This pumpkin spice cake is super moist, packed with real pumpkin flavor, and has that perfect balance of warm spices without tasting like a candle. The layers stay soft even after chilling, and the tangy cream cheese frosting keeps it from getting too sweet. If you have the time, my homemade pumpkin puree takes it from good to unforgettable.
Every year around fall, I get flooded with messages asking for the best pumpkin cake, pumpkin sheet cake, pumpkin bundt cake, and pumpkin cheesecake bars. But the only thing I ever crave is a really good pumpkin spice cake recipe that tastes like it came straight from a bakery.
I developed this one back when Avalon was tiny and obsessed with fresh pumpkin everything. It was the first time I realized you could get amazing results from pure pumpkin puree without needing tons of oil or sweetness to cover it up. And since then, this has become the base for all of my favorite pumpkin recipes.
Quick Glance at the Recipe
- Recipe Name: Pumpkin Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
- Why You'll Love It: Super moist layers that stay soft even after refrigerating, made with real pumpkin puree, buttermilk, and both butter and oil for the richest possible crumb. Tangy cream cheese frosting and adorable optional marzipan pumpkins on top.
- Time and Difficulty: Intermediate. 10 minutes prep, 30 to 35 minutes bake, plus cooling and decorating time.
- Main Ingredients: All-purpose flour, pumpkin puree, eggs, granulated and brown sugar, vegetable oil, melted butter, buttermilk, warm spices, cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar.
- Method: Whisk dry ingredients, beat eggs and sugars, add wet ingredients, fold in flour mixture, bake in three 8-inch pans, cool, frost with cream cheese frosting, decorate.
- Texture and Flavor: Dense, moist, and deeply flavored with warm spices. The buttermilk keeps the crumb tender. The cream cheese frosting is tangy and silky.
- Quick Tip: Bring all your ingredients to room temperature or slightly warm before starting. Cold eggs and cold buttermilk can cause the batter to look curdled, which affects the final texture.
Jump to:
- Quick Glance at the Recipe
- What Makes This Pumpkin Spice Cake So Moist⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Pumpkin Spice Cake Ingredients
- Tips and Tricks
- How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cake Step-By-Step
- Cake Batter And Frosting Calculator
- Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
- Cups of Batter Needed
- Cups of Frosting Needed
- Common Pumpkin Spice Cake Problems To Avoid
- Final Thoughts
- Pumpkin Spice Cake FAQs
- More Fall Baking Recipes to Try
- Leave Me a Review⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
- Recipe
What Makes This Pumpkin Spice Cake So Moist
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Every ingredient in this cake is doing a specific job. Here is what makes it work:
- Butter AND oil. The butter brings the flavor and the oil keeps it moist. Together, you get a cake that is rich without ever tasting greasy.
- Both leaveners. Pumpkin puree is heavy and full of moisture, so baking soda on its own won't lift it. You really do need the baking powder in there too.
- Real pumpkin puree, not pie filling. No added sugar and no mystery spice blend, so you control exactly how it tastes.
- Buttermilk. This is the one that makes it taste like a bakery cake instead of a home bake. It tenderizes the crumb and adds a tang that plays against the cream cheese frosting.
- It stays soft in the fridge. Most cakes go tight and dense after a day. This one is still moist a week later, which is why it is my go-to when I need to bake ahead.
Pumpkin Spice Cake Ingredients
This pumpkin spice cake uses common baking ingredients you probably already have around your house. The freshness of the spices makes the biggest difference in flavor; a jar of cinnamon that has been open for two years will produce a noticeably less fragrant result than a fresh one. I always recommend weighing your ingredients with a digital kitchen scale for the most accurate results.
- All-purpose flour. The structure of the cake. Always weigh your flour rather than measuring by volume so the batter stays balanced.
- Baking soda and baking powder. Pumpkin puree is heavy and full of moisture, so you need both leaveners to get proper lift.
- Cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and ginger. The spice blend is what makes this taste unmistakably like fall. You can swap all of them for pumpkin pie spice, a pre-mixed blend available at any grocery store.
- Salt. Goes in both the cake and the frosting. It sharpens the spices in the cake and keeps the frosting from tasting flat.
- Eggs, room temperature. They whip up nicely and help emulsify the batter. Room temperature eggs incorporate much more smoothly than cold ones.
- Granulated sugar and light brown sugar. They work together to keep the cake soft, and the brown sugar adds moisture plus a subtle molasses depth.
- Pumpkin puree. Canned works perfectly, or make your own homemade pumpkin puree. Do not grab pumpkin pie filling by mistake; it is already sweetened and spiced and will make the cake far too sweet.
- Vegetable oil. Keeps the crumb tender and moist even after the cake cools. You can swap for melted coconut oil or any neutral oil.
- Butter. Melted in the cake, softened in the frosting. In the cake it adds richness and flavor that oil alone cannot provide. For a deeper, nuttier version, try brown butter cream cheese frosting.
- Vanilla extract. Goes in both the cake and the frosting. Ties the spices together so the pumpkin flavor shines rather than getting lost in the spice blend.
- Buttermilk, room temperature. The secret to a beautifully soft, fluffy texture. If you don't have any, use my buttermilk substitute, or swap in yogurt or sour cream.
- Cream cheese, room temperature. Use full-fat for the richest, most stable frosting. Room temperature is non-negotiable; cold cream cheese will not beat smooth no matter how long you mix it.
- Powdered sugar, sifted. Sweetens and stiffens the frosting. Sifting prevents lumps.
Tips and Tricks
- For extra sturdy cake layers for carving or stacking, chill them on a wire rack before trimming, then freeze them before stacking for the cleanest cuts.
- If your pumpkin puree is watery, strain it through a fine-mesh sieve or cheesecloth, or use canned pumpkin for consistency.
- Leftover pumpkin puree freezes beautifully. Store it in an airtight container so you can use it later.
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cake Step-By-Step
Preheat your oven to 350º F and prep three 8x2-inch cake pans with cake goop or your preferred pan release, then line the bottoms with parchment. Bring your eggs and buttermilk to room temperature before you start. Refer to the recipe card for exact amounts and timing, since this is the high-level version.
- Whisk together all the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, add your flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and salt and whisk together to combine. Set aside.
- Beat the eggs, sugars, and vanilla until aerated and bubbly. In the bowl of your stand mixer, add your room-temperature eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Mix on medium to medium-high with the paddle attachment for 1 minute. It should look aerated and bubbly. You can also do this with a hand mixer; just mix for longer and go by look instead of time.
- Add the wet ingredients and mix until combined. Add in your pumpkin puree, oil, melted butter, and room-temperature buttermilk and mix until combined. Make sure you are using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which has added spices and flavors.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low until just incorporated. Slowly add in your flour mixture and mix on low until your dry ingredients are just incorporated and the batter is smooth. Stop the mixer the moment no streaks of dry ingredients remain, because over-mixing at this stage develops gluten and makes the cake dense.
- Optional step: If adding mix-ins such as chopped pecans, walnuts, mini chocolate chips, or raisins, fold them in gently by hand at this stage with a rubber spatula. Do not return to the mixer.
- Divide the batter evenly between your pans and bake. Pour batter into three 8x2-inch prepared cake pans and smooth out. Bake the cakes for 30 to 35 minutes or until the center of the cake bounces back when you touch it and a toothpick comes out clean. Cool the cakes for 10 minutes in the pan and turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully before frosting. Trim off the domes with a serrated knife once the cake layers are fully cool. You can wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and freeze to chill them faster.
PRO TIP: The cake is done when the toothpick has moist crumbs, not wet batter. If it comes out wet, give it another 3 to 5 minutes. If it comes out completely clean, you are on the edge of overbaking. Aim for a few moist crumbs.
- Cream the softened cream cheese and butter until completely smooth. Cream the room-temperature cream cheese with the paddle attachment until smooth. Then add in your softened butter and continue creaming on low until fully incorporated and smooth.
- Add the powdered sugar gradually, then finish with vanilla and salt. Slowly add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time, letting each cup fully incorporate before adding the next. Add in vanilla and salt. Mix on low for 5 to 6 minutes until silky. For a whiter frosting, add white food coloring. Store leftover frosting in the fridge for up to a week or freeze for up to 6 months.
PRO TIP: If the cream cheese frosting looks too soft to spread after mixing, refrigerate it for 15 to 20 minutes until it firms up slightly. Cream cheese frosting that is too warm will slide off the cake rather than staying in place. This is especially important in a warm kitchen.
- Make the marzipan pumpkins (optional). Divide your marzipan into 5 to 7 sections and color with food coloring. Roll each piece into a ball, add lines with a modeling tool, form a small stem, and dust with edible food coloring dust for shading.
- Stack the chilled cake layers with cream cheese frosting. Trim the domes off your cooled pumpkin layers. Fit a piping bag with a coupler so you can easily switch between a round piping tip and a leaf piping tip. Add a layer of cream cheese frosting between each cake layer with your offset spatula, aiming for about ¼-inch thick frosting per layer. Add your second layer of cake, add more frosting, and finish with the last layer of cake on top.
- Apply the crumb coat and refrigerate until firm. Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of cream cheese frosting with your offset spatula. This crumb coat seals in the loose crumbs so your final layer of frosting stays clean. Place the cake into the fridge or freezer for about 20 minutes until the crumb coat is firm to the touch. Then apply your final layer of frosting, smooth the sides with a bench scraper, and clean the top with your offset spatula.
- Pipe the wood grain texture, dollops, marzipan pumpkins, and leaf accents. Use your piping bag with the round tip to pipe a wood grain texture across the sides of the cake. Pipe a border of frosting dollops around the top edge of the cake. Add your marzipan pumpkins on top of the dollops and fill in any spaces with piped leaves using the leaf piping tip. Store your finished cake in the fridge until ready to serve.
Cake Batter And Frosting Calculator
This recipe makes enough batter and frosting for three 8-inch layers. Use the slider on the recipe card to scale the servings up or down, or use the calculator below to work out exactly how much batter and frosting you need for a different pan size.
Cake Batter and Frosting Calculator
Select an option below to calculate how much batter or frosting you need. Adjust the servings slider on the recipe card to change the amounts the recipe makes.
Choose a pan type
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Choose a cake pan size
(based on 2" tall cake pan)
Cupcake Tin Size
Choose number of pans
Cups of Batter Needed
8 cups
Cups of Frosting Needed
5 cups
Note: measurements are estimated based off the vanilla cake recipe using standard US cake pans and sizes. Measurements used are for 2" tall cake pans only. Your results may vary. Do not overfill cake pans above manufacturer's recommended guidelines.
Common Pumpkin Spice Cake Problems To Avoid
- The batter looks curdled. Your ingredients were too cold. It usually still bakes fine, but the texture won't be as smooth. Room temperature eggs and buttermilk next time.
- The layers domed a lot. Normal with this much leavening. Trim them flat with a serrated knife before stacking, and eat the domes warm. That's the baker's tax.
- The cake came out dense. Either the batter got over-mixed after the flour went in, or your pumpkin puree was watery and thinned it out. Strain watery puree through a fine mesh sieve before using.
- The frosting is too soft to spread. Your cream cheese or butter got too warm. Chill the frosting 15 to 20 minutes, re-mix briefly, and try again.
- The cake is dry. Almost always overbaked. Check your oven with an oven thermometer and pull the cakes the moment the toothpick shows moist crumbs.
Final Thoughts
This is my welcome-to-fall cake. It's the one I start craving the second the weather turns, and it's the recipe every other pumpkin bake on this site got built from. What I love most is how forgiving it is. The layers stay moist in the fridge for a solid week, so you can bake days ahead and it'll still taste like you pulled it out of the oven that morning. Just take it out two hours before you serve it. Cold cream cheese frosting is a much sadder experience, so don't skip that part.
Pumpkin Spice Cake FAQs
Yes, it is a very firm cake and it holds up well under fondant. One important caveat: cream cheese frosting will melt fondant, so use the cream cheese frosting as your filling between the layers and switch to buttercream for the crumb coat and the outer coat if you are covering the cake.
That is normal and you should not throw it out. The cake is a little oily when it first bakes, but after a day in the fridge that oil is exactly what makes the cake taste so moist. If you are baking these as cupcakes and the liners come out greasy, cut the oil back by half or leave it out entirely.
You can, but it will affect the stability. The reason this frosting is so sturdy is the amount of powdered sugar in it, so adding more cream cheese will soften it. If you are stacking or decorating the cake, keep the ratio as written.
It should work fine in this recipe. Use a 1:1 gluten free baking blend rather than a single alternative flour, since the blend gives you a finer texture that is closer to the original.
It will not be the same cake, since the pumpkin is doing a lot of the work on both moisture and structure. If what you really want is a spice cake without much pumpkin flavor, you are better off adding the spice blend to a vanilla cake recipe instead.
Leave Me a Review
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If you tried this Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe or any other recipe on my blog, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments. I love hearing from you!
Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with paddle attachment, hand mixer or whisk
- three, 8"x2" cake pans (or two pans)
- Piping Bag
- Modeling tools
- #3 Round Piping Tip
- Medium leaf pipnig tip
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Cake Ingredients
- 18 ounces All Purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons Cloves
- 2 teaspoons Nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon Ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons Salt
- 8 large Eggs room temperature
- 14 ounces Granulated Sugar
- 3 ounces Light Brown Sugar
- 15 ounces Pumpkin Puree
- 4 ounces Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Vanilla Extract
- 5 ounces Buttermilk room temperature, or combine milk with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and rest for 5 minutes.
- 6 ounces Melted Butter
Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 8 ounces unsalted butter room temperature
- 32 ounces powdered sugar sifted
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Cake Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350º F (177º C) and prepare three, 8"x2" cake pans with cake goop or another preferred pan release. You can also use two 9" pans, just bake for longer. Measure out your ingredients with a scale and bring eggs and buttermilk to room temperature.
- In a large bowl, add your flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and salt and whisk together to combine. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer, add your room temperature eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla. Mix on medium/medium-high with the paddle attachment for 1 minute. You can also do this with a hand mixer, just mix for longer and go by look instead of time. It should look aerated and bubbly.
- Add in your pumpkin puree, oil, melted butter, and room-temperature buttermilk, and mix until combined.Make sure you're using pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which has added spices and flavors.
- Slowly add in your flour mixture and mix on low until all your dry ingredients are just incorporated and your batter is smooth. Do not over-mix.
- Pour batter into three, 8"x2" prepared cake pans and smooth out. Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes or until the center of the cake bounces back when you touch it and a toothpick comes out clean.Cool the cakes for ten minutes in the pan and turn out onto a wire rack to cool fully before frosting. I like to trim off the domes of my cake to make it easier to stack. You can wrap the cakes in plastic wrap and freeze to chill them faster.
Frosting Instructions
- Cream the softened cream cheese with the paddle attachment until smooth. Add in your softened butter and continue creaming on low until fully incorporated and smooth.
- Slowly add in powdered sugar one cup at a time, letting fully incorporate before adding the next cup. Add in vanilla and salt. Mix at low for 5-6 minutes until smooth.
Marzipan Pumpkins
- Divide your marzipan into 5-7 sections and color them with food coloring. I used egg yellow, orange, red, green, white, and brown for the pumpkin stems.
- Roll each piece of marzipan into a ball. Use a modeling tool to add lines to the side.
- Form a small stem for the top of the pumpkin.
- Dust the lines with some edible food coloring dust to add shading. I used a dark reddish orange for the orange pumpkins and dark green for the green pumpkins and the white pumpkins.
Decorating Your Cake
- Trim the domes off your cooled pumpkin layers.
- Add a layer of cream cheese frosting with your offset spatula. Try to keep the layer nice and even, I shoot for about ¼" thick frosting.
- Add your second layer of cake. Add more frosting and finish with the last layer of cake on top.
- Cover the whole cake in a thin layer of your cream cheese frosting. This is called the crumb coat and seals in the loose crumbs. Place into the fridge or freezer for about 20 minutes to firm up the frosting.
- Add your final layer of cream cheese frosting with your offset spatula. Smooth the sides with a bench scraper to make the sides smooth and then smooth the top with your offset spatula. (see the video in the recipe card for more visual instructions).
- Fit a piping bag with a coupler so that you can easily switch between a round piping tip and a leaf piping tip.
- Use your piping bag to add some wood grain to the sides of the cake and pipe a border around the top of the cake of some dollops of frosting.
- Add your marzipan pumpkins on top of the frosting dollops.
- Fill in the spaces with piped leaves using a leaf piping tip.
- Store your finished cake in the fridge until it's ready to be served.
Video
Notes
- Two 9-inch pans: bake 40 to 45 minutes
- 9x13-inch sheet pan: bake 35 to 40 minutes
- Bundt pan: bake 50 to 60 minutes
- Cupcakes: bake at 350º F for 18 to 20 minutes
Brittany H says
I’m looking for more of a spice cake recipe, I don’t want a lot of pumpkin flavor. Can I leave out the pumpkin or substitute it for something?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I dont know for sure since I haven't tried that. I don't think it would be the same. What I usually do is just add spices to my vanilla cake recipe 🙂
Jody says
I don’t see any room temp ingredients noted on the cake recipe. Only the frosting. But the but the Super Important note about room temp ingredients is in cake directions, so I just wanted to verify!
Ogunka grace says
Wonderful recipe
The Sugar Geek Show says
Thanks so much!
Krissy krueger says
How well does this recipe hold up for cupcakes?
Terryann Bernard says
OMG
I just watched the video, Avalon you are Beautiful!!! And keep baking with mommy so we can watch more of you as you grow up. Mommy is pretty terrific too! ???❤️?
Terryann Bernard says
Btw this recipe is the Bomb!!
Terryann Bernard says
Liz,
Let me give you some mommy advice (if I may)! Avalon is only going to be four, for a short time, the best I can say as a mother of three boys, is enjoy every single moment that she wants to spend with you, you are her greatest teacher, when my boys were little they loved to help me cook and bake so much so that today they are men (30, 28, &26) who not only love to cook (my middle son is a chef), but love to bake as well. Our family Sunday dinners are about whose cooking who’s preparing but most importantly the boys tell stories about when they were little and mommy taught them how to make all sorts of things. We will never get back those times so make them worth every minute I promise you that someday in the future your daughter will think of you as her hero, especially that you own and run your business take care of your family. I give you a lot of credit for doing what you do so never give up and enjoy each and every memory making minute that’ll be you most precious masterpiece.
A fan forever,
Terryann
Amy says
Saved and printed! Did you use unsalted butter? Thanks!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Yes unsalted 😀
Jessica Lycholat Cain says
This looks amazing. Could the flour be swapped for Bob's Red Mill 1:1 GF flour successfully you think?
The Sugar Geek Show says
I think it would work fine for this recipe but I would use the 1:1 baking blend for a finer texture
Brenda Jarmusz says
Lizzo,
You my sweet friend are amazing, I know I have told you that many times before but I just feel the need to say it again. I totally understand being tired and busy and sometimes not wanting to make a mess and have to clean up after but I also get being a mom and making memories with my children, you are a real superwoman!!! I love how you are a boss/owner/ wife/mom/ friend/ cake designer/ cake decorator and much much more. I have always loved and admired and appreciated you and your tutorials on sugar geek show and I'm very proud to be a sugar geek elite but I have to tell you it brought pure joy and love to my heart watching you teach and bake with Avalon. My mom passed away when I was 10 , she had cancer all over her body and when i was 7-9 she would show me how to cook and bake as she sat in her wheelchair she showed me what to do next and that is my greatest memory of all. I had told you before about her recipe for a chocolate mayonnaise cake with mint icing. Anyway I just wanted to say thank you. Not only thank you for always sharing your ideas, knowledge and best recipes but also showing us the beautiful bond between a mother and daughter and how special and important these times are together for you both, they grow up so fast and it's nice to have those moments to look back on. You are a wonderful lady and sweet friend. Thank you again for all you do. I cant wait to try this recipe. Tell Avalon she did an awesome job!!!!!
The Sugar Geek Show says
Thank you for sharing Brenda <3 I am so glad you have those wonderful memories of your mother to cherish. I do have one memory of my mother baking a blackberry sponge cake that was always so good and a favorite in our family but she rarely baked anything else that I can remember. I cherish that one recipe and wish we would have had more time together before she passed when I was 19. Unfortunately she was ill for most of my childhood so I don't have many memories of her. Baking really does bring families together <3
Shirley B. says
This is absolutely precious! Well done, mama! You will never regret taking time with your littles as all TOO FAST they grow up!
Paula Wallace Forrester says
Loved the video!?Avalon was great!! Made this cake more interesting!! Thanks for the recipe!!!
Joy Fonseca says
I'd like to do this cake in a bundt pan with a glaze. How would you adjust baking temp and time for a bundt pan?
The Sugar Geek Show says
Hard to say but I imagine it will take much more time to bake, at least 70 minutes
Katrina J says
Liz, I have watched a lot of your tutorials over the past few years. And this one is, hands down, my favorite. Got me over here missing the snot out of my daughter, who is only at school. I do have an urge to go sign her out early and bring her home to bake something. Avalon is so adorable, and she did an outstanding job. This cake is now on my list of things to do this week. Thank you.
The Sugar Geek Show says
Awww thank you so much! I think we will do this again together, it's a lot more fun with her than the typical just film the bowl style lol. I'll be sure to prepare myself and my kitchen a little bit better lol
Samantha says
This looks so good! I definitely want to try it! Do you think for a 6” round 2” tall layers it would take the same amount of time to bake?
These moments with your daughter are so sweet ?