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.
May I add some milk into the ingredients? I think it will be more delicious.
Hi StefZero, possibly you overlooked that the recipe does have 1/2 cup milk, I'm not sure how it would turn out if you add more.
Can I substitute using buttermilk and adding 1/2 teaspoon more of soda and 2 teaspoon less of baking powder. I like buttermilk better on cakes
Hi Sandy, I think the acidity of the buttermilk will be covered using the amounts of baking powder and baking soda as they are now. Hope you will enjoy the cake.
Thank you. I did take a teaspoon of powder out and added 1/2 teaspoon more of soda but I’m sure I could have just gone with your recipe without making any changes other than the milks. I’m just playing around. The cake is delicious. Anxious to try all of your cakes
I'm happy all when well and you enjoyed the cake. Thanks so much for posting.
Is this recipe sturdy enough to cover in fondant? I have my first wedding cake booked for October and the bride has requested a pumpkin spice cake. What filling and frosting covering would you recomend? I am concerned about muxing too many flavors (I.e. Pumpkin spice cake, spice cream cheese frosting between layers, buttercream for a crumb coat and fondant to cover cake). Any advise would be appreciated! I am fairly new at this and typically just do cake of chocolate or vanilla. Thanks!
Hi CakeFlower, The recipe is dense enough to be covered in fondant. My favorite frosting and filling for spice cake is cream cheese. It could be just a plain cream cheese, though I do not think the flavors you mentioned would be a problem. I think it would be good. The cake would need refrigeration because of the cream cheese and that might not be possible. You could use a flavoring such as LorAnn Cream Cheese Flavoring in your usual buttercream recipe. I have not tried it so I don't know how true the flavor is. Since the wedding is not until Oct. that gives you time to give it a try. I hope all goes well.
Here's a hybrid cream cheese buttercream I found on internet. (Glorious Treats). It crusts well enough that I can use under fondant. For pumpkin cake, I use a full cream cheese frosting (you can add 4oz cream cheese to this recipe) to fill cake, and this hybrid to frost if going under fondant
½ cup (1 stick/8 Tablespoons) unsalted butter (set at room temp about 10 minutes, but should still be cool)
8 oz. cream cheese (directly from fridge)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (always use pure vanilla extract if possible)
4 cups powdered confectioners sugar
1 to 4 Tablespoons heavy cream, heavy whipping cream (or milk
Directions:
*Place butter in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until fully combined and smooth, about 30 seconds.
*Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend on low speed until combined. Increase to medium speed and beat until it begins to get fluffy.
*Slowly add the heavy cream
Does this make 3 layers that are a full 2" each? I'm doing a tiered cake and I want to end up with a 4" tier. Thanks
Hi Amy, I'm not positive but I think that each layer is probably 1 5/8 or 1 3/4 inch tall. Are your tiers going to have 3 cake layers? If so you will have no problem getting a 4 inch tier. Also, the filling will add additional height.
I just made this cake for my uncles 80th birthday and it was wonderful. It was moist and the frosting tasted so good! This is definitely a keeper! I loved the spiced in the frosting!
Hi kdawn22, Thank you very much for leaving your thoughts on this recipe!! I am happy that you liked it!!
I may be a little computer impaired but I am trying to print this pumpkin recipe but do not see the print option. Your recipes usually print out so pretty with your logo at the top. I had to cut and paste this one into word (not as pretty)! :D Am I just missing it?
Thanks!
Hi Kari! It's not you! ;0)
We're reformatting our recipes and I haven't made my way all the way through the list just yet. I've just updated this one for you so that you can print it now ;0)
Thank you!