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.
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Helpful Reader Review
“Very easy to make, cake was moist and delicious. I loved the cream cheese frosting because it wasn’t so sweet. Was loved by all the ladies at the luncheon.” – Mandy ★★★★★
Pumpkin Cake Video Tutorial
I’ll show you how easy it is to make the pumpkin cake and cream cheese frosting. If you aren’t a major pumpkin fan yet, you will be after trying this! We are quite smitten with this cake. It is on the regular rotation at our house in the Autumn. Plus, it’s not overly sweet, so there’s no avoiding that second helping ;).
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.
- 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.
Easy Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
Ingredients for Pumpkin Cake:
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, *see note on measuring
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, *
- 1 tsp baking soda, sifted to get rid of lumps
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp cinnamon, *
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- 3 large eggs, room temp
- 1 cup oil, extra light olive oil, vegetable or corn oil will work
- 15 oz pumpkin puree, can
Ingredients for Frosting:
- 8 oz cream cheese, room temp, cut into quarters
- 8 Tbsp unsalted butter butter, room temp
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- Pecans to decorate, optional
Instructions
How to Make Pumpkin Cake:
- Prep: Preheat oven to 350˚F. Grease a 9×13 non-stick baking pan or a Glass Pyrex dish.** 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 min), or until a toothpick poked in the center comes out clean. Let cake cool completely in pan then spread the top with frosting (see below).
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.
- Once the pumpkin cake has cooled to room temperature, spread the frosting over the top, then decorate with chopped nuts or sprinkles if desired.
Notes
*If you prefer a less sweet cake, you can use 1 cup of sugar, and the recipe will still work.
*Several of you have reported great results adding 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves for a more spiced flavor in the cake.
**If you’re serving it out of a metal pan, line it with parchment paper so you don’t scratch up your pan.
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
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
Hi Natasha – I would like to make this as a multi-layer cake … do you think it would hold up, or is the cake too moist?
Thanks!
Hi Chloe, I have not tried this as a layer cake so I can’t say for certain. I think you could make it work for a 2-layer 8 or 9″ cake and you may need to make some adjustments to the bake time since it will be 2 thinner layers.
Hi Natasha!
I absolutely love your recipes!!
I have a question about your pumpkin cake/cupcake recipe. Would the same batter work for making pumpkin roll? I would like to make it for Thanksgiving.
Thanks!
P.S. I made your pumpkin bread recipe last week. It was so moist! Loved it!!
Hi Rita, I bet that would work great as a roll! I hope you love this recipe!
This was my first time using canned pumpkin and the cake was a triumph! Day 3 in fridge and seems even better than the day it was baked. So easy to make, it’s now my favourite easy bake. Thank you!
Yay, love it! Thank you for your good comments and feedback! It’s always great and very inspiring to read comments like this.
Just made this, amazing! My kids loved it! Very light perfect for fall. Do you recommend storing left overs in the fridge?
That is the best when kids love what we parents make. That’s so great! You can always make it the night before and store it. You can cover and refrigerate for 5 to 7 days. It does keep very well in the fridge
Fantastic recipe! I made it for a luncheon with my golf friends and everyone asked for the recipe. I did up the spices by adding some pumpkin pie spice (1 tsp) and used applesauce for 1/2 of the oil. The frosting is amazing. Thank you!
You’re so welcome, Lisa! I’m glad you and your friends enjoyed it!
This is so helpful as I want to make this ahead as a trial run for my daughters 1st birthday next month! I was wondering about applesauce in place of sugar. Thanks!!
I made this exactly as written and my husband and I loved it! It’s true that it’s not overly sweet and rich like you would expect from a cake like this. So you can enjoy a whole slice instead of feeling sick 3 bites in.
Yes!! I feel exactly the same way. I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed that.
I wasn’t sure that this was going to turn out because my consistency looked different than yours but it did. So moist!! Since I’m calorie counting, I cut down on the sugar and skipped the cream cheese frosting. Delicious nonetheless…..as are all of your recipes.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
The cream cheese frosting recipe seems to be lacking 3 more cups of pwd sugar.
Hi Julie, that would be a very sweet frosting, but you can add powdered sugar to taste.
Yikes! A total of 4 cups of powdered sugar would seem wayyyyy to sweet.
so do you think this would come out if I made them into cupcakes instead?
Hi Lisa, yes, it will. One of our readers let us know this worked great for cupcakes. She did cut the bake time to 20 minutes.
This is the first “scratch” cake that I have ever made…frosting too. It was fantastic. It only took 30 minutes in my oven and I know that as it is a hot oven. Hubby loved it and from now one only scratch frosting. He wants me to try to make it with buttercream frosting. EXCELLENT and so easy.
Hello Lorraine, great job to you! I’m glad the recipe turned out great, thank you for sharing that with us.
I bake and share with many. People love this cake. I only found it about 2 weeks ago and I’ve made it 5 times. I do add 1 tsp of nutmeg, and a bit of clove and ginger. Sometimes cream cheese frosting can be a bit much, but this is perfect.
Wow, thanks for your great review, Kate! I’m happy to know that everyone loves this cake.
I made this today and I must say it is delicious. It’s a nice light cake. It’s so easy to make it took no time at all. It’s a keeper.
Thanks for your review, Celine!
Just pulled this cake from the oven and it looks great. Waiting for it to cool down to add the frosting. Your recipes are so well written and detailed even a 77 year old widower can follow them successfully. Thank-you.
I bet your home smells so good right now! I hope you love this cake, Brian!
This Easy Pumpkin Cake was absolutely delicious! 😋 So moist and flavorful. Made it for a dinner party the other night and it was a big hit! Even my picky children loved it! You can’t go wrong with this recipe! Thanks so much!
Glad this recipe is a hit, Linda! Thank you so much for your good comments and feedback.
If I were to make this as a one layer cake, what changes in the recipe would I need to make, with regards to ingredients and baking time?
Hi Bonnie, do you mean as a 9″ cake or are you planning to make a flatter sheet cake? I haven’t tested it that way but you would probably cut everything in half. Without testing it first, it’s difficult to make a recommendation for bake time.
Hi Natasha! I am a big fan and I think I have cooked almost half of your recipes. Never had a bad one. I saw this pumpkin cake and it looks amazing. I’m not a big fan of cream cheese and you mentioned it is “marshmallow like”.
Does it have a marshmallow taste or more cream cheese???
Also, would a 7 minute frosting work on this cake?
Hi Susan, I was referring to the whipped texture. It does not taste like marshmallows, but more like cream cheese since that is the main ingredient. Just about any vanilla or white frosting would work here.
Hi Natasha
I am baking this cake for the second time this week!
I did one for the family the other day and I am taking the second one in to work. It is fantastic and so moist and delicious!
Thanks for the recipe!
Thank you for your awesome feedback, Trish. I’m happy to know that you loved the recipe!
Can you use fresh pumpkin instead of can pumpkin? If so, how much?
Hi Jennifer, if you were making homemade pumpkin puree that would work well, just make sure it is really well-drained since canned pumpkin is more compact and concentrated. I would use the same amount.
Hello. Do you think that raisins could be added?
I haven’t had the chance to test that out but that sounds like a good idea. Let me know how it goes
Can you send me the link for the can opener that you used when making the Easy Pumpkin cake. Thank you.
Hi Joey, it is linked in our Amazon shop although it shows unavailable right now. The can opener we use the most right now (because it opens every kind of can whereas that safe opening one sometimes gets stuck on certain cans as we have found recently) – anyways, this is the can opener we love right now.