Beat cream cheese and sugar together in a bowl by hand or with your stand mixer until fully combined. (About a minute in a mixer.) Set aside.
Make the pumpkin batter.
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a mixing bowl.
Beat pumpkin, eggs, sugar, butter, and vanilla by hand or in the bowl of your mixer until fully combined.
Alternately add buttermilk and dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture just until all ingredients are combined. (Some small lumps are okay.)
Divide batter into muffin cups, filling each cup just over ½ way. Use a spoon to top each muffin with about one tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture. Push cream cheese into the batter slightly. Sprinkle muffins with pumpkin seeds and place in oven.
Bake for 18-20 minutes. A toothpick inserted in muffin (not cream cheese center) should come out clean.
Remove pumpkin muffins from tins and cool on a rack for 10 – 15 minutes.
Video
Notes
If you're using a stand mixer, there's no need to wash the bowl in between the two stages. Simply use a spatula to transfer the filling to another bowl, then proceed to mix the remaining ingredients. Nobody will know, and you'll have fewer dishes to wash.*Note: Conventional sugar is often made with genetically modified sugar beets. Opt for organic or pure cane sugar to avoid this.