Pumpkin Spice Cake

Pumpkin spice cake is a moist pumpkin cake that starts with a spice cake mix. It’s a great Thanksgiving dessert cake recipe!

I’m not a big pie person, but I do love cake. I started making this pumpkin spice cake a few years ago as an alternative to pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving.

It was a big hit, and I’ve continued to make it ever since. I used to use cake mixes for most of my cakes.

It was an easy way to make a cake when I didn’t have much time. Some of the doctored cake mix cakes were incredibly tasty (check out two of my favorites below!).

Even though I’ve gone to making most of my cakes from scratch, I still use a mix to make this pumpkin spice cake (you can make your own homemade spice cake mix with this recipe if you prefer).

This is everything that a pumpkin cake should be. It has good pumpkin flavor, is moist, and has a nice amount of spice to it. It is super easy to make and is a great addition to any Thanksgiving dinner!

How to make pumpkin spice cake

Combine all cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl, increase the speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides as needed. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with a spatula.

Bake the cake until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes.

When completely cool, frost with cream cheese frosting. To make cream cheese frosting, beat together cream cheese and butter until well-combined.

Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time until you get to 3 cups, and beat on low for 30 seconds after each addition. Increase speed to medium and beat for 1-2 minutes or until combined well, scraping down the sides as needed.

Add enough milk to make a spreadable consistency, and then stir in vanilla. If you find that the frosting is too thin at this point, add additional powdered sugar in 2 tablespoon increments until you reach the consistency that you would like.

Spread frosting onto cooled cake. Refrigerate leftover cake.

Tips

• Pumpkin puree: Be sure to use pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix.
• Oil: You can use a similar oil, like canola oil, in this recipe.
• Cream cheese: Regular or 1/3 less fat will work. I don’t recommend using fat-free cream cheese in this recipe. 
• Butter: I use salted butter.
• Milk: You can use nondairy milk or any dairy milk from skim to whole.

Storage

I recommend storing this cake, covered, in the fridge for up to 7 days.

More cake mix cakes!

• White Raspberry Poke Cake
• Cinnamon Roll Poke Cake Recipe
• Irish Cream Bundt Cake

If you’ve tried this pumpkin spice cake recipe, don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below. I love to hear from people who’ve made my recipes!

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