Home > Desserts > Pumpkin Cake (BEST EVER!) Pumpkin Cake (BEST EVER!) September 3, 2019 | 67 Comments SAVE TO RECIPE BOX Jump to Recipe This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy. The best-ever moist and perfectly spiced Pumpkin Cake has a luscious cream cheese frosting and optionally garnished with candied pecans. The Best Pumpkin Cake I’ve been perfecting Pumpkin Cake every fall, and after creating this pumpkin carrot cake, I thought my work was complete. (Seriously, that cake is unbelievable!) But as August began this year, I was eager to use pumpkin and experiment again; so, I aimed to make the best Pumpkin (without carrot!) Cake along with testing and perfecting these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies. The ideal Pumpkin Cake is moist, sweet, perfectly spiced, and topped with the perfect cream cheese frosting. I’m excited to share that this cake checks all those boxes (and more), and it has been a hit with everyone who has tried it — especially my pumpkin-obsessed boys! Ingredients Cake: Canned Pumpkin: Provides moisture and pumpkin flavor. White and Brown Sugars: Sweeten the cake and add moisture (brown sugar). Eggs: Bind the ingredients and add structure. Vegetable Oil: Adds moisture and helps keep the cake tender. Vanilla Extract: Enhances flavor. All-Purpose Flour: Forms the cake’s structure. Baking Soda: Leavens the cake for rise. Cinnamon, Cloves, Ginger, Nutmeg, Pumpkin Pie Spice: Add warm, spiced flavors. Salt: Balances sweetness and enhances overall flavor. Cream Cheese Frosting: Cream Cheese, Butter: Provide a creamy base for the frosting. Powdered Sugar: Sweetens and thickens the frosting. Pumpkin Pie Spice, Vanilla Extract: Flavor the frosting. Salt: Balances the frosting’s sweetness. How To Make Pumpkin Cake? Prepare Pan and Oven: Preheat to 350°F and grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan. Mix Cake Ingredients: Combine canned pumpkin, sugars, eggs, oil, and vanilla, then mix in flour, baking soda, spices, and salt until just combined. Bake the Cake: Pour batter into the pan, bake for 50-65 minutes, cool in pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely. Make Frosting: Beat room-temperature cream cheese and butter, add powdered sugar, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla, and salt, and beat until smooth. Assemble and Garnish: Spread frosting on cooled cake and optionally garnish with chopped pecans. QUICK TIP Use a high-quality solid-pack canned pumpkin for this recipe, like Libby’s®, for optimal moisture, color, and flavor. Alternatively, substitute with the same amount (1-3/4 cup) of cooked, fresh pumpkin puree, ensuring it has a similar consistency. STORAGE Storing Pumpkin Bundt Cake Freezing: Freeze the cake base (without frosting) for up to 2 months. Wrap well in plastic wrap before freezing. Thaw at room temperature for 1-2 hours before frosting. Freshness: Unfrosted cake lasts 3-4 days at peak quality. Refrigerated, it can last about a week. Refrigeration: If frosted with cream cheese frosting, refrigerate the same day it’s made. More Amazing Pumpkin treats Pumpkin Cookies Pumpkin Cupcakes 7 Layer Pumpkin Bars Pumpkin Carrot Cake Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies FOLLOW ALONG! Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for the latest updates, recipes and content. Pumpkin Cake 4.94 from 29 votes - Review this recipe The best-ever moist and perfectly spiced Pumpkin Cake has a luscious cream cheese frosting and optionally garnished with candied pecans. Feel free to make this cake the night before; we like it best on the second day! SAVE TO RECIPE BOX Print Recipe Pumpkin Cake 4.94 from 29 votes - Review this recipe SAVE TO RECIPE BOX Print Recipe The best-ever moist and perfectly spiced Pumpkin Cake has a luscious cream cheese frosting and optionally garnished with candied pecans. Feel free to make this cake the night before; we like it best on the second day! Course Dessert Cuisine American Keyword pumpkin cake Prep Time 20 minutes minutes Cook Time 50 minutes minutes Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes Servings 10 -12 slices Chelsea Lords Calories 692kcal Author Chelsea Lords Cost $4.49 Ingredients▢ 1 can (15 ounces) or 1-3/4 cups solid-packed pumpkin I highly recommend Libby's▢ 1 and 1/2 cups white granulated sugar▢ 1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed▢ 4 large eggs▢ 1 cup vegetable oil▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract▢ 2 cups all-purpose white flour▢ 2 teaspoons baking soda▢ 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon▢ 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves▢ 1/2 teaspoon salt▢ 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger▢ 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg▢ 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spiceCream Cheese Frosting▢ 1 package (8 ounces) full-fat cream cheese, at room temperature▢ 1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature▢ 3 cups powdered sugar▢ 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract▢ 1/8 teaspoon salt▢ Chopped (plain or candied) pecans, optionalUS - Metric USMetric InstructionsPreheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously grease and lightly flour a 10-inch bundt pan. Set aside.Place the canned pumpkin in a large bowl (if you have wet or fresh pumpkin, make sure to drain off excess liquid) along with the white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, oil, and vanilla extract. Beat with a hand mixer until combined and well blended. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Whisk until combined. Add the dry ingredients into the wet and beat until just combined. Use a spatula to make sure all the ingredients are fully incorporated.Pour mixture into a prepared Bundt pan and bake for 50-65 minutes or until a toothpick when inserted into the center comes out clean or with moist cake crumbs. The cake should spring back when lightly touched. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting the cake onto the cooling rack to cool completely. For the frosting: In a large bowl, beat ROOM-TEMPERATURE cream cheese and butter until completely smooth. It's important the cream cheese and butter are at the same temperature so you don't get lumpy cream cheese! Add powdered sugar, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and salt; beat until completely smooth. Spread or pipe over the completely cooled cake. If desired, garnish with chopped candied or plain pecans. (See recipe notes for my candied pecan recipe). Video Recipe NotesTo make candied pecans, click here. Nutrition FactsCalories: 692kcal | Carbohydrates: 97g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 33g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Cholesterol: 99mg | Sodium: 400mg | Potassium: 69mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 76g | Vitamin A: 407IU | Calcium: 32mg | Iron: 2mg We do our best to provide accurate nutritional analysis for our recipes. Our nutritional data is calculated using a third-party algorithm and may vary, based on individual cooking styles, measurements, and ingredient sizes. Please use this information for comparison purposes and consult a health professional for nutrition guidance as needed. DID YOU MAKE THIS RECIPE? I love hearing from you when you've made one of my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @ChelseasMessyApron or leave me a comment below.
This cake sounds delicious! I was wondering why there’s pumpkin pie spice listed as an ingredient as well as what goes into pumpkin pie spice? Will this be over-spiced by doubling-up on the spices? I guess I’ll find out after I bake, but was just wondering. Thanks! Reply
It depends on the brand you use of pumpkin pie spice, but most are mainly cinnamon so I wanted to make sure all the other spices are well represented while also ensuring there is a boost of that overall spice 🙂 I wouldn’t say it’s over-spiced, this is exactly how we like it, but you can definitely reduce spices if you’re worried! Hope you love the cake! Reply
I made the cake exactly as directed at it was fabulous! Definitely not over-spiced. Perfect! Adding it to my recipe collection! Reply
I haven’t made this yet, but what about adding nuts? Seems to me that walnuts or pecans would be a good addition. Reply
Sure! 🙂 I’d add a cup of coarsely chopped nuts — toss with the flour so they don’t sink to the bottom! Reply
This is the best pumpkin cake ever. This was delicious. I made a change to the recipe, í substitute the flour with pancake flour and it was so fluffy and moist. Also last longer fresh . Reply
Ahh I’m so happy to hear this! That sub sounds really good! That’s my favorite part about this cake, it is just as good 5 days after making it! Haha! Thanks Thayza! 🙂 Reply
I’m sorry Maria, I really have no idea! I’m not very experienced with gluten free flour. Wish I could be of more help Reply
I’ve only made this cake with Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 gluten free flour and it’s delicious. Very similar to a recipe my mother used to made many years ago. Hers had 2 cups of white sugar and no brown sugar and she served it whipped cream instead of frosting. Reply
Maria, I have made a similar pumpkin cake recipe for several years, sometimes using gluten-free flour. It works quite well, although the texture is just slightly different. Reply
I’ve actually never had a pumpkin buttercream! Sounds delicious though 🙂 Sorry to not be of more help, but I really don’t know how it would taste without personally trying it. I think if you love pumpkin, it’s worth a try! Reply
Well thank you for your honesty answer, muchly appreciated. I just made the cake and the batter, OMG, so good. I think maybe the cream cheese might be better but can I add color to it and will it spread on like buttercream? I’m gonna attempt to make a pumpkin but if the cream cheese isn’t suitable I’ll have to try plain orange buttercream. Sorry for all the questions and thank you for your answers Reply
Yay!! So happy you love it 🙂 Cream cheese frosting doesn’t spread as nicely as buttercream, so I’d think a vanilla buttercream died orange would be your best bet for making it look like a pumpkin. Good luck! 🙂 Reply
This is a great recipe! The spices are perfect – not too much! I made this with less sugar – 1.5 c brown sugar and I didn’t use any white sugar. The frosting is quite sweet so it’s nice that the cake can be a bit less sweet and still be delicious. The second time I made it with applesauce for oil – no difference – and used one tsp orange extract, one tsp orange zest in the batter and one tsp orange extract in the frosting (in addition to the other spices and extracts). I called overnight and took out a few hours before serving – really good! Made it ahead for thanksgiving tomorrow with a butter sub for oil. Looks beautiful! Reply
I made this as a 3 layer cake for Thanksgiving and it was astonishingly good and super moist. I put prunes (chopped up and stewed and slightly sweetened) in one layer and cranberry sauce (made from the berries) in the other layer. Crazy good. Thanks for the recipe! I know the prunes might sound weird but it was my sister’s idea, and turned out to be a good one. Reply
Hello, I wanted to make this in a regular cake pan so I can do a crumb top. Should I adjust the baking time and/or temperature? I’ve made it at a bundt cake and it was fabulous. Thanks! Reply
I should have clarified. I was hoping to make it into a 2 layer cake with crumb baked into each layer and then the cream cheese frosting in the middle and top. I plan to use 2 9″ pans. Any suggestions are appreciated! Reply
I’m not completely sure how it will turn out, but I imagine the batter should do well in 2 9-inch pans baked for maybe 20-25 minutes. Wish I could be of more help, but without trying myself I don’t want to give certain recommendations. Would love to hear how it works out! Reply
Ok, so I ended up doing it and it turned out great! I used the exact same recipe but in 2-9″ round pans. I used parchment paper on the bottoms. Their bake time was 37 mins at 350, but my oven is admittedly very old. I often have slightly longer times. I did a pecan crumb topping on both layers. And I did the cream cheese frosting in between and on top with bare sides. Everyone loved it! One of my new favorite recipes! The only thing I’d do differently is I would wait longer to frost. It seemed cooled, but I should have waited another half hour or so. Great Recipe! Reply
Thanks for sharing your results!! 🙂 So happy these turned out well and the crumb topping sounds delicious.
Wonderful recipe! I made them using gluten free all purpose flour. The batter made 12 regular cupcakes and 36 mini/bite size cupcakes! So moist and flavorful, the amount of spice is perfect! This will be our go to recipe!😊🎃 Reply
Perfect blend of spices. Truly is the best pumpkin cake ever! This is my new fall staple! Thank you!! Reply
Perfect blend of spices. Truly the best pumpkin cake ever! This is my new fall staple. Thank you!! Reply
I loved this cake!!! It was the best pumpkin cake ever! I have a 12 mini Bundt pan and wanted to make this exact recipe, I know you have a different one for cupcakes, but this one is a favorite! So is there anyway that could be done? Reply
So happy to hear you enjoyed this cake, thank you! 🙂 I haven’t personally tested this cake in a cupcake pan or mini bundt pan, so I’m really not sure, I wish I could be of more help!! Reply
I have made this recipe twice now and both times it’s been a huge success!! The only changes I made was cut down sugar by half cup (white sugar) and the cream cheese frosting I used maple syrup as opposed to the powdered sugar,. Thanks so much for your recipe! Reply
I would like to make this in a 9×13 cake pan. Can you please help with possible cooking time for this type of pan? Thank you! Reply
Awesome recipe! This cake is really delicious. Everyone loved it! It’s highly requested by my family. Making it again today. Thanks! Reply
I love this recipe and have made it several times. I want to make cupcakes of this recipe. Will I need to change the temperature and how long will I need to bake the cupcakes? Reply
I am so thrilled to hear this! Thanks so much Karen! I’d recommend making these pumpkin cupcakes: https://www.chelseasmessyapron.com/pumpkin-cupcakes-cinnamon-cream-cheese-frosting/ 🙂 Reply
