Meet Your New Favorite Fall Dessert
If you love the warm, nostalgic flavors of pumpkin spice season, this pumpkin bundt cake is about to become your new favorite treat. ♡
It’s wonderfully pumpkin-y, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves — perfectly balanced for that classic fall flavor we all love. The texture is tender and moist thanks to a blend of real pumpkin purée and buttermilk, and that tangy cream cheese glaze drizzled on top makes every slice absolutely irresistible.
Whether you’re baking it for a dinner party, Friendsgiving, or a cozy weekend coffee date, this cake is always such a crowd-pleaser. I’ve been making it for over a decade now and it always receives rave reviews!
Tips For Success
A few simple tricks make all the difference when baking this pumpkin spice bundt cake:
- Grease every nook and cranny: Bundt pans can be tricky! Be sure to generously butter and flour (or sugar) the pan so the cake releases easily. Or you can save a step and use Baker’s Joy spray (which already includes flour).
- Don’t overmix: Once you add the dry ingredients, mix only until just combined to keep the crumb soft and tender.
- Check for doneness early: Start testing with a toothpick at the 45-minute mark — it should come out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
- Cool completely before glazing: If the cake is even slightly warm, the glaze will melt right off.
- Adjust the glaze thickness: Add more powdered sugar for a thicker drizzle or a touch more milk for a pourable glaze.
Variations
Make this cozy cake your own with a few easy swaps or add-ins:
- Add chocolate chips: Stir in 1 cup of semisweet or dark chocolate chips for extra decadence.
- Add nuts: Fold in 1 cup of chopped pecans or walnuts for added crunch.
- Add orange zest: A teaspoon of orange zest brightens the spice and pumpkin beautifully.
- Make it dairy-free: Use plant-based butter, dairy-free milk, and vegan cream cheese in the glaze.
FAQ
Yes! This cake actually tastes even better the next day once the spices have settled. Just store it tightly covered at room temperature or in the fridge.
You can bake this in two 9-inch round pans or a 9×13-inch pan instead. Just reduce the baking time to around 30–35 minutes.
Yes, just wrap the cooled, unglazed cake tightly in plastic wrap and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge and add glaze before serving.
Sure! Add a splash of maple syrup, a pinch of cinnamon, or a drizzle of browned butter for extra flavor.
More Favorite Pumpkin Desserts
Pumpkin Spice Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus a little extra for dusting the pan
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée
- 3/4 cup buttermilk, well shaken
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
For the cream cheese glaze:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar (plus more if needed)
- 1 –2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
- Prep the pan and oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10–12 cup bundt pan with butter or cooking spray. Dust lightly with flour (or sugar), tapping out any excess.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt.
- Mix the wet ingredients. In a medium bowl, stir together the pumpkin purée, buttermilk, and vanilla.
- Cream butter and sugar. In a stand mixer (or large bowl with hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add eggs. Beat in the eggs one at a time until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides as needed.
- Combine everything. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three parts, alternating with the pumpkin mixture in two parts, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix just until smooth — don’t overbeat.
- Bake. Pour the batter evenly into the prepared bundt pan and smooth the top. Bake for 45–50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool. Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 20 minutes. Carefully invert onto a wire rack or serving plate and cool completely.
- Make the glaze. In a medium bowl, beat the cream cheese, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing until the glaze is thick but pourable. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar; if too thick, add a splash more milk.
- Finish. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cake. (Or dust with powdered sugar for a simpler finish.) Slice and enjoy!
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!
I made the cake using a 9×13 inch glass pan and it turned out great. I omitted the frosting to cut calories and I have to say that my family loves it just the way it is. Thank you for such a lovely pumpkin recipe.
This is a great recipe! I made it for the first time ever this past weekend (for my husband’s family get-together) and everyone RAVED about it. It was fantastic! Definitely a hit that I will be making again.
Can I use pumpkin spice mix, instead of all the individual spices?
I made this cake tonight and it was so good. The whole family loved it.
I made this cake on Thursday, Sept 19. By Monday, the 23, it was super moist and by Tuesday it was inedible – so so soggy. Like pudding sort of. It was very strange and I had to throw about a quarter of the cake out. (I was keeping it at room temp.)
That said, this cake is DELICIOUS! I really went crazy for it. Such good, deep fall flavors. Yum. I was so disappointed to have to toss it, but the mouthfeel was just.. shudder. So stranger. And it developed a real vegetal flavor too. So I would just warn people that this has a short shelf life! It was really good for 3-4 days and then went downhill fast after that.
If you want it to last longer, don’t ice it, just put icing on each piece as you serve it. I make a lemon cake with lemon icing that has cream cheese as a base, if I want the cake to last several days, I can keep the cake in a cake taker on the counter and keep the icing in a bowl in the fridge, to serve I just plop a spoonful of the icing on top of each slice and it is as good as the day I made it. Cream cheese icing will definitely make a cake soggy within a few days if it is iced completely the day it’s made.
I made this and brougt it along on my end of summer glamping trip this weekend. Loved the pumpkin, but the glaze really stood out. We inhaled it for breakfast both mornings, but luckily there was one slice left to bring to work for breakfast this morning. Another great recipe!
ooh! pumpkin cake is always so yummy!
Deer goodness! This is over the top delish!
It’s such a shame that we don’t really use pumpkin much over here; this cake looks just delicious especially with that cream cheese frosting!
I LOVE this idea! Filing it away for a pre-Thanksgiving app recipe.