Pumpkin Bundt Cake
on Aug 04, 2019, Updated May 13, 2024
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Hands down – the best pumpkin cake you’ll ever try! This moist pumpkin bundt cake has a delicious pumpkin flavor, is filled with warm spices, and topped with a drizzle of cream cheese glaze. Way easier than making pumpkin pie – it’s the perfect dessert for fall. 
I’ve made a lot of pumpkin desserts in my day, and I’ve taste-tested about 1000 more. But I can honestly say that this pumpkin bundt cake is my new favorite. It has:
- a pumpkin flavor that’s reminiscent of your favorite pumpkin pie
- a super moist, ridiculously tender cake crumb
- a little drizzle of sweet and tangy cream cheese glaze (but feel free to add a thick layer of cream cheese frosting instead).
I’ll happily bake this for an easy fall dessert, then eat the leftovers mid-morning the next day. And it fits the bill if you’re looking for a pumpkin dessert that’s easy, comforting, and makes everyone ask for a second piece.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake Recipe
This recipe is super straight forward (aka way easier than making pumpkin pie):
- Whisk together the dry ingredients – flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- In a separate large bowl beat together the oil, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla extract.
- Carefully beat the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients about 1/2 at a time. Be careful not to overmix the batter.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and bake.
How do You Know When a Bundt Cake is Done Baking?
This is always a bit tricky – but I always use 3 methods:
- Insert a toothpick or cake tester. It should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Gently press on the top of the cake – it should feel slightly firm/ springy to the touch and you shouldn’t be able to make an indent.
- Look at the sides of the cake. They should be starting to pull away from the edges.
This cake will bake for 60-70 minutes. **Note that oven bake times can vary by 10-15%** When in doubt – bake the cake for a few more minutes. This cake is very moist so the chances of it drying out are slim/non-existent. If your bundt cake is gummy or starts to sink – that means it wasn’t baked for long enough.
If you’d like more handy dandy tips on making bundt cakes – you can also check out this post here too, where I go through more detail of how to get a bundt cake out the pan, freezing tips, choosing the right bundt pan, etc.
Can I Use Pumpkin Pie Filling Instead of Pumpkin Puree/ Pure Pumpkin?
No, unfortunately, canned pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin puree are not interchangeable. Pumpkin pie filling includes sugar, thickeners, and many other ingredients and therefore will not yield the desired results.
Variations of This Bundt Cake
- Frost the entire cake with cream cheese frosting instead of a drizzle of glaze. You can find my recipe for cream cheese frosting here.
- Make a chocolate chip pumpkin bundt cake. Add in 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips and frost with chocolate frosting. (Or you could use the cream cheese glaze).
- Skip the glaze and serve with whipped cream.
- Or drizzle with chocolate ganache. You can find my recipe here.
Make-Ahead Instructions:
- Cake can be made 1-2 days in advance. Cool fully (inverting the cake after 20 minutes), then cover and store either in the fridge or at room temperature. Bring the cake to room temperature if you stored it in the fridge, then top with glaze the day you plan to serve.
- Unfrosted cake can be frozen for up to 3 months. Cool fully, then wrap tightly in plastic (go around the ring shape instead of over to prevent freezer burn). Thaw in the fridge, then bring to room temperature before topping with glaze.
For more pumpkin treats, be sure to try:
- No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cupcakes
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice, *or make your own - see recipe notes
- 1 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup vegetable oil, or canola
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 1 15 oz can pure pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie filling
Cream Cheese Glaze
- 1 tablespoon butter, softened
- 3 oz cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar , or more as needed
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350F degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup capacity bundt pan, or brush with pan release.*
- In a large bowl whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate very large bowl beat together the oil, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla extract, eggs, and pumpkin puree until smooth.
- Carefully beat the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture about 1/2 at a time.
- Spoon/pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan and smooth the top.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 60-70 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean and the top feels slightly firm to the touch.
- Cool the cake in the pan for 20-30 minutes. Then carefully insert the pan, to let the cake slide out and continue cooling on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Glaze
- In a medium bowl beat together the butter and cream cheese until soft. (Or whisk by hand).
- Beat in the powdered sugar followed by the milk.
- Beat in a little extra powdered sugar or milk if needed, until the glaze is thin enough to drizzle.
- Transfer the cooled cake to a plate, and drizzle the glaze on top.
- Slice into pieces and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Hi Fiona, thanks so much for sharing this recipe. The cake was delicious and a big hit with our friends. Will definitely make this one again. The cream cheese frosting was just perfect not too sweet.
I’m thinking about making this but I want to know why oil instead of butter?
Using oil will keep the cake moist for longer and helps prevent over mixing – which can make a cake dry and have air tunnels. I love using butter in cakes that need the flavor – such as vanilla or lemon cakes. However, because the pumpkin and spices add so much flavor, I found that when using butter it didn’t add anything to the flavor because it was masked by the spices. I hope this helps
Fiona,
I don’t have brown sugar. Can I sub maple syrup, or is that too much liquid?
I wouldn’t sub for maple syrup, because as you mentioned, it will add liquid. The best substitute would be white sugar, but the flavor will be slightly different.
Hi all,
I absolutely love this cake!! I’ve made it probably at least 6 times. It the best pumpkin cake recipe I’ve found. I’ve made it my “go to” recipe for my fall recipes. My family loves it plus my daughter uses the same recipe. I highly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already!! Yum!!
Thank you so much Chris!
I made this cake without oil and it was still delicious. Instead of eggs I put 9 tablespoons of aquafaba thank you for the recipe.!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for reporting back
Can we make this cake in a 9″ round pan instead ?
Thanks
Cristina
Hi Cristina, This recipe would be too much batter for just one 9″ cake pan. You would be able to divide the batter between 2 pans however for a layer cake. I think the bake time would be around 30-35 minutes.
This cake is a.mazing! I baked it and put the glaze on it and put it my cake carrier to take to my frineds house. When, I took the cake top off of the carrier the smell of the cake alone was worth 5 stars! The tastes was delicious and was super simple to put together. This one is going into my book cook binder.
I thought it was rather bland, but I think it was because I used Bob’s Redmill Gluten Free all purpose flour instead of wheat flour. Usually using it 1:1 makes a nice cake but this time I don’t know what happened. The cake looked fantastic, icing was delicious, cake was moist, it had to be the flour. I would love to see you do some GF recipes and even offer this one in a GF recipe once you have it right.
I have this in the oven right now. I made 1 change…..in an attempt to use jam on my shelf so I can make new jams, I swapped the pumpkin for sweet and spicy tomato jam. Of all my jam and fruit butters, I thought this one would be a good fit. Because the jam was sweetened, I left out the brown sugar. Even with the change, I think this will be a unique winner. Thanks for the recipe. Easy to put together.
I bake a lot but this recipe was just okay for me. It came out a little dry. I only baked it for 60 minutes and I’m wondering if that was too long. I followed the recipe precisely. Have you had this problem? Maybe I should add some pudding mix or sour cream? I read other comments that listed this cake as moist so I was surprised when mine came out dry.