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 Gabriella, we used Libby's.
Thank you Jordan, I am so happy to enjoyed the cake. It looks delicious! For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 for 18 to 20 minutes. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. The cupcakes will bake with a very slight dome, this is true with almost all scratch recipes.
Hi Melissa No such thing in Australia as pumpkin in a can! So for the “From scratch” Pumpkin Spice Cake will I bake the pumpkin in the oven then mash?? That is what we’d do to make any sort of pumpkin cake. (So funny to hear someone ask what brand of pumpkin did you use)” Thank you for a quick reply...I love your site. Lois.
Hi Lois, Yes, we took the easy route and used canned pumpkin. The cake can be baked with your own pumpkin, then pureed. You know the process of baking a pumpkin, but I am including a link below that will help anyone not familiar with the method.
https://www.melissassouthernstylekitchen.com/homemade-pumpkin-puree/
Hi Melissa, I am going to make mini cupcakes using this recipe. Was wondering if you have any idea how long I should bake them and how many the recipe will make. Thanks.
Hi Connie, Bake the mini cupcakes at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them and check at 8 minutes. Using 1 rounded Tablespoon of batter I think you will get around 48 cupcakes. The cupcakes are done when a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
My daughter made this cake over the weekend. I’m a scratch baker and I’m totally impressed with this recipe. I will be making it for Thanksgiving at my house.
Hi Nancy, Thanks so much for taking the time to post your thoughts on the recipe. I'm very happy your liked it!
Hi there. Just curious what the reason is for the butter not being too soft? Just curious. All my butter is usually room temperature and super soft so I'm wondering if it will totally ruin the cake if the butter is too soft. Thanks ☺️
Hi Dayleen, It will not ruin your cake but the cake layers will be more dense and may not rise as high as they should. Butter that is too soft will not hold the air that it should as you are creaming the butter and sugar. Your butter is softened when your finger can leave an indention (not a fingerprint) without any resistance.
I made this cake for my birthday and it was amazing. I can finally stop adding pumpkin to spice box mix. ????
Hi Marcia, Thank you for your nice review of the recipe, I'm so happy you enjoyed it.