Pumpkin Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

closeup of pumpkin spice cake on a white plate

4.88 from 58 votes

Pumpkin Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

This pumpkin spice cake is my favorite “welcome to fall” treat. A super moist butter cake that uses real pumpkin puree, pumpkin spices, buttermilk, and oil which helps it stay moist, even after a week in the fridge. Frosted with cream cheese frosting and adorable marzipan candy pumpkins! Its really the perfect centerpiece for the Holidays.

Prep Time10

Cook Time35

Total Time45

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 524kcal

Author: Liz Marek

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

US Customary - Metric

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

Important Things To Note Before You Start

Pumpkin pie spice substitute: Replace all individual spices (cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger) with 2 Tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. Keep the salt as written.

Pan size adjustments:

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

Make-ahead: Wrap cooled layers and refrigerate up to 3 days or freeze up to 2 months. Finished frosted cake keeps in the refrigerator up to 5 days.

Storage: Refrigerator, covered, up to 5 days. Let come to room temperature 2 hours before serving.

Buttermilk substitute: Combine milk with 1 Tablespoon white vinegar and rest 5 minutes. See full buttermilk substitute guide.

Optional mix-ins: Fold in 1 cup chopped toasted pecans or walnuts, ½ to ¾ cup mini chocolate chips, or ½ cup raisins with a spatula after mixing in the flour.

Frosting variations: Add 1 Tablespoon pure maple syrup in place of vanilla for maple cream cheese frosting. Use browned butter in place of regular butter for a deeper, nuttier flavor.

For a whiter frosting, add white food coloring. Store leftover frosting in the fridge for up to a week or freeze up to 6 months."

Nutrition