Starbuck Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Published: Apr 10, 2025 by Nicole Kendrick · This post may contain affiliate links · 46 Comments

These Starbuck pumpkin cream cheese muffins are a bit of a copycat combined with our own sensibilities. Moist and tender, they're loaded with the classic pumpkin and cream cheese flavor that everyone loves about the original, but they're delivered in a prettier package.

Pumpkin muffin with cream cheese frosting on plate.

We love the pumpkin cream cheese muffins Starbucks rolls out every fall. All that sweet and tangy flavor is just so good! However, we're not fans of waiting for September to roll around so we can enjoy them. Since we can bake, we don't have to!

These Starbuck pumpkin cream cheese muffins are one part copycat and one part our own creation. They're just as delicious as the original, but they're frosted instead of stuffed with cream cheese filling, making them a bit sweeter and a lot prettier.

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Why You'll Love This Recipe
Ingredients
Flavor Variations
Instructions
Expert Tips
Pairing Suggestions
FAQ
More Delicious Muffin Recipes
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Why You'll Love This Recipe

Basic Ingredients: You can find everything you need for the muffins and frosting at your local grocery store.
Easy: Both the muffins and the frosting are easy to make, and the entire recipe only takes about 35 minutes from start to finish.
Classic Flavor: The muffins are full of classic pumpkin flavor, and the sweet cream cheese frosting is sweet, tangy, and infused with cinnamon.
Moist and Tender: These muffins are so moist and tender with a fantastic crumb.
Bite-Sized Deliciousness: These muffins are basically pumpkin bread in a bite-sized form with added frosting. Yay!

Ingredients

Pumpkin Muffins

All Purpose Flour: Simple, basic all-purpose flour is all you need for these muffins.
Spices: A blend of pumpkin pie spice and cinnamon gives the muffins a classic, warm flavor.
Baking Soda and Baking Powder: These make the muffins rise.
Eggs: A staple of all baked goods, eggs add moisture and bind the muffins together.
Coconut Oil and Butter: Coconut oil and melted butter work together to create super moist muffins.
Orange Olive Oil: Orange olive oil gives the muffins a subtle note of citrus that accentuates the other flavors in the muffins. Costabile is our brand of choice for its quality and purity.
Pumpkin Puree: Pumpkin puree adds tons of pumpkin flavor while leaving you in control of the sweetness of the recipe.
Light Brown Sugar: Light brown sugar adds a deeper sweetness and more moisture than granulated sugar.
Vanilla Extract: We recommend Singing Dog vanilla for its deep, rich vanilla flavor, quality, and purity.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Cream Cheese and Butter: Cream cheese with a little added butter creates a rich, creamy base for the frosting.
Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar gives the frosting its sweetness and adds body for the perfect texture.
Vanilla Extract: Vanilla adds depth to the frosting.
Cinnamon: Cinnamon gives the buttercream frosting a sweet, tangy, warm flavor that's perfect with the pumpkin spice flavor in the muffins.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for a full list of ingredients and their exact amounts.

Flavor Variations

Super Tender Muffins: For the most tender muffins you've ever made, try using cake flour. It has less protein and produces more tender baked products.
Pumpkin Seeds: Add chopped pumpkin seeds to the muffin batter or on top of it before baking for more texture and pumpkin flavor.
Chocolate Chips: Add some chocolate chips for delicious pumpkin chocolate chip muffins.
Frosting: For a sweeter treat, add cinnamon to buttercream frosting.
Plain: These muffins are so good you can enjoy them with no frosting at all.
Gluten-Free: For our gluten-free friends out there, replace the flour with a 1:1 gluten-free option. Bob's Red Mill 1:1 baking flour is a popular choice because it gives baked goods the best texture.
Diary-Free: If you have dairy issues, you can still enjoy these muffins. Simply use plant butter, cream cheese, and milk. High-quality substitutes taste almost exactly like traditional dairy.

Instructions

Muffins

Combine all the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
Beat the sugar and wet ingredients in a mixer. Then, slowly mix in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until combined.
Use a 2-inch cookie scoop to place a heaping scoop of batter into a muffin pan with liners.
Bake the muffins at 350 until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the muffins cool for a few minutes in the pan, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat the cream cheese and butter in a mixer until creamy. Then, add the remaining ingredients and mix until rich and creamy. If the frosting is too thick, add a splash of milk or cream to thin it out.
Frost the fully-cooled muffins with a piping bag with a large open tip. Enjoy!

Expert Tips

Be sure to buy pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. Puree is pure pumpkin, while pie filling has added sugar and spices. Be careful because they're often sold next to one another.
Bring your cold ingredients to room temperature. This makes it easier to mix them into the batter and avoids overmixing.
Speaking of overmixing, don't overdo it with the batter. STOP mixing as soon as the batter is combined. Overmixing creates excess gluten that will contract as the muffins bake and make them tough.
We recommend sifting your powdered sugar to ensure a super smooth and creamy frosting.
The muffins should be fully cooled before frosting them. Even slightly warm muffins will thin the frosting, and it will slide right off your muffins!
Always use full fat cream cheese for the frosting. Low fat cream cheese doesn't deliver the same texture.

Pairing Suggestions

These Starbuck pumpkin cream cheese muffins are the perfect sweet breakfast or snack when paired with a glass of milk or a cup of coffee or tea.

You can also make these muffins part of a larger breakfast or brunch alongside your other savory favorites like sausage, bacon, eggs, and the like.

Plate with cream cheese frosted pumpkin muffin.

FAQ

What is the secret to moist muffins?

A combination of moisture and fat is the secret to moist muffins. Fat from butter and/or oil helps make muffins moist and tender, while sufficient liquid hydrates the flour for a soft texture.

What is the most common mistake when making muffins?

Overmixing is the most common and most detrimental mistake when making muffins. Overmixing creates a ton of gluten, a protein found in wheat. This gluten contracts when the muffins bake, making them tough. Mix the muffin batter until combined and no further.

How do you know when muffin batter is properly mixed?

Muffin batter is properly mixed when there are no dry ingredients visible. The batter may be lumpy to some degree. It should NEVER be smooth. Smooth batter equals tough muffins.

More Delicious Muffin Recipes

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