This is my go-to pumpkin Bundt cake recipe because the crumb is incredibly moist, the cake tastes perfectly spiced, and you can top it with anything from salted caramel sauce to cream cheese frosting. You can fill it with chocolate chips, a cinnamon swirl, chopped nuts, or leave it plain. I particularly love it plain with maple icing on top!
I originally published this recipe in 2017 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips.
Moist and dense, this pumpkin Bundt cake delivers BIG. It’s not quite as heavy as a cream cheese pound cake, nor is it quite as light as my regular pumpkin cake. Instead, it meets somewhere in the middle and this place is called pumpkin euphoria.
I make this dessert recipe at least 2 or 3 times every fall season. It’s oh-so-easy, and I haven’t changed the recipe at all over many years of keeping this cake in my fall rotation. There are so many variations between add-ins and toppings, that you could make a different pumpkin Bundt cake practically every day for an entire year. (And you’ll want to… it’s *that* good.)
One reader, Janet, commented: “This was such a hit I’ve had to make it twice!! Was delicious and easy to make, my friends were very impressed! ★★★★★”
One reader, Sherri, commented: “This is the BEST pumpkin cake recipe ever. We leave out the chocolate chips and add pecans. I make the maple glaze recipe and add vanilla and pecans to it. It’s wonderful! ★★★★★“
Here’s Why I Know You’ll Love It
- I know pumpkin desserts. From the best pumpkin cupcakes to the perfect pumpkin pie, I know how to make this star ingredient shine. (And complement it with the right ingredients!)
- No mixer required, just 2 bowls and a whisk
- Conveniently uses 1 standard 15-ounce can of pumpkin
- Supremely moist—knife glides right through it
- Generously spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice
- Excellent so many ways: plain, filled, swirled, or frosted
Use These Key Ingredients
Like all of the recipes on my website and in my cookbooks, I endlessly tested various ingredients and ratios to develop a standout cake with excellent flavor and texture. Here are some key ingredients:
- Baking Soda: 2 teaspoons of baking soda seems like a lot, and it is a lot. But think about the size of a Bundt cake… they’re huge, and need to rise quite a lot in the tall cake pan. I remember trying this recipe with a mix of baking soda AND baking powder, and was never satisfied with the result. In addition to leavening, baking soda deepens a baked good’s color and neutralizes acids. (This cake is filled with acidic ingredients!)
- Spices: Generously spiced is not an understatement! On its own, pumpkin is quite bland, so you need a lot of spice to bring out its flavor. You could even swap some of the individual spices for pumpkin pie spice!
- Oil: You can use vegetable oil or olive oil here. Melted coconut oil works, too, but you’ll want to be sure that you bake the batter immediately after mixing (no standing around, please!) because the coconut oil will very quickly begin to solidify and thicken the batter.
- Eggs: Pumpkin, oil, and flour are big, heavy ingredients so you need eggs in the batter to lift and bind the ingredients together.
- Brown & White Sugars: Again, pumpkin is pretty bland without a little help, so you need plenty of sugar to help bring out its flavor. I use a mix of both brown and white.
- Pure Pumpkin: This Bundt cake conveniently uses 1 15-ounce can of pumpkin. For best results and flavor, I strongly recommend using canned pumpkin puree instead of homemade. I prefer Libby’s brand for this cake.
You also need flour, salt, and vanilla extract.
Substitution Tip
Like when making apple cake or chocolate cake, use oil in this Bundt cake recipe, so you’re guaranteed a super moist cake from the start. You can substitute unsweetened applesauce for half of the oil. (1/2 cup each.) Readers have told me they love the cake this way, and it’s just as moist.
Overview: How to Make My Pumpkin Bundt Cake
This recipe actually uses the same base batter as my pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake. And, like I mentioned above, the process couldn’t be easier!
Combine the wet and dry ingredients separately, then whisk them together. Expect a very thick batter, almost like pumpkin pancakes batter:
And here’s the batter again, but with chocolate chips:
Instead of an add-in like chocolate chips, you could fill the pumpkin Bundt cake with the chai spice swirl from this chai spice cinnamon swirl Bundt cake, or try my cream cheese-filled pumpkin Bundt cake (same batter!).
Favorite Bundt Pan to Use
Do you make a lot of Bundt cakes? I do! You need a Bundt pan that’s 9.5 to 10.5 inches in diameter, and can hold 10 to 12 cups of batter. Let me share two favorite Bundt cake pan options with you:
- Anolon Bundt Pan: Super quality, heavy-duty, great price, never warps, awesome rubber grips. I’ve been using it for years and, honestly, it’s just as durable as day 1.
- Nordic Ware Bundt Pan: Outstanding quality, heavy-duty, and makes beautiful cakes.
Whichever Bundt pan you use, be sure to grease it very generously before adding the batter. Even if the pan is labeled nonstick, due to the size and weight of a Bundt cake, you NEED a lot of greasing so the cake easily separates from the pan when inverting it.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake Toppings
Like the best things in the kitchen life, we’ll shower this pumpkin Bundt with a glaze. There are so many options here (I love a good icing!), and I list my favorites below.
- Brown Butter Icing from my Peach Bundt Cake
- Maple Icing from Maple Brown Sugar Cookies (pictured above)
- Salted Caramel Sauce (pictured below)
- Chocolate Ganache
- Cream Cheese Frosting
- Homemade Whipped Cream
- Brown Sugar Glaze from my Apple Bundt Cake
- Orange Glaze from my Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is my go-to pumpkin Bundt cake recipe because the crumb is incredibly moist, the cake tastes perfectly spiced, and you can top it with anything from salted caramel sauce to cream cheese frosting. You can fill it with chocolate chips, a cinnamon swirl, nuts, or leave it plain. I particularly love it plain with the maple icing from these maple brown sugar cookies on top!
Ingredients
- 2 and 3/4 cups (344g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil (see Note)
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 15-ounce (425g) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional add-in: 1 and 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped walnuts/pecans
Optional Topping Ideas
- optional topping: salted caramel, maple icing, or any listed below
- optional garnish: sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 10–12-cup Bundt pan. (I like this one or this one.)
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice 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. Fold in chocolate chips or nuts, if using. Batter is thick, and you’ll have around 5 cups total.
- Spoon/pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Bake for 55–70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. This is a large, heavy cake so don’t be alarmed if it takes a little longer in your oven.
- Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours in the pan set on a wire rack. Then invert the slightly cooled Bundt cake onto a wire rack or serving plate/cake stand.
- Allow to cool completely before drizzling with topping/icing and serving. On the pictured cake, I used the maple icing from these maple brown sugar cookies. I also sprinkled a homemade pumpkin pie spice blend on top of the icing before it set.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store at room temperature for a couple days and/or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the entire cake ahead of time (before topping with icing). Cover cooled cake and refrigerate it for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before icing and serving. Baked cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature before icing and serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Bundt Cake Pan (I like this one or this one) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Mini Bundt Cakes: I’ve tested this recipe with mini Bundt pans before and while the mini Bundt cakes taste wonderful, they’re quite dense. If you’d like to try it, the recipe makes 24-30 mini Bundts but that depends on the exact size of your mini Bundt cake pan. Fill them only halfway with batter. The bake time is around 20 to 25 minutes. Instead, for better results with a lighter crumb, I recommend using my pumpkin cupcakes batter for mini pumpkin Bundt cakes. You’ll get about 16.
- Spices: Instead of 1/2 teaspoon each ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, you can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. (You will still add the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.)
- Oil: You can use vegetable oil, canola oil, avocado oil, or olive 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. If you want to use coconut oil, melt it first, and be sure that all of the other ingredients are room temperature. Bake the batter right away, because as the coconut oil begins to cool and solidify, it thickens the batter and could result in an overly dense cake.
- Pumpkin: For best results and flavor, I strongly recommend using canned pumpkin puree over homemade in this recipe. I found the flavor is much better with canned. I prefer Libby’s brand for this cake.
- More Topping Options: Brown Butter Icing from my Peach Bundt Cake, Chocolate Ganache, Cream Cheese Frosting, Homemade Whipped Cream, Brown Sugar Glaze from my Apple Bundt Cake, Orange Glaze from my Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Reader Comments and Reviews
My daughter made this for Thanksgiving weekend and we ate it for breakfast, lunch, tea time, and dessert! The cake was so moist and perfectly spiced. I made sure she left the recipe for me to make again soon.
So good! It was very easy to make and was a hit at the Thanksgiving table. I dusted it with pumpkin spice enhanced powdered sugar.
Made this for Thanksgiving with the Chai Cinnamon Swirl and Brown Sugar Icing – it was delicious!
Too much baking soda but it was really good. Added chocolate chips and did a cream cheese frosting.
Can you use butter instead of oil? Thanks!
Hi Jo, we highly recommend using oil in this Bundt cake recipe, so you’re guaranteed a super moist cake from the start. Butter may leave the cake tasting a bit dry and heavy. If you want, you can substitute unsweetened applesauce for half of the oil. (1/2 cup each.) Readers have told us they love the cake this way, and it’s just as moist. Hope you enjoy it!
For the cream cheese frosting, would you recommend drizzling it on or will I need to use a piping bag? I’m baking it now and it smells delightful. I can’t wait to eat it!
Hi Amy, we just slather on the cream cheese frosting with an icing spatula or knife, but you can certainly use a large round piping tip if you prefer. Hope you love the cake!
I’d like to add apples and/or pears to this. Can you recommend amounts or alterations that might be needed? Thanks so much.
Hi! I’m sure 1 cup of either, chopped, (about 120g) would be just fine. I wouldn’t alter any of the ingredients.
I tried this, and the cake turned out great. However, I used brown butter icing, and the flavors collided a lot, and I ended up actually scraping it off my cake. If I make it again, I’ll be using cream cheese icing/frosting
Is it possible to use a pan other than a Bundt? I have an 8×8 metal square pan, normal metal bread pan, or a 10×15 glass casserole dish. Could I do it in any of these and if so for what baking time? I’d love to make it but don’t want to buy a Bundt pan
Hi Lee, here are a few other options for very similar recipes using those pans: you could make this pumpkin coffee cake in your 8-inch square pan (you’ll have a little leftover batter and the bake time will be just a few minutes shorter) or you can try this pumpkin bread in your 9×5-inch metal bread pan. We also have a pumpkin cake recipe that you might enjoy, too. Let us know what you decide to try!
I have some Japanese persimmon purée- could I use it instead of the pumpkin purée?
Hi Donna, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but persimmon puree tends to have a much higher water content than pumpkin puree so we fear it wouldn’t bake up quite the same in this cake. If you do decide to try it, you could blot out excess moisture from your puree before adding to the batter. Let us know if you try anything!
Hello! Could you explain the cooling time of 2 hours? Virtually every other place I visit mentions 10 minutes, and they claim your cake will stick if you wait longer. I’m determined to conquer bundt cakes but there’s always a section that sticks in my pan and I wonder if the longer cooling time will help fix that.
Hi Anne! We always find that 2 hours works best for inverting the cake. (Along with very heavily coating the Bundt pan!). However, you can certainly feel free to do so earlier if you’ve had success that way. Hope you enjoy the pumpkin Bundt cake!
I made one 3 days ago for my mother’s birthday and was such a huge hit! I am making anohter tonight and am adding fresh shredded ginger for a little punch. I made the cream cheese frosting and put it on thick. This is a pumpkin bunt # cake! .
I loved making this easy Bundt cake however my cake was a bit dry. Do you think it may have been the chopped nuts? Maybe I should have made it with the chocolate chips instead. Also it could be that my Bundt pan by Nordic was too thin…not the gold plated heavy duty thick ones from Williams and Sonoma. On the positive side the maple icing did help with dry texture! Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Jolie, thank you for trying this! I wonder, too, if the cake was over-baked? It’s easy to over-bake something this large. That would definitely dry it out.
Hello! Can I substitute the pumpkin for sweet potatoes? If I did would you still recommend using canned or fresh?
Hi Krystal, we haven’t tested it ourselves, but pureed sweet potatoes (canned or fresh) should work well here in place of the pumpkin puree. Let us know how it goes!
Making for our Bunco group on 11/13, along with fruit and cookies. Hope it comes out great. I am using GF flour as my husband is Gluten Free.
I baked this cake earlier today and would like to ask for your help. I used the Nordic Ware bundt pan you recommend and added semi-sweet chocolate chips (mini). The flavor is wonderful, except for the sides of the cake, which got way too dark, to the point of tasting slightly burnt. I been using an oven thermometer based on your recommendation, and the temperature was right at 350. It took 60 minutes for a skewer to come out clean. The top of the cake looks and tastes great, so I didn’t even notice what was happening to the sides until I took it out of the oven. Any thoughts on what I may do to address this? I’d like to bake a few more this week for a church bake sale on the weekend. Thank you for your help.
Hi Maria, I can certainly help. I recommend reducing the oven temperature down to 325°F (163°C), and slightly increasing the bake time. Also, it may help to lower the oven rack to a lower position.
Following your recommendations, the bundt cake came out perfect! So moist and flavorful! Thank you for being so responsive, and for your carefully tested recipes and beautiful photographs. I’ll be baking four of these for the bake sale, and have no doubt they’ll sell quickly. Such a wonderful way to welcome Fall!
This cake was amazing and so easy to make. I glazed it with a Browned butter maple glaze. Fablulous. I decorated around the cake with some Reese’s pieces just for color and without realizing it they were a great compliment to the flavor of the cake and icing.
Cute idea. When I read your review I thought candy corn might be fun. Mine is baking now and of course I am now looking for how to dress it.
Loved the recipe
This was SO delicious! The recipe is perfect – I made the cake without the add-ins and used a cream cheese glaze – I just thinned out the frosting with a little milk. My cake was ready at exactly 50 minutes. Sally’s recipes are the best!
Incredible recipe!!! Would you have a recipe for or recommend a pumpkin streusel pound cake using an angel food cake pan? Thank you.
Hi Barbara, we haven’t tested this Bundt cake in other cake pans, but you can certainly give it a try. A tube pan should work! Just check the size of your pan–you’ll want it to be the same size as the 9.5 to 10.5 inches in diameter pan needed for this recipe (one that can hold 10 to 12 cups of batter). Let us know if you try it!
I love this recipe so much the favors are amazing!
Curious – has anyone tried using gluten free flour with this recipe? Would like to make it this week but have a few folks in my office who are GF. OR Sally will 1:1 flour work?
Hi Jessica, we haven’t tested this recipe with a gluten free flour blend, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do try it!
Wonderful flavor, texture, and taste. My husband absolutely LOVED this cake, and so did I.
Fantastic! I do not bake very often, this recipe was easy to follow and turned out wonderful. My oven heats pretty hot and only took 45 min to cook. We topped with cream cheese frosting and Sally’s salted caramel sauce. This cake was a huge hit, will be making again…many times!
Excellent cake! I made it with half oil, half applesauce, and 1 1/4 cup of mini chocolate chips. I put the maple icing on the top of the cake. It was delicious! Everyone loved it and had “seconds”. It was so moist and tasty.
I will definitely make it again.
On top
This pumpkin bundt cake, like so many other reviews, was delicious! I cooked mine for 65 minutes, was afraid I may have overdone it, but no! Moist and oh so good and flavorful! I was a bit disappointed in the “color” of the maple icing. I followed recipe for the icing exactly, but compared to yours in your picture Sally, mine seemed to be a dark tan color if you will. Hard to notice if it’s almost same color as cake. I’m a huge fan of a cream cheese frosting with anything pumpkin, but wanted to give your icing a try and it was good.
This looked good but sadly it burned before it was even in the oven an hour. You have the temperature here at 375 degrees but your other pumpkin cake recipe (baked in a 9X13 dish) specifies to bake at 350. Is the 375 a mistake on the bundt pan recipe? My cake burned on top before it was in an hour. Very disappointing
Hi DC! See step 1 – this Bundt Cake should bake at 350°F.
Just finished making this delicious cake along with the most outrageous burnt butter icing .
Would this work in the Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt pan?
Hi Shannon, that should work just fine so long as it’s 9.5 to 10.5 inches in diameter, and can hold 10 to 12 cups of batter.