Name: Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 19 min
Total time: 44 min
Ingredients: 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour; 2 teaspoons baking powder; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 tablespoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon ground ginger; ½ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon ground cloves; 1 cup granulated white sugar; 1 cup brown sugar; ½ cup butter, softened; ¼ cup light sour cream; 2 eggs; 15 ounce can pure pumpkin puree ( (not pie filling)); ½ cup walnuts (finely chopped (for garnish)); 2 to 3 tablespoons caramel ice cream topping (for garnish); 16 ounces ⅓ less fat Neufchatel or regular cream cheese ((2 8-ounce packages) room temperature); 2 tablespoons light sour cream; 1 ¼ cups confectioners sugar; ½ teaspoon vanilla extract; 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

A pumpkin cupcake with a cheesecake filling is drizzled with caramel. Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes are an irresistible fall treat!

Several Pumpkin Caramel Cheesecake Cupcakes.

I’m sure that most of you are familiar with OXO. If you’ve ever walked into a Bed, Bath, and Beyond and have seen all those cool kitchen gadgets lining their walls, that’s OXO. They are pretty hard to miss. I have been a loyal OXO customer for years and my kitchen gadget drawer is stuffed full of a bunch of their items.

This year I’m one of the many bloggers participating in OXO’s Bake A Difference campaign. Together with Cookies for Kids’ Cancer, they have been working hard for years to help raise funds to fight pediatric cancer. Where do food bloggers come in? For each blog post written this month in support of this program, OXO is donating $100 to this wonderful cause.

We were asked to share a cookie, brownie, or cupcake recipe and in exchange OXO sent us out a kit of awesome tools. I went with cupcakes and received all of the above goodies.

"Purchasing this product will benefit Cookies for kids' cancer" oxogoodcookies.com.

The best part is that OXO is making a .25 cent donation for each and every tool sold bearing the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer logo . This includes all of the items shown above and many more.

So, with no further ado, let’s get started on these decadent, fall inspired cupcakes.

The dry ingredients are mixed together in a bowl.

Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices in a medium mixing bowl.

Butter and sugar is mixed together with a hand mixer.

Grab a big mixing bowl and your handy, dandy, electric hand mixer and cream together the softened butter with white and brown sugars. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating until each is well incorporated.

The dry ingredients are added to the mixed with the hand mixer.

Add the dry ingredients, a little at a time, beating on low just until combined. Scrape those sides down again, if necessary.

In goes the sour cream, and…mix.

Finally, the star of the show, the pumpkin. We are talking canned pumpkin puree here. Do not grab the canned pumpkin filling by mistake. It’s an easy mistake to make.

Our luscious, creamy cupcake batter is ready to go.

Cupcake batter is added to a muffin tin.

Line your cupcake tins with liners and fill them about 3/4 full. You should have about 18 total.

The cupcakes after they have finished baking in the oven.

Bake them at 350 degrees for about 16 to 19 minutes. This batter bakes up beautifully. Remove the tins from the oven when a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cupcakes comes out clean.

Allow the cupcakes to cool in the tins for about 5 or 10 minutes, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

A cupcake corer is being used to remove the center of a cupcake.

When they have completely cooled, use the clever OXO Cupcake Corer to remove the center section of each cupcake. Twist it in…

The Cupcake corer has removed the center of the cupcake.

…and pull it out. The cupcake core will easily eject from the corer by pushing on the large button on top. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

The ingredients for the cheesecake filling are being mixed together in a bowl.

Time to whip up the cheesecake filling. Beat together the softened cream cheese, sour cream, confectioners’ sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla till nice and creamy.

the cupcakes are filled with the cheesecake filling.

Use a pastry bag with a decorative tip to fill each cupcake with some of the filling, ending with a decorative swirl on top. I am not, I repeat, I am not a cake decorator. I am certain that each and every one of you can do a much better job on your swirls.

The cupcakes are garnished with chopped walnuts.

Sprinkle each cupcake with some finely chopped walnuts. We could stop here, but why would we do that when there is caramel in this world?

A fork drizzles caramel on top of the cupcakes.

Use a fork to drizzle some caramel ice cream topping over the top of each cupcake.

One cupcake has extra caramel dripping down its side.

Woops, that one on the left there got a little too much caramel. I’ll eat that one.

A cupcake is cut in half to reveal its cream cheese filling.

Pumpkin, caramel, and cheesecake. A fantastically fall flavor combination.

Cake portion of recipe inspired by Shugary Sweets