Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

These Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting are sure to please any pumpkin fan, and they’re the perfect sweet treat for any fall occasion.

Chocolate and pumpkin? It may not be a typical combination, but I’m positive I’ve had it somewhere along the way. Once you’ve tried it, it seems so obvious. There’s just something about the cinnamon and other spices combined with the chocolate. But then again, I’d be happy with a chocolate covered stick.

One afternoon, a couple of weeks back, I had a chocolate craving. Earlier that day a tempting pound cake recipe found its way to my computer screen. Sometimes that happens. Random pastries and sweets just pop up, out of nowhere.

So when the chocolate craving hit, with pound cake already on the brain, I decided to try to make my first chocolate pound cake (which can made into muffins too). I’ve had a few chocolate pound cakes over the years. Some of which were quite dry and not very chocolatey. So if I was going to go to the trouble of making something from scratch, and something chocolate, it better be worth the effort and calories.

After searching for a few recipes that looked easy enough and involved ingredients that I had on hand, The Bag Lady’s Favorite Chocolate Pound Cake caught my eye, as well as Hortensia’a Best-Ever Chocolate Pound Cake recipe both from foodnetwork.com. I didn’t have enough flour for one of them and not enough butter for the other, so I settled on merging the two together. For this recipe I decided on muffins but it can easily be split between two loaf pans or one tube pan.

Both called for adding instant coffee but my husband didn’t care for that the last time I used it when baking so I skipped it. I did use Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder which I think makes this pound cake/muffin recipe extra chocolatey.

The pumpkin? It’s fall y’all and while chocolate cake is mighty fine on it’s own, I wanted to spice it up for fall, so it was topped with a quick cream cheese pumpkin frosting. This frosting could be thickened up if you’d like with more cream cheese, powdered sugar or both. The consistency is more like a spread because of the pumpkin puree but I kinda liked it. It definitely would be excellent on toast, bagels … a leaf (I’m into nature y’all).

 I hope you enjoy them!

Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe

Continue to Content

Chocolate Muffins with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

Yield: Makes about 34-36 muffins.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Merged, melded, and mixed together from Paula Dean’s Chocolate Pound Cake recipe & Hortensia’s Best-Ever Chocolate Pound Cake found on FoodNetwork.com.

Print

Ingredients

For Muffins:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup cocoa (I recommend a dark cocoa, I used Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 5 eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk

For Pumpkin Frosting:

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree

Instructions

For Cake:

1. Preheat oven to 325-degrees F.
2. Grease muffin pans or line with paper liners.
3. Sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
4. In a separate bowl cream the butter then add the sugar a beat until fluffy.
5. On medium speed add one egg at a time to the butter sugar mixer. Don’t over beat, just mix enough to blend well.
6. Add vanilla and mix.
7. Alternate adding flour/cocoa mixture and buttermilk until combined. Mix well on medium speed for about 30 seconds until smooth.
8. Fill muffin tins halfway.
9. Bake at 325-degrees F for 15-18 minutes* or until toothpick comes out clean. Be careful not over bake.
10. Let cool in muffin pan for about 2 minutes and carefully remove to cool on rack. (It's okay if you go ahead and try one while they’re still warm. You need to test it anyway.)

For Pumpkin Frosting:

1. In a bowl beat butter and cream cheese together until smooth.
2. Add all other frosting ingredients and mix together on medium speed. Add more powdered sugar or cream cheese for a thicker consistency if desired.
3. (I refrigerated the frosting for about 10-15 minutes before icing the muffins which I think helped the frosting to thicken up a tad.)

Notes

*If you’re making 2 loaf pans cook for approximately 65 minutes at 325-degrees F or until toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Not sure about the time for a tube pan but imagine it would be a bit longer than the two loafs. If you make one in a tube pan, please let me know.

These warmed slightly in the microwave are yum yum!

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Facebook

Related Posts:

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread Recipe