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.
Hi would this recipe work in a 10-12 cup Bundt cake pan?
Hi Joyce, This recipe should work fine in a 10-12 cup bundt pan. I am not sure of the baking time so I would go with a baseline of 35 to 40 minutes. Keep an eye on it and check with a wooden pick for doneness. Lower your oven rack to the next to lowest position Bake at 350 degrees unless the interior of your bundt pan is a dark color, if it is bake at 325 degrees. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
This looks so good! DO you use this frosting recipe for any other cakes?
Thanks for sharing! Does it keep long?
Hi Suzanne, The Spice Cream Cheese Frosting is good on many cake flavors. All spice cakes such as Apple Spice, Carmel Apple Spice, Caramel and Pecan Spice. Also gingerbread cakes and carrot cakes pair well with this frosting. I am sure there are others also.
Hi Vanessa, The cream cheese frosting on the cake is perishable and should be kept refrigerated. Take out of the refrigerator about 1 1/2 hours before serving to take the chill off. In my opinion the refrigerated cake is best eaten within 4 to 5 days. Refrigerated cakes tend to dry out unless kept covered air tight.
Hi! I’m wanting to try this out but was wondering if you had any suggestions for fillings if I wanted to try something besides the frosting in between the layers.
Hi Jimmy, If you want a different filling you could try a Spiced Vanilla Cream Filling. Below is a link to our Banana Pudding Cake recipe. In that recipe you will find a Vanilla Cream Filling, just add the same spices as used in the Pumpkin Cake Recipe. It also needs refrigeration, just as the Cream Cheese Frosting.
https://www.mycakeschool.com/recipes-tutorials/banana-pudding-cake-recipe/
My cake didn’t rise as I had expected/hoped. Any thoughts as to why?
Hi Morgan, If you used three 8 inch pans the layers will be only 1 5/8 to 1 3/4 inches high. We like to use 3 layers because we like more filling/frosting, plus the look of a 3 layer cake. How tall were your layers?
I loved this cake! I added about a tablespoon and a half of vanilla pudding powder for extra moisture, and the zest of one orange. I paired it with an orange buttercream. Fantastic!
I'm so happy to hear it!
I plan to bring this to a Thanksgiving dinner. Can I tightly wrap and freeze the cake layers for a day or two?