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Pumpkin Spice Cake

Last Updated On: November 14, 2024 | Published: November 18, 2014 by Melissa Diamond | 198 Comments
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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!

This scratch Pumpkin Spice Cake is the BEST! So moist and flavorful- keep it in mind for your fall birthdays, Thanksgiving, and special occasions!

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!
Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe from Scratch is the BEST!

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

Today, we are using the reverse creaming method of mixing today. In this method, the ingredients are added in a different order than what you may be used to with the traditional creaming method.

The dry ingredients are first added to the mixing bowl and combined, then the butter is added (which coats the dry mixture, creating the look of coarse sand). Finally, the combined wet ingredients are added in a few separate pourings.

The end result is a velvety cake texture and crumb that is incredibly moist! Some other great recipes that use this method are our yellow cake, chocolate cake recipe, and orange dreamsicle cake.

If you prefer the conventional creaming method, you can follow our Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cake Recipe instead (minus the cinnamon swirl ingredients & instructions)!

Yes, this cake should be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting. However, for best taste and texture, it is best to remove the pumpkin spice cake from the refrigerator two hours before serving. This will give the cake time to warm and soften.

This Pumpkin Spice Cake is one of my absolute favorites for fall. But we have several other pumpkin cakes that you must try!

You can find them in our Fall Cake Recipes section, but here are a few favorites: Pumpkin Praline Cake, Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake , Pumpkin Gingerbread Cake, and Pumpkin Spice Cake from cake mix!

We also have a heavenly Pumpkin Bundt Cake, Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Bundt Cake, or if you're feeling a little fancy, check out our scratch Pumpkin Roll Cake!

We love cream cheese frosting with all of our spice cakes, pumpkin cake included! For today's cake, we used a spiced cream cheese frosting for an added dose of warm spices.

If you need a less perishable option, you can use our vanilla buttercream recipe and add spices to it!

Yes! Just as with the majority of our cakes (from marble cake to white cake and more), these pumpkin layers freeze beautifully.

After cooling to room temperature (warm is fine), wrap the layers individually with plastic wrap followed by aluminum foil. We like to first place each layer on a foil-covered cardboard cake circle for extra support. They will stay fresh for up to three months!

*If you are only freezing the pumpkin cake layers for a few days, double wrapping in plastic wrap is enough, you can skip the aluminum foil step.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting Recipe- MyCakeSchool.com

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!

The BEST Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe by MyCakeSchool.com! Perfect for fall celebrations!

Pumpkin Spice Cake {Scratch Recipe}

BY Melissa and Bebe
This moist, soft, scratch Pumpkin Spice Layer Cake is the BEST! Perfect for fall celebrations!
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Course: Cakes and Cupcakes
Servings: 15 servings
RATE THIS RECIPE
Print Recipe Pin 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.
4.51 from 318 votes (315 ratings without comment)

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198 Comments

  1. Hi Lisa, Yes, we almost always freeze our cake layers even if only for a few hours. Freezing while the layers are still rather warm will give you a more moist cake. We wrap the layers individually in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. When you are ready to frost the layers, allow to begin thawing on the countertop. When condensation forms on the aluminum foil you can unwrap and allow to thaw. You could also fill and frost your layers while the layers are still partially frozen (fewer crumbs to deal with). If you ever plan to frost a cake with a crusting buttercream and smooth the buttercream using the Viva towel method, then the layers must be at room temperature. This is more info than you asked for, isn't it. Hope you will enjoy the cake!

    Reply

  4. Hi mam.. In the quarantine period I can't go anywhere.. I have only butter cream ingredients in my home.. so can I substitute creame cheese frosting to butter cream frosting for carrot and pumpkin cake?? Is that tast good???

    Reply

  5. Hi Asma, Yes, a cream cheese frosting would be very good with this recipe. The cake would need to be refrigerated with a cream cheese frosting. Remove from the refrigerator an hour or so before serving .

    Reply

  7. Hi Sam, Sweet potato cake is a flavor we want to try this fall. It seems that it could be substituted for pumpkin, I just can't be positive.

    Reply

  9. Hi Jessica, Yes, you can bake in two 9 inch pans. Bake at 350 degrees, check at 25 minutes, keep an eye on your cakes. It is done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.

    Reply

  10. What if I just have pumpkin pie spice? How much of that would I use ? Also, I'm making in a bundt pan to turn it into a pumpkin, how long would I bake it for?

    Reply

  11. Hi Cassandra, I would use 2 1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice. For your Bundt pan, bake at 350 degrees if using a pan that has a light colored interior, if a dark interior bake bake at 325 degrees. Only fill the pan to within 1 1/2 inches of the top rim. I have not baked this cake in a bundt pan so I don't have a definite time but it may take 45 to 50 minutes. Keep an eye on it. It will be done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.

    Reply