Easy Pumpkin Cake Recipe

No matter where you live, this easy pumpkin cake can bring memories of fall right to your kitchen. With cream cheese frosting as the topping, you will be fighting over who gets the last piece.

Today is the first official day of fall! What better way to ring in this new season than a super easy pumpkin cake recipe!

But let me tell you, here on Bali, I don't feel fall coming at all. The tropical climate here doesn't really have four seasons, and if there has been any change at all, it is getting even warmer now. This being the Southern hemisphere, it is more like winter is ending now and spring starts.

Pumpkin Cake Is Great for Fall

In this case, pumpkin cake is an awesome way to fake fall! Paired with cream cheese icing and toasted walnuts, I can almost see the leaves turning their colors and twirling down from the trees.

Oh wait, never mind, that must be hallucinations from the cake high. 😉

Minimal Ingredients Are Possible with This Recipe

If your are using a spice cake mix and canned pumpkin puree, this could be a three (!) ingredients cake.

But, alas, I am on a tropical island with limited range of Western products. So I mixed my own spice cake by adding cinnamon, dark brown sugar and vanilla bean powder to a butter cake mix. You could also add cloves, cardamon or pumpkin spice, but I made do with what was available here.

Otherwise, all you do is mix the cake mix with the required number of eggs (3 in my case) and 1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin puree. The pumpkin puree eliminates any need for adding liquid or fat/oil to the cake mix, resulting in a very low calorie treat - and you don't even taste it 🙂

Making Your Own Pumpkin Puree is Quite Easy!

I also couldn't find any canned pumpkin puree here. I wonder if it is even available anywhere outside of North America. But I could buy some fresh pumpkin (just a slice, so glad I didn't have to get a whole one) from the produce section here.

And it is actually not hard at all to make your own pumpkin puree. Even without a blender. It takes time, but it is not difficult (instructions in recipe below).

You can bake the cake in a 9x13" pan and leave it at that. Or make little cakelets like me. I used a glass with 3" diameter to cut circles from the chilled cake. A cookie cutter that size would work even better.

This cream cheese icing is quick and simple to stir together and makes a great topping. Maybe not a filling or frosting for bigger-layer cakes, but definitely a great topping.

Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

5 from 3 votes

No matter where you live, this easy pumpkin cake can bring memories of fall right to your kitchen. With cream cheese frosting as the topping, you will be fighting over who gets the last piece.

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Cook Time 1 hr 30 mins

Total Time 1 hr 30 mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

Pumpkin Cake

• 1 box butter or spice cake mix, 18 oz.
• 1 ¾ cup pumpkin puree 15 oz. can or home-made
• 3 eggs or as required on cake mix box
• only if not using spice cake
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. vanilla powder or paste
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting

• ¼ cup butter softened
• 8 oz. cream cheese softened
• ½ tsp. vanilla powder or paste will give the icing pretty black specks
• 1 tbsp. lemon or lime juice
• 1 cup icing sugar
• walnuts

To make your own pumpkin puree

• pumpkin
• oil
• 1 cup water

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Instructions

 

• Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour 9x13" cake pan. Mix together cake mix, eggs, pumpkin puree and spices (if not using spice cake mix). Fill into cake pan and bake for 25-30 mins.
• Toast some walnuts in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes, stirring once after 5 min. Chop cooled walnuts. Whip butter and cream cheese together until combined. Stir in vanilla and lemon juice. Mix in icing sugar a couple tablespoons at a time until smooth.
• Spread icing over cake in pan and sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Or cut into cakelet circles first. Spread cream cheese frosting on one circle and sprinkle with walnuts, top with another cakelet circle and repeat.

To make your own pumpkin puree:

• Wipe pumpkin outside. Cut into halves or quarters and clean out seeds (toast for a snack) and fibers with a metal spoon. Wipe cut sides with a little bit of oil and place pumpkin pieces in a roasting pan. Fill pan with water and bake at 350F for about 90 minutes until flesh is soft.
• Let cool enough so you can handle the pumpkin pieces. Peel of the skin and mash pumpkin flesh with a fork etc. (you can also use a blender). Drain pumpkin puree through a sieve lined with paper towels or coffee filters for a couple hours, stirring once in a while. The process can be sped up if you have a cheesecloth. Place puree in cheesecloth and squeeze out excess water.
• Leftover pumpkin puree freezes well for future uses.

Keyword Pumpkin Cake Cream Cheese Frosting

Tried this recipe?Please leave a comment below! Share a picture on social media with tag #leelalicious !

Do you love the aromas of fall baking as much as me? What is you favorite fall recipe?

Staying Festive and Creative!

Last year I created an anniversary cake with a bouquet of gumpaste flowers in fall colors.

And the year before that I made my sister a double hazelnut bundt cake for her birthday. It was covered in orange marzipan to look like a pumpkin.

Whatever you do, I hope that you enjoy it, and as always, keep cooking!

Other Recipes You Might Enjoy

Check out these similar recipes and keep cooking!

1. Salted Caramel Ice Cream - Vegan, Paleo
2. Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Recipe
3. Pumpkin Breakfast Cookie - Video