Pumpkin Cake with Maple Cream Cheese frosting

The softest and yummiest Pumpkin cake you’ll ever have, with a tangy and creamy maple cream cheese frosting to pair it with.

Ingredients you’ll need

• Eggs. At room temperature to ensure they mix evenly with the rest of the ingredients
• Granulated sugar. To sweeten the cake
• Brown sugar. Helps sweetening the cake and also helps giving the cake a softer texture
• Pumpkin puree. Make sure it’s unsweetened
• Canola oil. This will keep the cake moist and soft
• Cinnamon. Spices up the cake
• All spice. Gives flavor and spices the cake
• Vanilla extract. Good quality, pure vanilla extract for better results
• All-purpose flour. Helps binding all of the ingredients together
• Baking powder. Gives the light and fluffy texture
• Baking soda. Gives softness and airiness
• Salt. Enhances all the flavors
• Cream cheese. At room temperature to avoid any lumps in the frosting
• Unsalted butter. Also at room temperature to ensure a creamy frosting
• Powdered sugar. Sifted to avoid any lumps
• Pure maple syrup. Sweetens and gives a deep maple flavor

Tips and Tricks for the best pumpkin cake recipe

Pumpkin Cake:

• Make sure the eggs are at room temperature to ensure they mix more evenly and the cake gets better volume. If pressed on time, allow eggs to sit -completely covered- in warm (no hot) water for 5 minutes
• Do not over bake the cake, or you risk it drying out!
• To stack the cake layers I would recommend leveling them first. This means cutting the domes with a serrated knife or a leveler, so every layer is even. This needs to be done after the cake is completely cooled.
• As for the pumpkin decorations, I used fondant to make some super cute pumpkins, you can find a video tutorial and recipe below. But feel free to skip this and sprinkle some walnuts on top intsead, or pipe a braid on top.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

• The trick to this cream cheese frosting to be pipable is that you don’t over beat it; cream cheese turns very soft when over beaten and it will be too runny to frost your cake. If you find it too runny to frost, refrigerate it for a few hours until hard enough.
• Make sure the cream cheese and butter are at room temperature for a silkier frosting
• Sift the powdered sugar before adding it to the recipe to avoid any lumps. These are extremely difficult to remove later, and you will be definitely thinning your frosting by over beating it trying to get rid of them

How long will my Pumpkin Cake last?

This Cake can be stored in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 5 days.

How do you fix dry cake?

Let’s say that you got a bit distracted and you baked your cake layers for more time than was called for. Or maybe you added more flour than necessary, or maybe you baked it at a higher temperature; either way, you can definitely save the cake.

If this is the case, you can poke your cake with a skewer a few times and then brush the top part with milk with a few drops of vanilla extract mixed in. Repeat this process with each layer, and let it sink for about an hour. Then frost the cake as you would normally.

You could also use simple syrup. Personally, I don’t like sweetening my cakes more than necessary, so I always opt for the milk soak.

Can you freeze a cake with icing?

Sure you can! you can either freeze it frosted or unfrosted.

To freeze unfrosted cake make sure to wrap the layers with plastic wrap until they are completely covered, to avoid any freezer burn. To defrost, place them in the fridge overnight, then let them come at room temperature and frost.

Freezing the frosted cake is trickier, but definitely possible. I do it half of the time with my cakes!

To avoid ruining the frosting, place toothpicks along the cake so the plastic wrap won’t touch the frosting. Cover it completely to avoid any freezer burn and ruining the frosting. Sometimes I do 2-3 layers of plastic wrap around my cakes to make sure any gaps are covered.

Defrost in the fridge overnight, and then add the fondant decorations in the end.

For more fall dessert recipes follow these links:

No-Churn Banana Bourbon Ice Cream

Cinnamon & Bourbon Apple Pie

No-bake Apple Cheesecake Parfait

Mini Chai Cheesecakes

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to give it a rating and leave a comment!