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
Make this cake! I just made this cake and it’s so delicious. The frosting is perfect and the cake is outstanding. I made it as a 2 layer cake with the Carmel sauce and frosting in the middle and I drizzled the Carmel on top. A new favorite cake!
I’m happy to hear how much you love the recipe Beth! Thanks for sharing your excellent review with other readers!
I just made the Easy Pumpkin Cake, but I made it into muffins. Got rave reviews on it and will make it again soon. There is a lot of dough for 12 regular muffins. Next time I will make 18 muffins.
I also love! the Cream Cheese Frosting. It is so much better than the too sweet frosting that calls for more powdered sugar!
I’m glad you enjoy the recipe Maureen! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
I made this over the weekend and WOW!! This cake is soooooo moist and tons of pumpkin flavor!! I can’t believe how easy it was to make. It really is one of the tastiest pumpkin cakes I have ever made. The cream cheese frosting amount was just perfect too. I can’t wait to make this again! KUDOS!!!
I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy this recipe! Thanks for sharing your excellent review Connie!
I used whole wheat flour and on cup of applesauce instead of the oil and reduced the sugar to 1 cup. I also added 1 tsp of nutmeg and 1 tsp of vanilla. With the cream cheese frosting it is plenty sweet enough.
Thanks for sharing your tips with other readers Lori!
This cake is SO GOOD! I love the clear and easy to follow instructions. This recipe is fool-proof even for absolute beginners 🤣
I’m glad to hear how much you enjoy the recipe Lesya! Thanks for sharing your great review with other readers!
I make this cake alot but add one cup of white raisins and one cup of chopped walnuts. Rave reviews.
Yum, what great additions! Thanks for sharing Linda!
The 1 cup powered sugar has me wondering? My recipes for cream cheese icing call for 4 or 5 cups..and have discovered less than stick of butter works better too.
Hi Pat, yes, it really is only 1 cup. It whips really well and if you want the frosting firmer, frost the cake and refrigerate until it stiffens a bit. The cake will be super soft chilled or at room temperature and the frosting is just wonderful. If you like REALLY sweet frostings, you can add more powdered sugar but we love it the way it is.
I made this cake twice and both times it was dense and not fluffy as described. The flavor was delicious but really wanted a fluffy texture. I checked my ingredients and none were expired.
Hi Amarie, I haven’t had that experience so I suspect possibly your leavening is no longer active? This cake is normally super soft and fluffy and rises really well. I would suggest trying again with some fresh baking soda. It can expire sooner than the package date depending on how it is stored (i.e if it is left open, or left open and refrigerated), or maybe baking powder was used by mistake?
Had something similar, but they had added some orange zest to batter. Sort of refreshed the taste.
That’s a great suggestions Jo Dee! Thanks for sharing!
Can you make this in a bundt cake pan??
Hi Toni, I haven’t tried in a bundt pan so I can’t provide advice on that, but I think it’s worth and experiment! If you test it out, let me know how you liked it.
Hey Natasha this is kristina I am 12 years old I made this cake 2 times (this is a really good cake by the way)😍
Hello Kristina! I’m happy to hear you enjoy the recipe! Thanks so much for following and sharing your wonderful review! 🙂
This was delicious!
I’m glad you love it Sara! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
I am not usually good at baking, but to my surprise this came out perfect! So delicious 🙂 Thank you for this recipe Natasha!
My pleasure Victoria! I’m glad to hear the recipe was a success! Thanks for sharing your great review! 🙂
I made this cake this afternoon, I can’t even get icing on it! It’s so moist and delicious, iced or not, definately a must bake for anyone.
I’m glad you love the recipe Kara! Thanks so much for sharing!!
This is an AMAZING cake! SO SO good! PS- Don’t let the cost estimate turn you off — it has never cost me anywhere close to that to make this cake. It uses staples I almost always have on hand, which I love!
Awesome! I’m happy to hear how much you love this recipe! Thanks for sharing your excellent review Kristin!
Thank you so much for sharing the pumpkin cake recipe. I made it and it was superb.
God bless you.
Diana
You’re welcome Diana! I’m glad you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing and God Bless!
I made this for my coworker’s birthday because she loves anything pumpkin. It was a hit! I love that it’s not overly sweet and I love that it makes just enough frosting. Love this recipe and will make it again for sure!!!
Awesome! I’m glad to hear that Erin! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Hi Natasha! I made this easy and delicious cake yesterday for my Uncle who loves chocolate…so, following your comment on a review, I substituted 1/2 cup of Hershey’s Special Dark Cocoa Powder for a 1/2 cup of the flour. It came out fantastic!! Moist and tender. I frosted with chocolate buttercream and it was a big hit with Uncle. A true Keeper Recipe!!
Hello Annette! I’m glad to hear how much you love the recipe! Thanks for sharing your great review!
Hi! I have tried so many pumpkin cake recipes all so dense!! I was about to give in my search for a good recipe until I found this one! thank you so much for sharing!! I am making it right now and I know it probably wont come out like it is supposed to be. I realized my baking powde and baking soda were expired (ouch lol), and I did not measure the flour properly (ouuuch), so I know it will be another dense cake for these reasons lol. On top of all I did not have enough pumpkin puree ( maybe a little over 1/2 of the can. However, I will give it another try with the right amounts, measurements and expiration dates ingredients and will keep you posted. I tried the batter and it was already delish!!!
I’m glad to hear you’re giving this recipe a shot! I hope you enjoy it even more the second time around! 🙂
Really good and easy recipe, turned out quite tasty. However, it was quite dense, not light and fluffy. Any clue on what I must have done wrong?
Hi Ann, that is definitely unusual. It is supposed to be very soft and fluffy. I am always happy to help troubleshoot. Be sure you are measuring flour correctly and not substituting any of the ingredients. Also, be sure your baking soda and baking powder are still working and not expired. Those sound like the most likely culprits if it did not rise. I hope that helps for next time!