available in lots of stores and on Amazon.
The recipe states “…stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. In a seperate bowl, stir together pumpkin puree, mlk, oil and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir untli blended.” My question is, does the sugar go in with the dry or with the wet ingredients? These look AMAZING and I can’t wait to make them!!
Oh! Thanks for asking – sugar goes with the dry. I updated the post to clarify. I hope you enjoy these! :)
Thanks!! I’m making them right now!!
Hi, it does actually say sugar right after flour, so in with the dry. :)
They look delicious!
Thanks Sarah!!!
When it comes to Pumpkin, I am all about fresh baked puree. Would you still recommend just the 1 cup? Canned puree is packed so tight, wasn’t sure if I needed to increase the amount.
Yup! Canned for fresh puree is generally a 1 to 1 swap, so you should be fine – just pack it tight into the measuring cup!
What the what? These look AMAZING! Bravo, friend!
Thanks so much Dana!!
Can’t’ wait to try looks so good!!!!
Thanks Michelle! Enjoy!
How does one make larger batches of these baked items? I do food events for 20-75 pple and screwed up vegan corn bread by multiplying recipe x 4. It came out dry.
On Oct 18th, I am making snacks for 25 pple at an HSUS legislative forum at the Conway Area Humane Society and need recipes for making veg baked goods for 25. Any suggestions. Want to WOW THEM!!
I could see how cornbread might be easy to mess up, especially if you made one larger loaf instead of multiplying the number of loaves, which could result in uneven baking.
Things like muffins are cookies should be easier to make in large batches, as the size of each cookie or muffin stays the same when you increase the batch size. It’s also possible you forgot to multiply one of the ingredients or over-multiplied something – I’ve done that myself a bunch of times, and the best way to avoid it is just being careful or writing down the amount as multiplied before getting started.
I hope that helps – best of luck!
Oh, boy, I cannot wait to make these – thanks for sharing!! :)
You’re welcome and enjoy!
I’m diabetic. .watching fat and carbs..can y tell me the fat and carbs per serving??
Hi Cass! I analyzed the recipe on this page, and the muffins alone have 7.2 grams of fat and 18.5 grams of carbs per serving. With the frosting it would totally depend on how much you use (the recipe makes more than needed for a dozen muffins), but with cashews and powdered sugar I wouldn’t expect it to be low in carbs or fat. I hope that helps!
Hola, que rico las voy ha hacer, Ya estoy haciendo tortillas sin huevos, Sabrosas
Grasias, Edna!
How are they without the icing?
I’m not a big fan of extra sweet stuff and most of the pumpkin desert out there are just loaded with sweeteners.
This one looks really good and i really like to low amount of sugar in them.
I’m sure they’d be good without the icing, and if you’re not into stuff that’s too sweet, I’d definitely say skip it. They were very moist and flavorful, so I’m sure they’d be good on their own. :)
Oh dear. Mine went soooo wrong. I used baked pumpkin and I think it was too wet. They imploded as soon as they came out of the oven. And I didn’t soak the cashews long enough so the icing was a miserable failure too… They were like sad little tubs of collapsed goo topped with a lumpy coulis of failure.
I will try again though! And this time I will find canned pumpkin from somewhere so as to avoid any mishaps, and I will soak my nuts adequately. I’m still going to rate the recipe 4 stars because I could still tell from the sad goo and sauce disaster that it has great potential.
Love your blog btw. Super excited to make the coconut bacon as soon as I can find liquid smoke!
On no! I’m sorry they didn’t work out and I hope you give them another try! One thing I can say is that if you forget to start soaking your cashews early enough in advance, you should be able to accelerate the process by using hot water. I haven’t tried this myself, but I know a bunch of people swear by it. :)
I made these with the “sub all purpose” option for the flour and they came out mushy. I even baked them longer to see if they’d firm up a little bit. When you say “sub all purpose”, do you mean regular all purpose flour? Could I have used plain whole wheat flour instead of the whole wheat pastry flour?
Aside from the consistency, they were tasty. I was pleasantly surprised to find a muffin recipe that wasn’t off the charts in the sweetness category.
I didn’t make the frosting, so I can’t comment on that.
Just an update. After letting the muffins cool for a bit they firmed up. I guess we were too anxious :)
Good stuff.
Thanks for the update! Glad to hear they worked out in the end. Also, good to know that they need to cool completely – I had to let mine cool so I could frost them, but I went ahead and updated the recipe to add a cooling step, just in case anyone else doesn’t make the frosting and is anxious as well. I appreciate the feedback! :)
Haha I also accumulate recipe,mostly seasonal, which I wasn’t able to do on time :) I’m also a Winter person,so I know what you mean! Even though Fall feels a bit like a beautiful Christmas Eve to me! I just can’t wait to start wearing my scarves, thick socks and just sit on the couch with hot tea!
And your muffins look simply amazing!
Oh my gosh, this year I accumulated so many fall and winter dishes! I’ve got a huge backlog of stews and curries that I made throughout the summer. Glad it’s not just me. :)
OOooo these look so goooood!! I’m going to have to try find pumpkin for them, but could really do with one right now with a cup of tea hahaha. Thanks for sharing
Kathryn | nimblenote.blogspot.com
Thanks Kathryn! :)
What role does oil play in the recipe. If I omitted the oil and used maple syrup in place of sugar would that work?
The oil adds moisture, so leaving it out and using maple syrup might work, but I can’t say for sure without trying it. I’d love to hear how it works if you do!
I’ve made my version of these countless times!!! I normally double the recipe and bake it in a 9×13 pan. I replace the oil with applesauce, add a flax egg, and about an additional 1/4th cup flour (white wheat flour is what I use). And I’ve never made the cream cheese icing. This recipe is delicious and thank you so much Alissa!!!
I love the idea of baking it in a big pan! Glad you’re enjoying it! Thanks CheyAnne!
the cashew cream cheese frosting is absolutely to die for! My girl ate it right out of the bowl!!!
Yay!! I’m so happy to hear that!!