The flavors of fall come alive in these utterly autumnal maple cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting.
maple cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting

You guys remember cupcakes, right?

That most perfect of all baked goods with an ideal frosting:cake ratio that we used to really love before we became obsessed with macarons and frying laminated dough.

Am I ringing any bells?

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I admit, even I haven’t given them their much deserved time in the spotlight lately, but that all stops here.

Because, MAPLE CUPCAKES.

With MAPLE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING.

It doesn’t. get. any. better.

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Maple is like the forgotten child of the fall flavor family.

Never again.

I’m probably going to lose good food blogger points for this, but I would choose these maple cupcakes over a pumpkin cupcake any day. The.boy and I both concurred these were pretty much one of the best things we have ever eaten.

ever ever.

Containing a whopping 2 CUPS of maple syrup with no other sweetener, these hit you over the head with maple flavor and don’t let you forget it. The cream cheese frosting adds a nice tartness that makes the entire cupcake eating experience feel like your favorite sweater on a brisk fall day. But tastier.

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I made these cupcakes on behalf of OXO and Cookies for Kids’ Cancer as part of the annual OXO Good Cookies Campaign! Basically, OXO sent me a cupcake making kit that I am OBSESSED WITH, including my new favorite non-stick pro 12 cup muffin pan, a totally clutch cupcake icing knife, and 4 piece baker’s silicone decorating bottle kit that makes fancy cupcake icing swirls SO MUCH EASIER. In exchange, I get to bake cupcakes and spread the word about this awesome cause. Win/win.

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is a recognized 501c(3) public charity duly incorporated under the laws of the state of New Jersey. Any donations to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law and 100% of proceeds raised by Cookies for Kids’ Cancer fund pediatric cancer research. As part of the OXO Good Cookies campaign, OXO will be donating $100 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each blog post dedicated to this campaign in October and in 2015, OXO has agreed to donate up to $100,000 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer through product proceeds, bake sale matches and other fundraising efforts.

A really easy way you can support this campaign is to keep your eye out for OXO products that are labeled with this sticker (below), as 25 cents of the proceeds from each specially marked product will go towards supporting pediatric cancer research. Good quality products for a good cause? I’m all over it.

Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
 
The flavors of fall come alive in these utterly autumnal maple cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting.
Yield: 24 cupcakes
Ingredients
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, slightly softened
  • 2 tbsp vegetable shortening, at room temperature
  • 2 cups pure maple syrup
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 1 large egg
  • 1¼ cups whole milk
For the frosting
  • ¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 12 oz cream cheese, softened
  • 4 cups confectioners sugar
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
  1. Heat oven to 325F. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening together until they form ribbons. Add in the maple syrup and mix until well combined, about 3 minutes on medium-high speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
  3. Add the egg yolks and the egg, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  4. Mix in half of the flour mixture until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the milk to the bowl and mix until combined. Mix in the remaining flour mixture and mix until just combined.
  5. Line 2 12-cup cupcake pans with cupcake liners. Fill the cupcake pans so that each cupcake liner is ¾ full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating halfway through the cooking time, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pans for 15 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.
  6. Once the cupcakes are completely cooled, make the frosting. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add in the confectioners sugar and maple syrup. Beat until smooth. Frost cupcakes with frosting as desired.
Notes
Recipe adapted slightly from Baked Explorations
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1 cupcake

Disclosure: Though I received free products as part of this campaign, I was not monetarily compensated in any way.

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57 Responses to Maple Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

  1. Marissa says:

    Hooray for maple! These look absolutely delicious, Joanne. And I love the cupcake to frosting ratio – about 50/50…perfect.

  2. Lynn says:

    I chuckled at the line about losing food blogger points. 🙂 I do love oxo products – I have many in my kitchen.

    These are iced so beautifully. And they look so good – I’ll wait until I have an event to take food to before I make these, lest I eat them all myself.

  3. TWO CUPS of maple syrup? Wow!
    Maple me.
    These look delicious.

  4. You’re so right about the whole frosting to cake ratio. The real question is whether you cut the bottom off and smuch the icing down to make a sandwich. Yours might be too beautiful to do that with.

  5. Maple syrup is seriously the bomb.com and you totally nailed that aspect in these gorgeous cupcakes! That frosting = SWOON!!

  6. Sues says:

    Two cups of maple syrup?? That’s like a dream come true! I bet the flavor in these is out of control! And for a wonderful cause, as well 🙂

  7. Lemme just say, cupcakes were never off my radar. While everyone was eating macarons, I was in the corner hording all the cupcakes 😀 Macs just aren’t my thing. These cupcakes though. I can forgive the blasphemy of not being super extra into pumpkin but only because maple cream cheese frosting.

  8. lol, I NEVER make cupcakes! And I love them…it’s weird, really. Maple cupcakes with that frosting though?!?! SWOON!

  9. ooooooh maple cream cheese frosting……yummmm

  10. Erica says:

    That frosting looks SO DREAMY. And I like the ratio you’ve got going for these cupcakes. And I’m totally with you on maple being underrated… it’s so delicious!!!

  11. That frosting looks so velvety smooth and creamy…these cupcakes are beautiful!

  12. You had me at cupcake.
    Delicious!

  13. Heather says:

    Holy wow! 2 cups of maple syrup?? I’d actually love to see more maple inspired recipes and fewer pumpkin ones… I’ll always love pumpkin, but dare I say that I’m kind of over it?

  14. Ooooooo, LOVE maple flavor! Such pretty frosting ?

  15. I love using maple, especially when roasting root vegetables. But in cupcakes? Brilliant!!
    As I was reading your post I was about ask how you made the icing so uniform and pretty, cool swirls that are PERFECT!! Then I saw that bit about Oxo and the decorating kit. I love it!! I will have to save my pennies and get one for myself. When I do, and when I make these cupcakes, I will link back to you for inspiring me!!

    Tina
    xxx

  16. Dang, girl! 2 cups of maple syrup?! I like where this is going!

  17. your frosting skills are just on point!!!!!

  18. Maple syrup is the best! I love your cupcake to frosting ratio and I can see why these are wayyy better than any pumpkin cupcake 🙂 Pinning!

  19. I have been all about maple this fall! Love these cupcakes!

  20. WHOA what a fab cupcake! so much maple goodness. i love it!

  21. Kate says:

    Seriously, fall has THE BEST flavors between cinnamon, pumpkin, caramel, and maple!

  22. That picture with the bite taken out- that did it! Now I want cupcakes and I’d forgotten about them too! Thanks Joanne!

  23. I adore maple! It is not forgotten in this house! This sounds like a fabulous cupcake and an even better cause!

  24. Hotly Spiced says:

    Lovely and beautifully iced too. That kit sounds like a great thing to have in your kitchen. And this is such a worthy cause – it’s so horrible to think about kids getting cancer xx

  25. Johanna GGG says:

    2 cups of maple syrup – I don’t know whether to be impressed or horrified – I just hope that maple syrup is not so expensive in New York as in Melbourne. They sound lovely and your frosting skills are so impressive

  26. Better than pumpkin? Am I hearing you right? Ok, totally sold!

  27. Kim says:

    Maple is my very favorite fall flavor and I must have these in my life! Perfect swirls of frosting:)

  28. You DO NOT lose blogging points for loving maple. I love it too. These are perfect friend.
    Have a great weekend!

  29. Krista says:

    Maple is my favoritest flavoring for baked goods, Joanne, and these look so tender and lovely. 🙂

  30. I really like the flavor of maple too. I like the sound of the flavor of combination of maple syrup and cream cheese.

  31. Beth says:

    These cupcakes sound amazing! Wow … wow … wow.

  32. These maple cupcakes are stunning! Love maple, so I’ve gotta give these a try soon!

  33. Maple is getting its much-deserved time in the autumn sun with these cupcakes. I could eat a dozen (for breakfast)!

  34. Yes! We adore maple syrup around these parts so much. These look so decadent and delicious!

  35. Susan says:

    Any ghoul would love a Halloween treat like this. What perfect autumn flavors!

  36. Pam says:

    Maple definitely got my attention! The cupcakes look delicious, Joanne! Perfect for all and thanks for the recipe!

  37. Jessie says:

    I know it’s so three years ago, but I still LOVE cupcakes, especially when they’re packed with frosting like yours. And maple flavor is one of my favorite — I like it better than pumpkin, too. I could go for about, oh, five of these 🙂

  38. I LOVE maple flavor, but for some reason I haven’t been baking with it recently. This looks delicious!

  39. These cupcakes look perfect! Love all the maple flavors, sounds like these would be lovely 🙂

  40. Zainab says:

    maple cream cheese frosting < I will eat by the spoonful 🙂

  41. easypeasy says:

    These sound like the stuff that dreams are made of!!! Yum 🙂

  42. You are SO speaking my language with the maple syrup – love!

  43. Wow, that is a decent (wonderful, delicious) hit of maple syrup! I agree – I would take these over (or at least as well as…) pumpkin 😀

  44. Nicola says:

    These look so good. And totally agree with you that maple is under appreciated. I’m so over pumpkin spice everything!

  45. grace says:

    this is not what i would expect to see from a batter made with 2 cups of maple syrup! how surprising and amazing–they’re probably the softest cupcakes i’ve ever seen! delicious.

  46. These cupcakes are perfectly classic. LOVE those liners!

  47. YOur cupcakes are the best Joanne! And we’ll be looking for those products to buy! thanks

  48. elly says:

    My favorite pumpkin cake recipe uses maple cream cheese frosting, which is probably why it’s my favorite pumpkin cake recipe. But maple CUPCAKES themselves? With 2 cups of maple syrup? Yeah, these might be my new favorite cupcake.

  49. Jeannette says:

    Maple syrup has always been a spring flavor to me… probably because the actual distilling of it from maple sap to syrup takes place in late feb/march here in Wisconsin. Anyways, I just made them, did the entire stick a tooth pic in to make sure they were done… but when I let them cool, they shrink in the liner. Still taste fine, but what did I do wrong?

    • joanne says:

      I’m so sorry your cupcakes shrank! There are a few reasons why this can happen (and it happens to me ALL THE TIME, so I feel your pain). I know when I overfill the liners with batter, the shrinking has a tendency to happen more. I really try to keep them at 3/4 full when I fill them to avoid this.

      Sometimes I find that if my baking powder has been sitting in the cabinet for a while, my cupcakes and muffins tend to sink in the middle. I try to replace it every 6 months or so just to make sure this doesn’t happen.

      Hopefully they still taste good enough that you can forgive the shrinkage! And it can always be covered up with more frosting. 🙂

  50. Elizabeth says:

    I love maple and cream cheese together! Perfect combo(:

  51. George Peters says:

    Only one person in all the comments actually made these??? And that person said they fell flat. Baking powder does not stop working when it ages. Not helpful. And two cups of maple syrup? That’s about $15. Expensive cupcakes!

  52. Ashley says:

    I just made this recipe and mine do not look like yours. The bottoms of the cup cakes themselves did not form the way every other cupcake I’ve ever made has and the frosting was super loose. I’m not sure what the problem was for either part.
    They taste good though. ?????

    • joanne says:

      Hi Ashley,
      Did you make any changes to the recipe? And did you weigh or measure your flour? What was off about the cake part? I actually made these again fairly recently and they came out the same way as they always have. As for the frosting, sometimes cream cheese frosting can get too liquidy if you beat it too long. If that happens, I always put it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes and then rewhip it. Works every time!

  53. Anne says:

    After failing miserably with another recipe I decided I would try one more recipe and let me just say these are absolutely delicious nice maple flavor I will be making them again quite often I love them

  54. Grace says:

    Great recipe, they came out perfect! I personally don’t like that much cream cheese taste in my icing so I think I’m gonna try a little less cream cheese and a little more butter next time instead, but definitely keeping this recipe! I also added a little more maple syrup and powdered sugar to the icing and I thought it was perfect, but that’s just my preference!

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