This Easy Pumpkin Cake is our favorite, fluffy, moist and absolutely delicious pumpkin cake. It has a tender, moist and delicate crumb. The marshmallow-like whipped cream cheese frosting takes it over the top.
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I invited my sisters and their families over for dinner this week and everyone really enjoyed it, especially the kids. I asked if they would be more likely to re-make this as a double decker fancy cake or an easy peasy sheet cake and the consensus was: EASY. Like 4 steps easy, including frosting!
Pumpkin Cake Recipe
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 Autumn. Plus, it’s not overly sweet so there’s no avoiding that second helping ;).
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! Some of our favorite recipes have been shared by our readers, like this persimmon bread. I love it when you all write in sharing your favorite recipes and tips. Those are my favorite kinds of emails! Thanks for thinking of me :).
Ingredients for Easy Pumpkin Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour *measured correctly
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)
1 can (15 oz) pumpkin puree (or make your own!)
*Watch our easy video tutorial on how to measure correctly
Ingredients for the Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 package (8oz) Cream Cheese, room temp, cut into quarters
1 stick (8 Tbsp) unsalted butter butter, room temp
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp real vanilla extract
Pecans to decorate, optional
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 (like this one) 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.
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.
2. In a second medium bowl, whisk together wet ingredients: 3 large eggs, 1 cup oil and 1 can pumpkin, until well combined.
3. 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 cake cool completely in pan then spread the top with frosting (see below) and decorate with pecans or sprinkles.
How to Make Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting:
1. Combine all of your frosting ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer (here’s the mixer I use) 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.
More Dreamy Pumpkin Recipes:
- Pumpkin Cupcakes with the same dreamy frosting
- Pull-Apart Pumpkin Bread just melts in your mouth
- Pumpkin Cheesecake with Caramel
- Pumpkin Flax Granola – we keep a steady batch on hand
Watch Natasha Make Pumpkin Cake:
You’ll be surprised how easy it is to make this pumpkin cake!
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Easy Pumpkin Cake Recipe

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 9x13 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) and decorate with whole or chopped pecans. I sprinkled pecans over individual slices since my son doesn't eat them.
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.
Notes
**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
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Now the question is when are you going to be making this? At the very least, pin it for later. This one’s a keeper!
Hie!! Is the cake airy? Or is it dense? It loook sooo niceee!! Thank you advanced
Hi Wann, the cake is very soft and fluffy and not dense. I hope you love it! 🙂
Just so you all know, don’t use apple sauce in place of oil!
I will start by saying I wanted to give this recipe a try…with a twist. Only because after reading many reviews I knew it would be wonderful as is, but I wanted to see what would happen if I subbed apple sauce for oil, and cut the sugar down to one cup. It made the cake very spongy, and took away from the pumpkin flavor. It was still plenty of sweet, but I can’t handle sweet too much. But that’s me. I am looking forward to making this again. However, following the recipe. Five stars for the ease of the recipe, and the clear directions.
Thanks for sharing your helpful tip with other readers Liz!
I did this as pumpkin pie spice latte cupcakes. I only baked for 20 minutes at 350. 30 minutes seems very long for cupcakes!
I also used Pumpkin Pie Spice in place of cinnamon. Great recipe – very moist and light. Lots of pumpkin flavour.
Thank you so much for sharing!!
Natasha, this pumpkin cake is absolutely delicious! My 4 1/2 year old son loves chocolate cake, do you know how I can make it chocolate? How much cocoa powder should I use?
Hi Vanya, I haven’t tried this with chocolate so it is really difficult to guess and give advice on that. If I were to experiment, I would probably sub some of the flour out for cocoa. Maybe 1 1/2 cups flour with 1/2 cup cocoa. That is just a guess though. If you test this cake with cocoa, let me know how it goes! I’m so curious now 🙂
Has anyone tried this in rounds and if so does the recipe need to be increased for a 2-3 layer round cake?
Hi Sara, 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.
Thank you so much! I will have to let you know how it turns out.
My pleasure Sara! Please do!
I ended up making a double layered 9×13 and it turned out wonderfully perfect. I kept everything in the fridge to keep it cool and firm while frosting it. This is a perfect cake. I am even going to make one for a fund raising dessert auction in a couple of weeks it was so amazing.
Awesome! I’m glad to hear that Sara! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Natasha, this looks sooo good! On thanksgiving we are going to my daughter’s in laws, I have to bring the ham, “and I am going to make this cake”, I am sure is delicious, all your recipes are a success in my family. I shared with my daughter and other family members your website, now they also became your fans!!
It really is so easy AND delicious! Please let me know what everyone thinks! Thanks for following and sharing the love Cristina! 🙂
Absolutely love this recepie, this is going to be my birthday cake!
Awesome! I’m glad to hear you enjoy it so much! Thanks for sharing April!
Just made this recipe as cupcakes. They’re perfect! Flavor, consistency, the whole shebang. Made 24 cupcakes. I haven’t made the icing yet. I’ll eat a few more ‘plain’ cupcakes just to make sure they’re all OK. Thanks!
I’m so excited to hear it works well for cupcakes!! Can you share the modifications for baking temp or time? Thank you so much!!
No real modifications: Baked at 350 for 30 minutes.
I’ve since made the icing, too. Love it! It’s like a REAL butter cream frosting. But the next time I use this recipe, I’ll cut the icing recipe in half.
I’m happy to hear that! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
Made this cake yesterday for my pumpkin loving husband and it was delicious! I don’t even like pumpkin desserts but I thought this was great! Natasha – your recipes have never failed me! I’m wondering if I could use a bundt cake pan to make it look prettier. Anyway, thank you for another great recipe!
I’m so glad to hear you and your husband loved it! I haven’t tried in a bundt pan but I think it’s worth and experiment! If you test it out, let me know how you liked it. Maybe someone else has tried? Thanks in advance!! 🙂
I baked this cake for my husband who is watching his sugar levels. I used stevia instead of the sugar and of course skipped the frosting. It turned out perfect! Tastes great! He loved it!
Thank you for sharing this recipe 🙂
My pleasure Susan! I’m glad your husband enjoys the recipe! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review!
Amazing recipe!!!! I used coconut oil and added some ginger powder, nutmeg powder and a bit of clove powder and it resulted in the most tasteful pumpkin recipe I’ve ever made! Thanks for sharing it!!!
My pleasure Marilia! I’m so glad you love it! Thanks for sharing your excellent review!
Hi Marilia! I am about to make this cake for my team at work and I’m inspired by your comment to add some more spices to it. But I was wondering how much ginger and clove powder you used, do you remember? I’d very much appreciate your resonse. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing this perfect article. It was too simple!!!!!!! It gives super delicious cake.
I saw such beautiful cakes on the sites CakenGifts.in
My pleasure! I hope you enjoy the recipe!
Is there a sub for oil?
I haven’t experimented with anything else so I’m not sure…
Tried this without the frosting, came out lovely. Will be making this again. Thanks..
You’re welcome! Thank you for sharing your review 😀
is there a substitute for cream cheese?
Hi Milli, this frosting works best with cream cheese. You may just need to try a different frosting. I have a similar one on my berry tiramisu cake but I honestly like this one better 🙂
Thank you, my cake was delicious and fluffy, I added coconut and pineapple to the batter.
You’re welcome Maria! I am glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Happened upon your blog looking for an “easy pumpkin cake” recipe. Wow! It was so easy! And absolutely delicious. I used 1 cup organic cane sugar and 1/2 cup brown sugar, and used unrefined coconut oil. Turned out fantastic! Thank you for an easy recipe.
You’re welcome Nichole! Thank you for sharing. 🙂
Where is the salt? I know many people say use less salt, but recipes without it are missing something.
Hi Regina, have you tried this recipe? I’ve never noticed or had any reports that it was lacking in flavor, but you are welcome to add it if you like! I do agree about adding salt to very sweet desserts like cookies and some very sweet frostings – it helps to cut the sweetness but this is not an overly sweet cake. 🙂
I would have to disagree. I just baked the cake and tried it. It is overly sweet even for a cake. I was tempted to stop at 1 cup sugar but ended up going all the way. I did not put any frosting on top for that reason. I ended up sprinkling it with some sea salt and it helped cut the sweetness a lot. Everything else though as far as pumpkin, cinnamon flavor and moistness was spot on. Thanks so much!
I’m happy to hear the whole family loves the recipe! Thanks for sharing your wonderful review and I will keep your suggestion in mind!
Absolutely delicious, my son’s eyes lit up on his first bite. The sweetness is just right too. I made them into muffins instead and had them with vanilla ice cream. Thank you for the recipe.
This makes me smile! Thank you for sharing your review Miriam!
Is it ok to skip baking soda..?
I haven’t tried it without baking soda and but I don’t think it would rise properly without it. You might try adding more baking powder but without testing that myself, I can’t really recommend it. If you try it, keep in mind, baking soda is 3 to 4 times stronger than baking powder.
I have made this today for our bible study and everyone enjoyed it! I have sprinkled a bunch of walnut bits and pumpkin seeds on top. Just to make it a little more presentable. The only thing that was disappointed was that the cake was a bit bitter ( no one noticed) but i was wondering why that happened. I made my own pumpkin puree (yours). Do you think i should use canned puree instead?
I have never tried to make keks with pumpkin so that was good to find out i dont have to toss the cute little thing after fall since i am not a big fan of pumpkin foods. It didn’t taste pumpkiny at all 🙂 was quite a nice fluffy easy thing to make on a cold winter busy day.
Thank you
Hi Ksusha, it should not have been bitter but I’m always happy to help troubleshoot. Did you change anything about the recipe? Using homemade puree is definitely ok and should not have caused the cake to be bitter. Did you make sure to include cinnamon in the cake? It helps to activate the baking soda – do you think that is what you were tasting? I’m not sure what else it could be.
Yes that is it! I don’t have/like cinnamon so i skipped it! Thank you for a quick response. that was very helpful!
I want to make for Christmas, most cakes call for sifting dry ingredients. Should I sift dry ingredients.
This recipe is pretty forgiving. It isn’t necessary to sift dry ingredients and whisking is sufficient. Enjoy!