This simple and straightforward pumpkin cake recipe is for those of us who want pure pumpkin and spice flavors with nothing else in the way. Brown sugar and 2 cups of pumpkin puree promise big flavor and an extra moist texture. It’s certainly wonderful on its own, but you’ll love the smooth and tangy cream cheese frosting on top!
One reader, Gracie, says: “This truly is the best pumpkin cake I have ever had. I made it exactly as the recipe called for and it was so moist and delicious!”
Details About this Pumpkin Cake
- Flavor: Like I mention above, this cake is loaded with flavor thanks to a whopping 2 cups of pumpkin puree. We add cinnamon and there’s plenty of pumpkin pie spice, too. Like in my pumpkin scones recipe, you can use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice mix or each of those spices individually—see our recipe note below. Tangy cream cheese frosting is always a lovely pairing with pumpkin and spice flavors. Each bite truly has it all!
- Texture: Like it does in this chocolate cake recipe, oil keeps the cake’s crumb soft and moist. In fact, we like to describe it as “stick-to-your-fork moist.” Our pumpkin cupcakes is essentially the same recipe, but yields a reduced quantity of batter.
- Ease: This is a single layer cake, so it’s pretty easy to prepare since there’s really no assembly required. Prepping the cake batter is similar to our spice cake, apple cake, and zucchini cake—make sure you have 2 mixing bowls and a 9×13 inch pan. The quarter sheet size is also convenient for transporting, storing, and serving. You’ll appreciate this recipe as an easy addition to your holiday dessert menu alongside all those delicious Thanksgiving pies!
How to Make Pumpkin Cake + Video
The full printable recipe is below, but here’s a brief description and a video tutorial.
Grease your 9×13-inch pan. You can use a metal baking pan or a glass baking pan. Use 1 mixing bowl for the dry ingredients and another mixing bowl for the wet ingredients. Combine both, then spread the batter into your pan. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool completely, then make and decorate with the frosting. To make serving easier, refrigerate the frosted cake before slicing.
Overview of Key Ingredients in Pumpkin Cake
- Flour: Because of the thick and wet batter, use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. Cake flour is usually more ideal for butter-based cakes such as vanilla cake or white cake.
- Pumpkin: Use an entire standard can of pumpkin, which is roughly 2 cups. Readers have found this helpful because nothing from the can goes to waste. (You’ll appreciate that with our pumpkin pie and pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake recipes too!) You can use fresh pumpkin in a pinch, but we prefer the flavor and texture of the cake when using canned.
- Cinnamon + Pumpkin Pie Spice: These spices are essential for most pumpkin desserts. Instead of prepared pumpkin pie spice, you can use a blend of ground nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and ginger (see notes), or go ahead and prepare a batch of homemade pumpkin pie spice.
- Oil + Eggs: Oil and eggs provide moisture and structure. We use both in these pumpkin bars, but reduce the eggs so the bars aren’t quite as cakey.
- Sugar: This pumpkin cake is sweetened with brown sugar and granulated sugar, but mostly brown because that’s where the best flavor lies!
How to Decorate The Best Pumpkin Cake I’ve Ever Had
Cakes with a similar spice flavor and texture profile like hummingbird cake, carrot cake, and banana cake taste unbelievable with fan-favorite cream cheese frosting.
If you’re looking for other frosting options, try any one of these:
- The brown butter cream cheese frosting from this Banana Layer Cake
- Traditional Vanilla Buttercream or Chocolate Buttercream
- The whipped buttercream frosting from Vanilla Sheet Cake
- Chai spice buttercream from these Chai Latte Cupcakes
- The pumpkin spice cream cheese frosting from these Pumpkin Oatmeal Cream Pies
PS: For decoration/garnish, we love using these little pumpkins. Or you can try these festive fall sprinkles.
More Pumpkin Recipes
- No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Pie
- White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Pumpkin Bars
- Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Pumpkin Hand Pies
For even more inspiration, here are my 30+ best pumpkin dessert recipes and 30+ fall cake ideas.
Print
Pumpkin Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours (includes cooling)
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is the BEST pumpkin cake I’ve ever had and I know you’ll feel the same way! It’s supremely moist, soft, rich, and spiced with pumpkin spice flavor.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice*
- 1 cup (240ml) canola or vegetable oil*
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree*
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces (226g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups (360g) confectioners’ sugar, plus an extra 1/4 cup if needed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 9×13-inch baking pan. I always use this glass pan.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.
- Spread batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-36 minutes. Baking times vary, so keep an eye on yours. The cake is done when a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you find the top or edges of the cake is/are browning too quickly in the oven, loosely cover it with aluminum foil.
- Remove the cake from the oven and set the entire pan on a wire rack. Allow to cool completely. After about 45 minutes, I usually place the cake in the refrigerator to speed things up.
- Make the frosting: In a large bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on high speed until smooth and creamy. Add 3 cups confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then switch to high speed and beat for 2 minutes. If you want the frosting a little thicker, add the extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar (I add it). Spread the frosting on the cooled cake. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving. This helps sets the frosting and makes cutting easier.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store in the refrigerator for 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Prepare cake through step 4. Cover the cake tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days or freeze up to 3 months. Bring to room temperature, make the frosting, frost, and serve. Frosted cake freezes well, up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, bring to room temperature or serve cold.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 9×13-inch Glass Baking Pan or Metal Baking Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand)
- Cupcakes: This batter yields about 24-28 cupcakes. Same oven temperature, fill the cupcake wrappers 2/3 full, and bake 18-21 minutes or until baked through. For 1 dozen cupcakes, use my pumpkin cupcakes recipe.
- Bundt Cake: This batter will fit into a 9.5- or 10-inch Bundt pan. Same oven temperature. But for ease, I suggest using my pumpkin Bundt cake recipe. Same great flavor and texture as this cake!
- 2 Layer Cake: Grease two 9-inch round cake pans, line with parchment paper rounds, then grease the parchment paper. Parchment paper helps the cakes seamlessly release from the pans. Divide batter between the two cake pans. Same oven temperature, bake for 25 minutes or until baked through. This frosting is enough for a 2 layer cake.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can find pumpkin pie spice in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have either and want to use individual spices, use 1/2 teaspoon each: ground allspice, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves. This is in addition to the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon—you will still add that to the batter.
- Oil: Instead of 1 cup of oil, try 1/2 cup (90g) unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 (120ml) cup oil. The cake is just as moist.
- Pumpkin: I strongly recommend using canned pumpkin puree over homemade in this recipe, though 2 cups of homemade would work just fine in a pinch. If using fresh, blot out as much excess moisture as you can using a clean towel. Overall, I found the flavor better with canned. I prefer Libby’s brand for this cake.
Here are my pumpkin cupcakes! Same recipe, just reduced down.
Reader Comments and Reviews
can you give nutrition facts for this recipe
Hi Martha, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
Amazing! Super moist and nice and dense. Substituted vanilla frosting and it worked out great.
I made this Pumpkin Cake for our Sunday School class. They just loved it! Even my husband loved it and he doesn’t like cream cheese frosting. Thanks for sharing it with us.
So yummy! It was a big hit at our potluck. I’m glad I went with this recipe.
Doubled the spices based on reviews, and I was out of oil so I used melted butter instead. Very moist and flavorful, love the cream cheese frosting which I added a bit of pumpkin spice to as well.
This recipe looks wonderful. I’m wondering if anyone has made this with King Arthur 1:1 gluten-free flour. I’d love to hear from folks who have tried this with GF flour. Thank you!
Hi Lisa, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but perhaps other readers can chime in if they have! Let us know if you do give it a try.
I have made this several times using Gluten Free Flour and it turns out perfect!!!!
This is a great recipe. I made 2-10 inch rounds with 1.5x recipe, but wondering if you’ve ever scaled it bigger. Considering a 12 x 18 and wondered how it does that big.
can i replace the cream cheese frosting with just melted dark or milk chocolate?
Hi K M, you can certainly change up the frosting to any frosting you prefer.
The cake turned out moist and fluffy, the texture is nice. Flavor wise I have to agree with another comment saying its pretty bland by itself. With the cream cheese frosting its good, but if I was to make this again i’d probably double the pumpkin spice. It is pretty oily as well, so maybe next time I’ll try 200ml oil instead of 240ml.
This recipe is a cult classic in my family!!
For the third year in a row, making it for my daughter’s birthday. She absolutely loves this cake!!
Yummy and moist. From Australia, where canned pumpkin isn’t available, so steamed butternut pumpkin (a comparatively dry pumpkin without much stringy fibre), mashed and blotted it.
Served to guests, who have lived in the US, and it went down very well, including seconds! It also pleased my ‘I don’t like sweet things son’ … I did halve the white sugar and used a cream cheese, yoghurt, maple syrup icing, though. Still a sweet treat. Curious how tastes differ around the world in sweet vs tangy 🙂
OMG this is a fabulous recipe, really tricky getting canned pumpkin in the UK but totally worth it!
I made this cake today and it’s wonderful – very moist and flavorful and so easy to put together. It has a bit of the Fall season in every bite – I will definitely make it again. Thanks Sally!
Do you really mean 1 teaspoon of salt or is that a typo? If so how much if I’m using table salt vs. diamond crystal?
Hi Grace! 1 tsp is correct for table salt. Happy baking 🙂
This cake is truly fantastic. One of the best pumpkin cakes I have had. I eyeballed the spices and probably added more than called for. And used about 75% of the sugar. Made with 50/50 butter and apple sauce as suggested in Sally’s notes. First tried with the cream cheese frosting which was great, but am thinking I might make a penuche frosting tonight.
Turned out great, great texture, clear instructions. Great recipe.
Flavor-wise, I found the cake pretty bland – like a light spice cake. Without the frosting I would be incredibly disappointed. If I were to do it again, I would double the amount of spices. But if you’re more there for the cream cheese frosting, this is fine.
Great recipe! Thank you for sharing! For anyone wondering, I did change the sweetener to one cup maple syrup. No white sugar. No brown.
Also 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 butter in place of the 1 cup oil. Perfectly moist and amazing. Same bake time. My husband hates cakes due to lack of moisture, but he loves this one!! Thank you!
I made this cake for the first time today. It turned out well, but for me, this is too much spice. I can’t taste the pumpkin, only the spices. If I make this again, I will cut the pumpkin spices in half at least.
I cannot wait to make these again! Thank you.
Really good recipe. Super moist and fluffy. I added less white sugar than the recipe states, I still find it a little too sweet, but that’s normal whenever I use American recipes anyway.
It’s true, we Americans have a serious sweet tooth. I always cut the sugar.
Delicious! Everyone raved about it.
I’ve made this cake for times for my husbands birthday. It turns out perfect every time!
What would be the difference in taste and texture of I were to make my own pumpkin puree instead of canned pumpkin?
Hi Krys, Fresh pumpkin puree has a different texture than canned. It’s much thinner and quite liquid-y. If you do use it here, we always recommend blotting some excess liquid out of it with a clean towel. The less moisture, the better.
I’m going to try your best ever pumpkin cake! Do you have a cream cheese with caramel frosting! Thanks
Hi Katie! We don’t have a cream cheese caramel frosting at this time, but a drizzle of salted caramel sauce over this cream cheese frosting would be divine! You may also love our salted caramel frosting or the brown sugar glaze from our apple cake recipe.
Can I use melted coconut oil for the oil in this recipe?
Hi Treva, Melted coconut oil is a wonderful replacement for the vegetable oil here.
Can I substitute the oil for 1/2 stick unsalted butter (melted)?
Hi Betsy, we don’t recommend swapping the oil for butter, but you could try 1/2 cup (90g) unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 (120ml) cup oil. The cake is just as moist.
I did! 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup melted butter. It was delicious.
The cake was soft and moisture not too sweet.My friends love it.Didn’t use frosting.Will try again with frosting next time.
240 ml is way too much oil the dough came out soggy with oil. 180 to 200 ml is more than enough, the icing 360 gr of sugar is also too sweet, I make it with 200-220. 660 grams of sugar in any desert, bit too much. It is a tasty recipe, but need to juggle with the amounts.
I have personally made this recipe at least a dozen times, and it comes out perfect. I’ve been asked for this recipe more times than I can remember. Moist, spicy and delicious. Perhaps your brand of pumpkin is too wet? Whenever I make this with my own pumpkin puree or canned organic pumpkin, I strain the pumpkin for a few hours to remove excess liquid. And it’s not a dough, as you describe; it’s a batter. It should be fairly loose and pourable. As for the sweetness: This is pretty sweet, but it’s a dessert. An occasional treat. You might want to look for a low sugar pumpkin cake recipe.
I’m making this recipe ‘gluten free’ with Cassava flour and will use baking cups. Any recommendations on the baking time?
Hi Lizie, you can follow the baking time/directions for pumpkin cupcakes as a guide. We haven’t tested this recipe with cassava flour, so we’re unsure of the results. We hope you enjoy it!
I would like to use this for a three layered cake (8 in)…Do you think I should double recipe?
Hi Rt! This batter as written will make 2, 9 inch round layers, so you could 1.5x the recipe for 3 layers. Your 8 inch pans will work for thicker layers.
Loved this cake! Made it for an October birthday and everyone loved it. Literally the best pumpkin cake recipe I’ve found!
This was my exact same question: if the batter could work for a 3 layer cake. Thank you for answering this!