Pumpkin Spice Cake
Today, I'm sharing our popular scratch Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe with you!
Just as with our moist homemade spice cake recipe, this is a fall cake that you are going to want to come back to again and again.
It is so soft and tender, and should be a staple for fall celebrations!
Table of Contents
Why we Love It
There is so much to love about this Pumpkin Spice Cake!
- Soft texture and tender crumb
- Warm, cozy flavor
- Crowd pleasing fall dessert, perfect as a fall birthday cake recipe, Thanksgiving cake recipe, and more!
- Delicious with any sort of cream cheese frosting, but we love it with spiced cream cheese frosting!
We have several favorite fall cake recipes in our Cake Recipes Section, including Sweet Potato Cake, Maple Pound Cake, Gingerbread Cake, and Apple Spice Cake. However, this delicious homemade Pumpkin Spice Cake tops our list!
How to Make Pumpkin Spice Cake
You can find the full, printable Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe card further down in this post, but here is a quick rundown of our steps!
- First, preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour three 8 inch pans. We also like to line our cake pans with parchment paper.
- In your mixing bowl add the dry ingredients (flour and the next seven ingredients). With the mixer on low speed, mix the dry ingredients for 30 seconds so all will be well blended. Add the pieces of butter a few slices at a time. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened by the butter and take on the texture of moistened sand. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- In another bowl combine eggs, vegetable oil, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla. Whisk until well blended, set aside.
- With the mixer on low speed, slowly add approximately half of the egg mixture. Increase to medium speed for 1 ½ minutes. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating 20 seconds after each addition.
- Divide the cake batter between the three prepared pans and bake at 350 degrees F for 30-35 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let it cool in the pans for 10 minutes on a wire rack and then turn out.
Recipe FAQs
Other Favorite Fall Cakes!
We have SO many favorite cakes for fall. Here are a few more.
Some of our most popular are our Carrot Cake Recipe, Easy Pumpkin Spice Cake, Applesauce Cake, and Gingerbread Cake.
For more favorite fall cake recipes and tutorials, make sure to check out our Fall & Thanksgiving Roundup Post! You'll also find a delicious recipe for homemade pumpkin cupcakes! Make sure to check out our collection of classic Thanksgiving cakes as well!
We hope that you enjoy this fantastic homemade Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe. It's the only scratch Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe that you'll ever need.
We have lots more Cake Recipes for you to scroll through, including cake recipes from scratch and cake mix recipes.
We also have many Cake Decorating tutorials for you as well!
Here are a few of our favorite cake decorating tutorials for fall:
Have you made this? We would LOVE for you to leave a ⭐️ rating as well as a comment and photo below! We really appreciate your feedback!
Pumpkin Spice Cake {Scratch Recipe}
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Spice Cake Layers
- 2 ¾ cups (360g) all purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon (15g) baking powder
- 1 teaspoon (5g) baking soda
- 2 teaspoons (6g) cinnamon
- 1 teaspoons (2)g nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ginger
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, softened. It should easily dent when pressed but not be overly soft through and through.
- 4 large eggs, room temperature.
- ¼ cup (54g) vegetable oil
- 15 oz (425) Canned Pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup (121g) milk
- 1 teaspoons (4g) vanilla extract
FOR THE SPICED CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:
- 3 sticks (340g total) unsalted butter, softened
- 339 grams (12 oz) cream cheese, softened (we used 1 ½ packages)
- 1 teaspoon (2g) cinnamon (Adjust amount to your liking)
- ½ teaspoon (1g) nutmeg (Adjust amount to your liking)
- 1 teaspoon (2g) ground ginger (Sift if clumpy. Adjust amount to your liking.)
- 6 - 6 ½ cups confectioners’ sugar (Sifted. Adjust amount to your liking.)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) vanilla extract
Instructions
For the Pumpkin Spice Cake Layers
- This recipe uses the reverse creaming method.)Preheat oven to 350. Grease & flour three 8 inch pans.
- In your mixing bowl add the dry ingredients (flour and the next seven ingredients). With the mixer on low speed, mix the dry ingredients for 30 seconds so all will be well blended. Add the pieces of butter a few slices at a time. Mix until the dry ingredients are moistened by the butter and look like coarse sand. If you pinch some of the mixture between your fingers it will stick together. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- In another bowl combine eggs, oil, pumpkin, milk and vanilla. Whisk until well blended, set aside.
- Method is important in this recipe so with the mixer on LOW speed, SLOWLY add approximately ½ of the egg mixture. Increase to medium speed for 1 ½ minutes. Scrape bottom and sides of the bowl. Add the remaining egg mixture in 2 pourings, beating 20 seconds after each addition.
- Bake at 350 degrees 30 - 35 minutes, let cool in pans 10 minutes then turn out.
To Prepare the Frosting
- Using your mixer beat the butter and cream cheese until well blended. Add the vanilla and spices. With the mixer on low speed gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until it is a good piping consistency.
I’m making this cake for my grandsons birthday. Only making 2 layers and some cupcakes. Can’t wait to let you know how he likes it. It looks so yummy.
Can I make this cake in a loaf pan or 9 x 13 pan?
Hi Rita, We have not made this recipe in a 9x13 pan, but it should be fine to do so. Keep an eye on the cake, it will be done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Thank you for the quick response. Since I am only one in the hpusehold I need a recipoe for one or two people. Will try it in a loaf pan with walnuts and raisins. Yummy
Big hit at the holiday party this year!
Great!! So glad to hear it! ;0)
Hi! If I were to do these as cupcakes what would the yield and baking time look like? Thank you so much!
I am planning to make this cake. How many cups of batter does this recipe make? Thanks.
I Rachel! I'm glad that you are making it. I'll have to add the batter amount- it makes around 7.5 cups.
I only have two 8 inch cake pans….do you know measurements for just 2?
Hi there!!
I love this recipe and i have been using it since last year but lately i have been having some issue. I make my own puree. And at first i thought it was because the puree had too much liquid but the same keeps happening after draining it a ton! The pulp is fairly firm.
The bottom of the cake keeps getting a weird rubbery layer. thank why i though it was too much liquid in the batter. Do you by any chance have a video of the batter's consistency before going to the oven?
Thank you in advance!!
so so so good yum!
I would really love to try this cake, but I am a diabetic, and I was wondering if anybody has tried substituting the sugar for a sugar substitute to make it a A little bit diabetic, friendly if that makes sense
I frequently replace sugar with coconut sugar which is quite low in the glycemic index. I replace 1:1 and it takes delicious in every recipe I’ve made
The Pumpkin Spice Cake is so yummy. I'll make it for Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
can thisnbe baked in a bundt cake pan?
Hi Catharine- I haven't tried this in a bundt pan but it should work. We actually have a Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe in our recipes section that is very good with similar ingredients.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/pumpkin-bundt-cake/
our Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake is very good also!
https://www.mycakeschool.com/pumpkin-snickerdoodle-bundt-cake/
I cannot wait to try this. I had a recipe when I was in culinary.school, it had butterscotch chips in it and was sooo yummy. thanks for this.