Best Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Posted Sep 30, 2020, Updated Jan 19, 2025
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This is the best pumpkin cake recipe I’ve ever eaten. It’s moist with a beautiful crumb, an amazing texture, and the perfect amount of fall spices. This pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting is easy to make with simple ingredients, and will become your favorite fall dessert!
This Pumpkin Cake recipe is seriously the best pumpkin cake I’ve ever eaten in my entire life. Even the hesitant pumpkin eaters in my family devour this cake, exclaiming with every bite how incredibly delicious it is.
This pumpkin spice cake is moist with a beautiful crumb, an amazing texture, and the perfect amount of fall spices. It’s topped with a delicious cream cheese frosting, which takes it over the top to make it completely irresistible.
Plus, this pumpkin cake is easy to make with simple ingredients and no mixer required. It’s my favorite recipe creation to come out of my kitchen this year, and it’s certain to become your favorite fall dessert!
Pumpkin Cake Recipe: Ingredients
I wanted to create a pumpkin cake with simple ingredients (i.e. no buttermilk because I never have it in my fridge) that tasted out of this world delicious, and I totally hit it out of the park with this one. I worked hard on this recipe, so I recommend making it exactly as written, however we’ll talk about the ingredients and possible substitutions.
- Pumpkin Puree. canned or fresh both work welll.
- Salted Butter. unsalted butter, coconut oil or ghee are all good substitutes.
- Sour cream. I recommend full-fat sour cream for the richest taste and best texture, however low fat can be used, or plain Greek yogurt.
- Whole milk. half and half or 2% milk are acceptable substitutions.
- Granulated sugar. Organic cane sugar and white sugar both work well.
- Light Brown Sugar. If you like a little bolder, molasses taste, use dark brown sugar.
- All-purpose flour. I recommend using an unbleached, all-purpose flour to make this pumpkin spice cake.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice. If you’d like to make your own pumpkin pie spice, follow this recipe: homemade pumpkin pie spice. Then, use 2 tsp of the mixture (and use the rest in some of our other pumpkin recipes like pumpkin pie, Pumpkin baked oatmeal, pumpkin bread, etc.)
Cream Cheese Frosting
This is the best cream cheese frosting ever. I don’t recommend making any substitutions, except you can use unsalted butter in place of salted butter.
How to Make Pumpkin Cake from Scratch
This pumpkin cake recipe is easy to make, but as always we’ll walk through the process step-by-step, and don’ forget to watch the video!
Being by mixing together flour, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
Then, in a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, melted butter, sour cream, whole milk, eggs and vanilla until mixture is smooth.
Once the mixture is smooth, add granulated sugar and brown sugar and whisk until dissolved and there are no lumps.
Next, add dry ingredients and stir until the mixture is homogenous (uniform throughout) and there are no lumps.
Bake and Cool
Pour pumpkin cake batter into a prepare pan. Bake in preheated oven until the top is lightly browned and puffed and a toothpick comes out clean or with a few wet crumbs.
Transfer the cake pan to a wire cooling rack and let the pumpkin cake cool to room temperature.
Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
While the cake is cooling, make the cream cheese frosting.
Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla and 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat (starting on low speed and increasing to medium-high) until smooth.
Add remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until mixture is smooth and spreadable. You may need to pause and scrape down the sides and beat it again to incorporate all the powdered sugar.
Frost & Chill
When the cake is cooled, spread frosting evenly over the top. Then, chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight.
Serve
This pumpkin cake is best when serve cold or just below room temperature.
Store
Store any leftover pumpkin cake in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Freeze
If you’d like to freeze this pumpkin cake, I recommend flash-freezing it so the frosting is hard before you try to put a lid over it or cover it with plastic wrap and tin foil. You can freeze a whole, baked cake or in individual slices for up to 2 months.
Pumpkin Cake Recipe FAQs
Yes, you can double this recipe and bake it in two, 9×13″ pans. You can also cut it in half and bake it in a 9×9″ or 8×8″ pan.
Yes! This cake freezes beautifully. Either freeze it whole or in pieces, just make sure to flash-freeze it before you cover it tightly with plastic wrap so the frosting doesn’t stick.
You can use cake flour in this recipe for an even more tender crumb. You will need to add an additional 2 TBS of cake flour for every 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
If you’re looking to make cupcakes, I suggest this Pumpkin Cupcakes Recipe.
If you make and love my recipes, it would mean so much to me if you would leave a comment and rating! And don’t forget to follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, TikTok and Youtube – be sure to tag @joyfoodsunshine and use the hashtag #joyfoodsunshine so I can see your creations!
Best Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree (about 2 cups)
- ½ cup salted butter melted
- ¼ cup sour cream room temperature
- 1 cup whole milk room temperature
- 2 eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese softened
- ½ cup butter softened
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the Pumpkin Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Grease a 9×13” pan, set aside.
- In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, melted butter, sour cream, whole milk, eggs and vanilla until mixture is smooth.
- Add granulated sugar and brown sugar and whisk until dissolved and there are no lumps.
- Add dry ingredients and stir until the mixture is homogenous (uniform throughout) and there are no lumps.
- Pour batter into prepared pan.
- Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly browned and puffed and a toothpick comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool to room temperature.
Make the Cream Cheese Frosting
- While the cake is cooling, make the cream cheese frosting.
- Beat together butter and cream cheese until smooth.
- Add vanilla and 2 cups of powdered sugar and beat (starting on low speed and increasing to medium-high) until smooth.
- Add remaining 1 cup of powdered sugar and beat until mixture is smooth and spreadable. You may need to pause and scrape down the sides and beat it again to incorporate all the powdered sugar.
Assemble, Chill & Serve
- When the cake is cooled, spread frosting evenly over the top.
- Chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight. Then serve cold or at room temperature.
Video
Notes
- Pumpkin Puree. I use canned pumpkin puree, but homemade puree works great.
- Salted Butter. unsalted butter can be used.
- Sour cream. I recommend full-fat sour cream for the richest taste and best texture, however low fat can be used, or plain Greek yogurt.
- Whole milk. You can substitute half and half if necessary, and you could use 2% milk, but nothing lower in fat content.
- Egg. I have not made this recipe with an egg substitute, so if you do let me know in the comments below!
- Granulated sugar. I usually use organic cane sugar, but regular granulated sugar works great.
- Brown Sugar. If you like a little bolder, molasses taste then you can use dark brown sugar.
- All-purpose flour. I recommend using an unbleached, all-purpose flour to make this pumpkin spice cake.
- Cinnamon. Choose your favorite ground cinnamon. The higher the quality, the better it will taste!
- Pumpkin Pie Spice. Use store bought or make your own with this recipe:
- 1 ½ tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp nutmeg
- ½ tsp cloves
- ½ tsp allspice
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What are the high altitude adjustments for your recipes?
I live 5,000 feet above sea level and make the recipes as written. I always have them tested at sea level as well.
The perfect pumpkin cake ever. Made mine with GF flour and it was flawless.
Have you ever made this with a gluten free flour? If so, did you use the basic one-to-one or another type?
I suggest using a 1:1 all-purpose baking flour.
Just made this with gluten free flour………..don’t worry it came out ‘GREAT’….and this recipe is the best that I have EVER tried……..go for it!!!
I’m SO glad you love this recipe!! And it’s great to know you had success with gluten-free flour!
This looks fabulous! Forgive me if you mentioned it somewhere, but what did you use to lightly dust the top of the frosting? Is that just cinnamon or is it pumpkin spice mix? Thanks! Looking forward to trying this! 🙂
You could use either!
Absolutely perfect cake! I made mine with freshly roasted pumpkin that I had puréed, and it was just divine. The cake is not too sweet, and so moist! The cream cheese frosting was the perfect compliment, I’ve added this to my recipe box — to be made again in the near future!