Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans. Add parchment circles, then grease again and flour.
Roast the pumpkin: Cut a small sugar pumpkin in half horizontally. Scoop out and discard seeds and strings. Place pumpkin halves on parchment-lined baking tray. Transfer to oven, roasting for one 1 hour. Cool on baking tray then scoop out flesh. Transfer to food processor and pulse to purée. Measure quantity using a dry measure.
Prepare the cakes: Whisk flours together with baking powder, baking soda, spices and kosher salt. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a hand mixer, blend on medium until completely combined. Divide batter evenly between the two pans—note, the batter will be thick. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare topping: Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat. Add pumpkin seeds and pecans, toasting for about 1 minute. Sprinkle pan with sugar, spices and salt. Toss nuts about in the pan until very fragrant and glazed. Remove from heat and spill topping mixture onto a parchment-lined plate to cool.
Prepare icing: Using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar, brown sugar and lemon juice. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, to combine then switch to high speed beating for 2 minutes more.
Ice the top of one layer of cake, then lightly sprinkle the top with the nut topping. Add the second layer and ice top and sides. Add candied topping halfway up the sides of cake, pressing into the icing, and sprinkle remaining in the centre of the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set before serving.
Spiced Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
1½ cups of roasted pumpkin purée
¾ cup butter, melted and cooled
1½ cups oat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
3 eggs room temperature
⅓ cup buttermilk
For the topping:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the icing:
½ cup butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of kosher salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans. Add parchment circles, then grease again and flour.
Roast the pumpkin: Cut a small sugar pumpkin in half horizontally. Scoop out and discard seeds and strings. Place pumpkin halves on parchment-lined baking tray. Transfer to oven, roasting for one 1 hour. Cool on baking tray then scoop out flesh. Transfer to food processor and pulse to purée. Measure quantity using a dry measure.
Prepare the cakes: Whisk flours together with baking powder, baking soda, spices and kosher salt. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a hand mixer, blend on medium until completely combined. Divide batter evenly between the two pans—note, the batter will be thick. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare topping: Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat. Add pumpkin seeds and pecans, toasting for about 1 minute. Sprinkle pan with sugar, spices and salt. Toss nuts about in the pan until very fragrant and glazed. Remove from heat and spill topping mixture onto a parchment-lined plate to cool.
Prepare icing: Using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar, brown sugar and lemon juice. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, to combine then switch to high speed beating for 2 minutes more.
Ice the top of one layer of cake, then lightly sprinkle the top with the nut topping. Add the second layer and ice top and sides. Add candied topping halfway up the sides of cake, pressing into the icing, and sprinkle remaining in the centre of the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set before serving.
Spiced Pumpkin Cake
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Roasted pumpkin and fragrant spices baked into a moist cake, layered with lemony cream cheese icing and a candied nut topping…
This SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE is the next classic fall dessert recipe!
Historians agree that Marie Antoinette did not actually say, “Let them eat cake!”, but I am more than happy to be quoted saying, “Eat this cake!” No, seriously, if you love classic pumpkin spice flavour, this SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE is sure to please. And to make this homemade cake recipe even more compelling, it’s an easy fall dessert to boot. Nothing complicated about baking this cake, whipping up an easy cream cheese icing, then taking it from simple to amazing with a candied nut and pumpkin seed topping. I’m here to tell you, you’ve got this!
If making really delicious cakes is your thing, we’ve got plenty. Click HERE to see a list of every cake recipe we’ve ever shared. Hugely popular favourites selected by readers like you include this BANANA LAYER CAKE, our birthday and celebration-friendly CHOCOLATE SLAB, this BLUEBERRY BUNDT CAKE and a retro HARVEY WALLBANGER. Then, to round out this list, our famous CARROT CAKE and an incredible MILE-HIGH COCONUT CAKE. Enjoy!
Time to share some tips and tricks for making this SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE.
INGREDIENTS
I love the above photo of the ingredients needed to make this scrumptious dessert recipe. Though the granulated sugar, butter, eggs, and all-purpose flour are standard cake fare, we also tweaked quantities and added additional ingredients to get the cake just right. Adding oat flour increased the nuttiness, while mixing a homemade blend of spices upped the “pumpkin spice” quotient. Brown sugar gives the cake caramel notes while the buttermilk adds a rich moistness to the crumb. Oh, and how about that sugar pumpkin? That’s up next.
ROASTED PUMPKIN
In the VIDEO crafted for this recipe, we explain that you can use store-bought canned pumpkin for this recipe. If you do go that route, make sure it’s a can of pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling, which is already flavoured with pumpkin pie spice. You don’t want that.
But instead of canned, do as we did and roast a sugar pumpkin instead. During testing, we found that pure pumpkin purée from a freshly roasted pumpkin has more flavour and is also brighter in colour.
HOW TO ROAST A PUMPKIN
Roasting a small sugar pumpkin for this SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE recipe is a simple task. First, give the pumpkin a quick rinse under cool water, then cut it in half horizontally. Scoop away the seeds and strings, leaving the flesh intact. We did not rub the pumpkin flesh with olive or vegetable oil; it doesn’t need it. We just placed the halves cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking tray.
Transfer the tray to a 350°F oven and roast for one hour. The pumpkin will get slightly browned and wrinkly when done. Remove from the oven and cool on the tray. To prepare the pumpkin for the cake, scoop all of the flesh away from the skin. Pulse the flesh in a food processor to a fine consistency.
Please note: use a dry measure to portion out the 1-½ cups needed for this recipe. This was a bit of a head-scratcher since the pumpkin has a pretty wet consistency, but in the end, we decided on a dry measure since it’s so thick and viscous. Pile the pumpkin into the cup and then level it off flat with a straight edge.
TOOLS
We liked the idea of making this dessert for holidays and larger gatherings, so we opted for 9-inch round cake pans greased with butter, lined with parchment and floured. The other tool you’ll need, not pictured, is a hand mixer, which makes blending the cake batter and the icing way easier.
MAKING A PUMPKIN CAKE
As mentioned off the top, preparing this cake involved three components: the cake, the icing, and the candied topping. Making the cake is straightforward. Here’s our simplified process:
DRY INGREDIENTS
First step is to combine the dry ingredients: oat flour, unbleached all-purpose flour, kosher salt, baking powder, baking soda, and an array of warming spices. Our pumpkin spice flavour combination includes: ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ground ginger.
Once the dry ingredients are placed into a medium bowl, stir or whisk them together, then pass them through a fine mesh sieve. Don’t skip this all-important step, as it ensures the flours are mixed, the leavening agents are evenly distributed, and the spices are blended throughout.
WET INGREDIENTS
For the wet ingredients, a similarly easy process. Whisk the melted butter, granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, pumpkin, eggs and buttermilk together by hand. This creates a creamy base that we add to the dry mixture.
PUMPKIN CAKE BATTER
The final step to making the pumpkin cake is to blend the wet and dry ingredients together using a hand mixer in a large bowl. The goal here is to blend until everything is thoroughly incorporated. Don’t be surprised by the texture of the cake batter; it will be thick.
Pour batter into the two pans and bake until the tops of the cakes are a light golden brown. As with all cake recipes, the telltale sign of doneness is when a toothpick or cake tester inserted into the centre of the cakes comes away clean.
When the cakes are done, remove them from the oven, leaving them to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then, invert onto the wire racks.
Gently remove the pans, peel and discard the parchment rounds, then let the cake cool completely.
CANDIED SEEDS AND NUT TOPPING
When the cakes are either baking or cooling, prepare the topping and the cream cheese icing. For the topping, you’ll need a favourite chopped nut, whether walnuts, pecans, or pistachios. We also added pumpkin seeds, sometimes sold as pepitas, as well as dark brown sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, and kosher salt.
Set a small skillet on stovetop over moderate heat. Melt the butter, toast the nuts and seeds, then add the remaining ingredients and stir until the nuts start popping and the mixture is glistening with glaze.
Once done, transfer to a parchment-lined plate to cool. Pro tip: try the topping once it cools. Pretty tasty, right? Don’t snack on it too much; save some for the cake!
CREAM CHEESE ICING
The ingredients for the tangy cream cheese icing will probably look familiar. Unsalted butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, kosher salt, and two surprises: dark brown sugar and lemon juice. Adding the dark brown sugar gives the icing some unexpected caramel taste and a bit more sweetness, while the lemon juice delivers tanginess. We thought it was the perfect addition to this SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE.
Making the icing is easy as long as you follow our instructions to have the cream cheese and butter at room temperature before you begin (hint!). After that, put your hand mixer to work and blend up a light and tangy icing that everyone always loves.
ASSEMBLING
To assemble this pumpkin spice cake, begin by placing the first layer down onto an attractive cake plate. Then add a generous dollop of the icing, spreading it out across the surface to the edge of the cake. Add a sprinkle of the topping, then add the second layer.
After icing the top layer, add icing to the sides of the cake, smoothing all the icing out evenly. The quantity of icing for this recipe is enough for a double-layer 9-inch cake as we made in this recipe, but it will also work if you opt for a large slab cake or cupcakes instead.
SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE
Once the cake is iced, add a bit of the topping to the base of the cake and then add the remaining topping to the centre of the top layer. This cake has a great visual appeal, especially when served at the table—everyone goes, “Wow!” When people inevitably ask you for this pumpkin spice cake recipe, please send ’em our way.
TO SERVE
I always worry about the icing getting too soft. We suggest putting the cake in the fridge for 30 minutes before slicing and serving. This will set the icing again, and further ensure the layers stay together, whether you’re serving pieces standing upright or laid on the side.
One thing’s for sure, your first bite will be fall joy! You’ll see in the video that this cake is moist and tender like no other. That, partnered with the rich pumpkin spice flavours plus the hit of tangy, lemony cream cheese icing, and then that bonus candied topping—amazing! This really is the best pumpkin cake, and you’ll make it again and again.
PIN IT!
Before you go to make this cake recipe, we ask one favour: SHARE! Please PIN it to a favourite weekend baking, Thanksgiving, holiday, or dessert board on Pinterest. After that, send some love our way and please subscribe to our monthly newsletter HERE, where we share our top recipes and give a sneak peek at upcoming posts. You’ll also receive Gather, our mid-month missive focused on ideas to entertain family and friends. You can also share this recipe on Facebook and Instagram.
Fall for this SPICED PUMPKIN CAKE recipe. Everyone else will, too!
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
For the cake:
1½ cups of roasted pumpkin purée
¾ cup butter, melted and cooled
1½ cups oat flour
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
3 eggs room temperature
⅓ cup buttermilk
For the topping:
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup chopped pecans
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar, packed
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the icing:
½ cup butter, room temperature
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
¼ cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 cup icing sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch of kosher salt
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease 2 9-inch round cake pans. Add parchment circles, then grease again and flour.
Roast the pumpkin: Cut a small sugar pumpkin in half horizontally. Scoop out and discard seeds and strings. Place pumpkin halves on parchment-lined baking tray. Transfer to oven, roasting for one 1 hour. Cool on baking tray then scoop out flesh. Transfer to food processor and pulse to purée. Measure quantity using a dry measure.
Prepare the cakes: Whisk flours together with baking powder, baking soda, spices and kosher salt. Set aside. Whisk the melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Using a hand mixer, blend on medium until completely combined. Divide batter evenly between the two pans—note, the batter will be thick. Bake for 28 - 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. Cool in pans for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Prepare topping: Melt butter in skillet over moderate heat. Add pumpkin seeds and pecans, toasting for about 1 minute. Sprinkle pan with sugar, spices and salt. Toss nuts about in the pan until very fragrant and glazed. Remove from heat and spill topping mixture onto a parchment-lined plate to cool.
Prepare icing: Using a hand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add the icing sugar, brown sugar and lemon juice. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, to combine then switch to high speed beating for 2 minutes more.
Ice the top of one layer of cake, then lightly sprinkle the top with the nut topping. Add the second layer and ice top and sides. Add candied topping halfway up the sides of cake, pressing into the icing, and sprinkle remaining in the centre of the top of the cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to set before serving.
Until Halloween
