This pumpkin spiced cake is so good and the perfect addition to your holiday dessert table. It’s super moist, perfectly spiced, the brown sugar cream cheese frosting compliments the flavors wonderfully, and I you’ll be tempted to eat spoonfulls of the salted caramel before it can make its way onto the cake.
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I added little mini decorated pumpkin cookies, which is obviously optional, but they turned out super cute. Plus everyone gets a cookie with their slice of cake. Bonus points if you make pumpkin pie cookies. I have a recipe and tips-and-tricks for royal icing.
Salted Caramel
Homemade caramel is actually ridiculously easy to make, and it’s so much better than the store bought stuff. And all you need is butter, sugar, and heavy cream.
- Melt 1 cup of sugar on medium-low heat in a heavy bottom sauce pan. Keep the sugar moving to prevent it from burning, and make sure every last bit of sugar is melted before adding butter.
- Once all the sugar is melted, whisk in 6 tablespoons of butter. At this point it’s going to boil up and splatter, so be careful.
- When the butter is melted, remove the pan from heat and whisk in ½ cup of heavy cream.
- Add a teaspoon of good Himalayan or sea salt, and allow to cool to room temperature.
- Caramel will keep in the fridge for one week.
The melting point of sugar for caramel is 360°F, so always use caution when working with melted sugar.
Cake Assembly
- Slice cake rounds in half horizontally using a sharp cake/bread knife.
- Brush or sprinkle each layer with simple syrup for extra moisture. This cake is pretty moist to begin with, so you can skip this step if you want.
- Layer cake, caramel, and brown sugar cream cheese frosting.
- Crumb coat your cake and refrigerate. A crumb coat is an initial first layer of frosting that traps crumbs.
- Once crumb coat is firm to the touch, finish decorating cake.
- Cake will keep for up to 5 days in the refrigerator
- Supplies: Ateco turntable, EZY-Hem Frosting Smoother, offset spatula, 12″ acrylic round, 8″ cake drum, 6″ round cake pans, parchment rounds, 21″ piping bags, and condiment bottles.
To make simple syrup, boil equal amounts of sugar and water until sugar is completely dissolved.
My pumpkin spice cake recipe yields enough batter to make two 2×7″ cake rounds, 2 ½ 2×6″ cake rounds, one 9×13″ cake, or 2 dozen cupcakes.
If you wanted to make a cake pan cake, bake your cake in a 9×13″ cake pans, top with frosting, and drizzle each slice with caramel before serving.
Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Pumpkin Spice Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 stick unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil can substitute coconut oil
- 3 large eggs room temperature
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed brown sugar light or dark
- 1 15 ounce can pumpkin puree
- ½ cup milk
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup packed brown sugar light or dark
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 6-8 cups powder sugar
Salted Caramel
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into cubes
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon coarse salt
Instructions
Pumpkin Spice Cake
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- Whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
- With whisk attachment, beat together butter, oil, and sugars on medium low speed until fluffy and light in color.
- Turn mixer down to low and add in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated.
- Add in pumpkin puree and mix until mostly combined. Mixture will look separated and not homogenous.
- Add in dry ingredients, turn on mixer low, and slowly drizzle in milk. Mix until a few dry bits remain. Do not overmix.
- Remove bowl from mixer and use a rubber spatula to finish mixing batter.
- Bake for 35-45 minutes, rotating pan halfway through. Cake is done when it is golden brown and inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Brown Sugar Cream Cheese Frosting
- With paddle attachment, cream butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar until fluffy and light in color.
- Add powdered sugar, 2 cups at a time, and vanilla extract. Let mix on low speed for a couple minutes between each addiction to full incorporate sugar.
Salted Caramel
- Add 1 cup white granulated sugar to a heavy bottom sauce pan on medium-low heat. Stir continuously until every last bit of sugar is fully melted. This may take about 5 minutes, and don't stop stirring, or sugar will burn.
- Stir in butter. Be careful because mixture will splatter and boil up at this point.
- Once butter is melted, remove from heat, and whisk in heavy cream. Once again, it will splatter and boil up.
- Stir in salt and allow to cool.
Notes
- Batter is enough to make 2 7” round cakes, 2 ½ 6” round cakes, or one 9×13 inch rectangular cake.
- Spray baking pans with non-stick spray, and line bottom with parchment paper so cake can be easily removed from pans.
- Caramel will last in the refrigerator for 1 week.
- Assembled cake will keep best in the refrigerator, and will last for up to 5 days.
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