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
hello, I want to make this cake but my electric oven does not have a glass window so it’s hard for me to see how the cake it doing without opening the oven door which can cause heatloss and the cake to collapse and I won’t know if the cake is browning too quickly so that I can cover the cake with foil as you said in your recipe. Do you have any tips that I can use so that I can bake this cake as will as other baked goods on your page?
Hi Trae! You’ll have to just to do your best to do very fast checks as infrequently as possible to check on your baked goods as they cook. That’s what we would do!
Hi! Will this work as a 3 layer cake—one of the layers being your triple chocolate cake (pumpkin layer, chocolate layer, pumpkin layer)? Looking to make a 6″ square cake. Any insight appreciated, ty!
Hi Paula, yes, this batter holds up well as a layered cake. Here’s everything you need to know about cake pan sizes and conversions. Hope it’s a hit!
What would the baking time be for the Bundt pan if we use this recipe instead of the Bundt recipe you linked?
Hi Maria, here’s our pumpkin Bundt cake recipe!
I made this cake for my Daughter-in- Laws Birthday. What an amazing cake! The frosting is like cinna-bon frosting. The cake is super moist and not overly sweet so the frosting compliments the cake. My daughter in law wants this for her birthday next year! I made it exactly as the recipe said and used the extra powdered sugar and a glass cake pan. I did have to cook it a little more because my pan is a thick pan. Thank you so much!
Sally, I want to make this cake for a block party. Could I bake it in a foil pan so that we can leave the cake behind if we leave the party early??
Pam
Definitely! Bake time may be slightly shorter.
Thank you! I made a “practice” cake in a foil pan. I used PAM spray with flour, and it worked great! I sprinkled Wilton’s Autumn sprinkles on top. Cake is delicious and will most certainly may be enjoyed at our block party. Thank you!
I made this recipe for the first time today (with the intention of taking it to treat the volunteers at our local Barrie Food Bank, where I also volunteer). Of course I had to try a piece myself, and it is delicious! Incredibly moist with a perfect crumb, so much flavour from the homemade pumpkin spice seasoning and pumpkin puree, and the cream cheese frosting is always a hit! Thanks for yet another beautiful recipe, Sally!
I haven’t tried to make this yet but I wonder if I could cut the cake in half and make it a 2 layer cake. Would that work?
Hi Freya, see recipe notes for 2 layer cake instructions!
Any chance I can make 3 bread tin sized cakes with this? I really like cake in bread tins because of the size.
Thanks, Ashleigh
Hi Ashleigh, for bread pans, we recommend our pumpkin bread recipe instead. Or, if you want to use this cake recipe, here is everything you need to know about cake pan sizes and conversions.
This was hands down one of if not the best cake recipe I have ever made! The cake itself is so moist it almost feels like it’s drenched in a perfectly sweet simple syrup except it’s not soggy at all! The flavor was spot on ( I did use less pumpkin pie spice and more cinnamon and double the vanilla but that’s just preference) . The frosting is also spot on! Not too sweet or tangy. Job well done.
Delicious flavor! But my cake started rising and then completely collapsed in the centre. It was in the oven for almost an hour but the centre was dense and rubbery as if underbaked. I did not use baking powder, just increased amount of baking powder. Lastly why do you use oil in your recepies in stead of butter?
Hi Vera, this recipe needs baking soda. Here’s the difference between baking powder and baking soda in baking. This recipe is best with oil, butter will yield a more dry cake.
Hi Sally!
I made this cake for my husbands birthday yesterday. I baked and Iced the cake the day before. I wanted a double layer birthday cake, so I split the batch into two 9 inch cake pans. It took about 33 minutes to bake them fully. They turned out SO well, everyone LOVED it!
My husband is a heavy equipment operator, so I bought a little toy excavator to put on top and used crushed ginger cookies as the “dirt” and I candied some pecans to use as “rocks”.
The flavours really compliment eachother! It turned out so cute, if I could share a photo I would! Thanks so much for this recipe. I saved it to use next fall to bring to thanksgiving dinners but I’d definitely say I’ll be making it again before then
Lives up to its name! It’s a pretty high bar, but it is indeed that. Also, my black lab agrees!
I didn’t know pumpkin cake could taste THIS GOOD! I decided to give this recipe a try because I had all the ingredients on hand. I’m so glad I did. You will not be disappointed… just make it!
Have made this multiple times and it always gets so many compliments!
This recipe looks great but what should I do if I want to use 6 inch pans?
Hi Grace, Our pumpkin cupcakes recipe makes the perfect amount for a three layer 6 inch cake. You can use our 6 inch cakes post as a guide for baking times. Enjoy!
Perfect thank you!
If I make two cake layers, do I let the cakes cool completely in the pan or do I remove it from the pan after 10 minutes and put it on a cooling rack?
Hi Liza, either way is fine. We often let cakes cool in their pans.
Absolutely delicious! I made the recipe exactly as it is except I used a slightly smaller pan and baked it for 10 extra minutes and it was perfect. I also toasted walnuts and sprinkled on top of the icing. My all time new favorite!!
I loved this recipe so much! The cake turned out so moist, and the cream cheese frosting was simply sublime.
I rarely write reviews for recipes that I have tried but I have to say that this recipe is a game changer. I have made it one of my go to for fall and winter months. And really for other seasons as cravings beckon. It came out perfectly. I made my own pumpkin puree using Kabocha pumpkin that I baked then blended with a bit of water.
We’re so glad you enjoy it, Pauline!
I was looking for an easy cake to make for two Christmas dinners and I came across this one. Love it! I followed the recipe exactly and it came out great! I used 9×9 cake pans. The first time it took about 20 minutes and I left it in the turned off oven for 2 minutes or so. The second time the cake took 25 minutes and I also left it in the turned off oven a couple of minutes and it turned out perfect too. People went back for seconds! Thank you for sharing! I was wondering if it would work as mini muffins?
Hi Dee, for mini cupcakes, bake at 350F for about 12-13 minutes. Glad you enjoy this recipe!
Fabulous! I had to make a double batch of icing since I was decorating the entire cake. I like to cut the edges off and put cake on cake board. The cut edges are a good way to sample the cake. I did an orange rosette border on top and an orange shell border on bottom. I made this for my coworkers at Safeway for a potluck. I also made this cake for a fundraiser for local charity.
This cake recipe was easy to follow and the measurements were accurate to create a delicious moist cake. As I’d never made anything before with pumpkin I was so pleased when my neighbour who had given me two large fresh pumpkins I had to give her half. She was as impressed as I was and so I had to share the recipe with her too.
Truly IS the best pumpkin cake I’ve tried!
I bring a treat for my school staff every Monday. I was looking for a pumpkin cake (not bread or coffee cake) and this was it. It was done after 30 minutes, perfectly moist. I used the cream cheese frosting, but next time (and there will be a next time) I will use a mascarpone frosting. I also used finely chopped sweetened ginger bits as a garnish.
Very easy to make.
So glad you loved this, Kate!
This really is the best pumpkin cake recipe I’ve ever made. Everyone in the family was in agreement – favorite dessert on the Thanksgiving table!
I did this recipe in my individual cakes pan and the baking time was just about 18:30. I brought them to work for Thanksgiving yesterday and they flew….my boss asked if she could take multiple small cakes for her family. I’ll be honest – I have no idea how they taste because I never actually got to try one but apparently they were VERY GOOD and I’ve already been asked to make more. Thank you so much for this recipe!
My cakes center was still wet after 36 minutes, I followed the recipe to a t but maybe we put the foil on to soon?
Will the frosting recipe be enough for a three layer cake (three 8” pans)? Thank you!
Hi Liz, For a three layer cake you can follow the same quantities we use on this carrot cake.
Hi Sally! Just making sure – if I want to make a two-layer round cake, I should double the batter but not the frosting? Thanks! Excited to try this.
Lena
Hi Lena, you don’t have to double the batter. 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 (as written) 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.
Can I halve this recipe, and if so, what size pan should I bake in?
Hi Shana! You could halve the recipe for an 8×8 pan.
Can I use olive oil instead of canola/vegetable oil? I live in the UK now and the main vegetable oil used here primarily is sunflower oil and I am allergic. Can I use the half applesauce and half oil trick and substitute olive oil for the canola oil? Is it the same amount?
Thank you!
Hi Jillian, you can substitute olive oil in a pinch, but since it’s not as neutral as canola oil it may leave a slightly different taste in the cake. Hope you enjoy it!