Easy Pumpkin Cake Recipe

This Easy Pumpkin Cake is our favorite, fluffy, moist, and absolutely delicious. It’s perfectly spiced with a tender, moist, and delicate crumb. The marshmallow-like whipped cream cheese frosting takes this pumpkin cake recipe over the top.

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

This pumpkin sheet cake recipe was shared by one of my readers, Yulia. Thank you so much for sharing this treasure of a recipe with us! I now use the same base for my Pumpkin Bread Recipe, and some of our favorite recipes have been shared by our readers. I love it when you all write in and share your favorite recipes and tips. Those are my favorite kinds of emails! Thanks for thinking of me :).

The first time I made this, I invited all 4 of my sisters and their families over for dinner, and everyone really enjoyed it, especially the kids. I polled my sisters about whether they would be more likely to remake this as a fancy double-decker cake or this easy-peasy sheet cake, and the consensus was: keep it EASY. Like 4 steps easy, including frosting!

Ingredients for Easy Pumpkin Cake

• Pantry Staples – All-purpose flour (measured correctly), baking powder, baking soda (sifted to get rid of lumps), cinnamon and salt. You can add 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves for a more spiced flavor in the cake.
• Granulated sugar – Many of you have asked if it works to reduce the sugar, so I tested reducing it from 1 1/2 to 1 cup, and it still works, although it will be less sweet.
• Eggs – you can quickly bring these to room temperature by placing them in warm water for 10 minutes.
• Oil – use a neutral oil like extra light olive oil, vegetable or corn oil
• Pumpkin puree – use one 15 oz can homemade pumpkin puree.

Ingredients for Cream Cheese Frosting

My homemade cream cheese frosting is so versatile. It has a deeper flavor than buttercream and complements the pumpkin beautifully.

• Cream Cheese – 1, 8 oz package, at room temp, cut into quarters
• Unsalted butter – at room temperature. If you dice it up, it will soften faster.
• Powdered sugar – sweetens the frosting without being gritty.
• Real vanilla extract – I use homemade but storebought is fine

How to Make Easy Pumpkin Cake

Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Using cooking spray or oil, grease a 9×13 non-stick baking pan or a Glass pyrex dish. Tip: If you’re serving it out of a metal pan, line it with parchment paper so you don’t scratch up your pan when serving. 

• 1. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 tsp baking soda, 2 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp salt.

• In a second medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients: 3 large eggs, 1 cup oil and 1 can pumpkin, until well combined.

• Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Transfer to prepared baking dish and bake at 350˚F for 35-40 min (my oven took 35 mins), or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely in the pan.

How to Make Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:

• Combine all of your frosting ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and, using the whisk attachment, beat on medium speed until combined, then beat on high speed 2-3 min or until fluffy, scraping down the bowl as needed.

2. Once the pumpkin cake has cooled to room temperature, spread the frosting over the top.

To make the cake more festive and fun for special occasions, I like to decorate with chopped nuts or sprinkles.

Make-Ahead and Storage

• Make-Ahead Cake: You can pre-bake the cake the day before, let it cool to room temperature, then cover and store at room temperature overnight, or refrigerate up to 2 days. You can also tightly wrap in plastic wrap and foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
• Make-Ahead Frosting: Cover and refrigerate up to 3 days. To use, let it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour or just until spreadable or pipeable.
• Storing the Assembled Cake: Once the cake is frosted, it will keep well, covered in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.

For the past 10 years, this is the cake I make most often for Fall family gatherings because it’s so well-loved and comes together fast. This one’s a keeper and is a perfect go-to for Thanksgiving and the holidays.

More Dreamy Pumpkin Recipes

If you love cozy pumpkin recipes, you will find some new favorites in this list:

• Pumpkin Cupcakes
• Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread
• Pumpkin Cheesecake
• Pumpkin Flax Granola
• Pumpkin Pancakes
• Creamy Pumpkin Soup
• Pumpkin Cake Roll
• Pumpkin Pie
• Fluffy Pumpkin Waffles