Pumpkin Spice M&M Cupcakes

With fall in the area, I have been craving all things pumpkin and pumpkin  A popular recipe making the rounds on the internet is two-ingredient pumpkin muffins/cupcakes. Basically, pick a box cake mix, add pumpkin and you have a delicious and (sort of) healthy dessert.

Well, when I saw that Target was exclusively offering Pumpkin Spice M&Ms, I had an idea. Why not combine the M&Ms with the 2-ingredient cupcakes? Adding some homemade cream cheese frosting for good measure make these Pumpkin Spice M&M Chocolate Cupcakes not to be missed.

This recipe is super simple and the result is divine – especially with the added frosting. The Pumpkin Spice M&Ms are a little bigger than regular M&Ms (think peanut sized M&Ms) and really are just chocolate with a hint of cinnamon spice. Not overwhelming at all. When cooked in the muffins, they add unexpected delicious pockets of fall chocolatey goodness.

Ingredients

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 bag of Pumpkin Spice M&Ms

1 can of pumpkin

Directions

Mix can of pumpkin with cake mix using a large spatula. The batter will be very thick. Stir until the cake mix is completely mixed into the pumpkin.

Add 3/4 cup of M&Ms to the batter and mix in.

Use a cookie scoop to scoop balls of batter into cupcake pan. Be sure to press the batter into the cupcake pans because it doesn’t “even out” when cooking.

Cook 18-21 minutes at 350 degrees

Yield: 24 cupcakes

If you want to add frosting (highly recommended) here’s the recipe that we used:

2 sticks of butter (room temperature)

4 cups powdered sugar

1 pack of cream cheese (room temperature)

1/4 tsp vanilla

Mix together the ingredients and frost cooled cupcakes. I also crushed the leftover M&Ms and sprinkled them on top of the frosting to make the perfect fall cupcake!

I hope this inspires you to pick up some pumpkin and Pumpkin Spice M&Ms next time you are out! Happy fall!