Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

A moist Pumpkin Cake topped with cream cheese frosting! The crumb is soft and tender, it’s easy, fast, forgiving and very versatile. Use this batter to make Pumpkin Bars, a round cake, loaf, cupcakes, muffins or even a bundt cake!

The third and final Thanksgiving recipe from a Sassy Lady from the South whose recipes are starring in the 2016 Thanksgiving Special here on RecipeTin Eats.

Wow. This Pumpkin Cake was a HUGE hit with my taste testers!

Pumpkin cake isn’t common in Australia, so I was particularly keen to hear what my taste testers thought of it. I had a group of my mother’s golfing friends around for a midweek Thanksgiving feast taste testing session and also made this cake again for my friends.

Resounding feedback was – YUM!!!!

I think I’m single handedly going to start a pumpkin cake crusade here in Australia. I know I’ve converted at least 15 people already. Just another 24.9 million to go. 😉

Dorothy – the Sassy Lady from the South who is credited with this years’ Thanksgiving Special – calls this recipe “Pumpkin Bars” because she makes it in a slightly larger pan so the cake is thinner, thus it looks more like bars when cut. Mine is around 25% taller than hers (based on rough maths!), which is why it looks more like cake than bars. And hence why I changed the name to Pumpkin Cake. 🙂

I do hope she’s not offended.

Actually, I should say I hope her son is not offended. Because I am told this Pumpkin Cake is actually her sons’ recipe. Perhaps not created by him – well, I know it wasn’t created by him. But he “owns” it now, ever since he was a wee kid and was told by the Sassy Lady from the South that if he wanted more Pumpkin Bars, he could very well get into the kitchen and make it himself.

So he did. And now he’s the Pumpkin Bar King of the family. <3

And now I’ve gone and used his recipe to make Pumpkin Cake.

Oh wait. Not exactly the same. I used fresh instead of canned pumpkin. Because, dear US readers, this may surprise you, but we don’t have canned pumpkin here in Australia!

To be honest, I’m actually sort of glad that we don’t have it here because it means I have to use fresh pumpkin.

Gosh, I have to say, I really was actually quite surprised at how enthusiastically this cake was received by my taste testers. Don’t get me wrong, I love it – a lot. But my taste testers, they LOVED it. Capital letters and bold.

Of course the cream cheese frosting scored high marks – always does. But that cake….it is just so soft, tender and moist! Truly fantastic.

Things brings to a close the 2016 Thanksgiving Special here on RecipeTin Eats. It’s been an epic one, starring recipes from the Sassy Lady from the South. You can get the full menu in the Cajun Turkey Breast recipe (that recipe is not only genius, it is so incredibly delish!).

I do hope this week will provide some inspiration for those of you in the States celebrating Thanksgiving next week! – Nagi xx

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Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Author: Nagi | RecipeTin Eats

Prep: 15 mins

Cook: 25 mins

Total: 40 mins

Dessert

4.96 from 24 votes

Servings12 – 20

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Beautiful moist pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting! A very easy, very forgiving recipe. Make these as bars using a larger pan, or more cake-like as I have!

Ingredients

CupsMetric

• ▢ 4 eggs , at room temperature
• ▢ 1 2/3 cups white sugar (Note 1)
• ▢ 1 cup vegetable oil (or canola)
• ▢ 15 oz / 420 g canned pure pumpkin or 2 cups mashed fresh pumpkin (Note 2)
• ▢ 2 cups all purpose / plain flour
• ▢ 2 tsp baking soda
• ▢ 1 tsp baking powder
• ▢ 2 tsp cinnamon powder
• ▢ 1 tsp salt

Frosting

• ▢ 6 oz / 180 g cream cheese , at room temperature
• ▢ 1 cup / 225 g unsalted butter , softened
• ▢ 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ▢ 4 cups soft icing sugar / powdered sugar , sifted

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F / 180C, all oven types.
• Spray and line a large pan around 9 x 13″ / 22 x 33cm with baking paper with overhang. (Note 3)
• In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.
• Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
• Spread into prepared pan. Bake for 25 minutes.
• Cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto cooling rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting.

Frosting

• Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat for 3 to 5 minutes or until smooth and fluffy. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment.

Recipe Notes:

1. Sugar – This can be cut down to 1 1/4 cups if you’d like it slightly less sweet.

2. Canned pumpkin is a popular canned vegetable product in America. These days you can find it in the international section of some of the larger grocery stores here in Australia (Coles, Woolworths). It’s actually quite good – it’s just pure pureed pumpkin. Fresh has better flavour (below), but while I’d never use some canned vegetable products, I don’t mind using canned pumpkin.

Using fresh pumpkin – it comes out perfectly with better pumpkin flavour. Use 800g – 1kg / 1.6 – 2 lb pumpkin, peeled then deseeded cut into large chunks. Boil it for 15 minutes until very soft. Drain, leave in colander set over the pot on the turned off stove to steam dry and fully cool (around 20 minutes). Then mash and measure out 1 2/3 cups (420g) and use per recipe.

3. Cake height – The height of pumpkin cake/bars differs depending on the pan size you use. Mine is smaller than ideal so mine came out more like cake height rather than bar height. But either way, it doesn’t matter – this cake is so moist, it is extremely versatile. Make it as a round cake, bundt cake, loaf pan, muffins!

4. Recipe source – Another fantastic recipe from a Sassy Lady from the South, the wonderful Dorothy from Tennessee. A long time reader of RecipeTin Eats, a fantastic cook with great taste to whom a number of reader favourite recipes are credited:
* Moist Easy Apple Cake <– This is becoming famous!
* Dorothy’s Carrot Cake
* 5 Ingredient No Bake Peanut Bars

5. Nutrition – This makes a large cake. If you cut it into large generous squares as pictured, then it will serve 12. If you can it into rectangles, then it will serve 18 – 20. Over half the calories shown below is attributable to the frosting.

Nutrition Information:

Serving: 116gCalories: 431cal (22%)Carbohydrates: 52.3g (17%)Protein: 3.4g (7%)Fat: 24.3g (37%)Saturated Fat: 10.2g (64%)Cholesterol: 67mg (22%)Sodium: 348mg (15%)Potassium: 108mg (3%)Fiber: 1g (4%)Sugar: 41g (46%)Vitamin A: 3750IU (75%)Vitamin C: 0.8mg (1%)Calcium: 30mg (3%)Iron: 1.3mg (7%)

Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @RecipeTinEats.

2016 THANKSGIVING SPECIAL

Get the full menu here.

LIFE OF DOZER

a) Cruel
b) Cute
c) Funny
d) All of the above