This easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is a spiced pumpkin sheet cake recipe topped with a smooth cream cheese frosting. Made entirely from scratch, it’s a fluffy and moist cake with a tender crumb that’s perfect for the fall season.

The Best Recipe For Pumpkin Cake

If there’s one pumpkin dessert to keep in your stash of go-to, foolproof recipes, it’s this beautifully easy pumpkin spice cake. It’s so soft and fluffy in texture, and it’s filled with warm spices of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger. It sits in my recipe box right next to my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bread and my Pumpkin Shortbread Bars.

This is the homemade pumpkin dessert perfect for any last minute get together, holiday party, or comfort food craving. The cake itself is really moist, and it is very noticeably pumpkin in flavor (as any good pumpkin cake should be). The cream cheese frosting is rich, tangy, and oh-so-dreamy. A pumpkin dream cake, if you will.

Move over pumpkin pie, there’s a new sheriff in town and she’s ready to take center stage on any Thanksgiving table. Don’t underestimate this pumpkin sheet cake with cream cheese frosting. She might be humble in appearance, but she’s a firecracker in taste.

What I Love About This Pumpkin Cake:

One Bowl: Who doesn’t love a simple recipe? This cake is made entirely in one bowl (if you don’t count the cream cheese frosting). You can use an electric mixer or a stand mixer, or you can even whisk by hand. In the words of Ina Garten, “How easy is that?”
Pumpkin Spice: What good are pumpkin desserts if you can’t even taste the pumpkin flavor? This is 100% a spiced pumpkin cake, thanks to all of the warm spices. The batter has a whole can of pumpkin puree, and it’s full of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. These warm spices enhance the pumpkin spice flavors, making it the perfect fall dessert.
Cream Cheese Frosting: Pumpkin bars and tangy cream cheese go together hand in hand, and this luscious cream cheese frosting is to die for. The cream cheese icing is rich and creamy, and it makes for the most delicious pumpkin snack cake.

I love sheet cake recipes, so if you’re in the mood for a few more, try this Zucchini Spice Cake, Chocolate Fudge Cake, Neapolitan Cake, or this Banana Sheet Cake.

Pumpkin Cake Ingredients

Large Eggs
Granulated Sugar
Brown Sugar
Canola Oil: You can substitute vegetable oil for canola oil if that’s all you have on hand (do not use olive oil–it will not taste great in this recipe). Oil is used instead of butter to make for a very tender pumpkin cake that is very moist and very fluffy.
Pumpkin Puree: Make sure you are using canned pumpkin puree, not canned pumpkin pie filling. Often the two cans are near each other at the grocery store. Pumpkin puree is straight pumpkin, while pumpkin pie filling has other additives. Also, you can use fresh pumpkin puree.
All Purpose Flour
Baking Powder
Baking Soda
Salt
Ground Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves & Nutmeg: I prefer to use my own blend of individual spices, but you can use pumpkin pie spice instead.
Vanilla Extract
Cream Cheese: You need to use full fat cream cheese for frosting. It yields a better texture and flavor.
Unsalted Butter
Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar is also known as confectioners’ sugar.

Let’s Make These Pumpkin Cake Bars:

Wet Ingredients: In a large mixing bowl with a hand mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), mix eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract on a low speed until well combined.
Dry Ingredients: Add flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, and ground nutmeg to the wet ingredients (the pumpkin mixture). Mix on a low speed until combined.
Bake: Pour the cake batter into a prepared cake pan (9×13) and bake until a cake tester comes out clean.
Frosting: In a large bowl (using a standing mixer or a hand mixer), beat cream cheese and unsalted butter together until light and fluffy. Add in the powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Scrape down the sides of the bowls as needed.
Assembly: Frost the cooled cake with an offset spatula. Spread the frosting all over the top of the cake, spreading all the way to the edges of the cake.

Storage Tips:

Refrigerate: Because it’s a cream cheese topped pumpkin cake, leftovers of the cake should be refrigerated. Store in an airtight container or cover your baking dish with plastic wrap.
Room Temperature: If you plan to serve the cake within a couple of hours of baking, you can leave this frosted pumpkin sheet cake at room temperature. However, the cream cheese frosting won’t be as firm as it would be if it was refrigerated.
Freezer: I’ve never attempted to freeze this cake (frosted or unfrosted). So…if you attempt, maybe let me know how it goes? 😉

Make Ahead Tips:

Personally, I think this particular recipe for pumpkin cake tastes even better after it sits overnight in the fridge. All of the spices and pumpkin cake flavors meld together to make for a soft and fluffy cake with rich pumpkins spice flavor. So, if you want to make these pumpkin cake squares ahead of time, here are some tips:

You can make the cake as directed and refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve. Again, this cake gets even better as it sits.
Or, if you don’t like a cold cake, you can make the cake and leave it unfrosted at room temperature until you are ready to serve.
- Before serving, make a batch of the cream cheese frosting and frost before serving.
- Additionally, you can make the cream cheese frosting ahead of time and refrigerate it. Before serving, frost the sheet cake.

Other Recipes For Pumpkin Cake:

Other Favorite Pumpkin Recipes:

Quick and Easy Tips To Making The Perfect Pumpkin Cake:

Pumpkin Pie Spice: If you prefer to use pumpkin pie spice instead of the individual spices on the ingredient list, you can use 1 tsp ground cinnamon + 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.
Frosting: If you’re not a cream cheese fan, make these frosted pumpkin bars with vanilla frosting, chocolate frosting, whipped cream frosting, etc.
Pan Size: Use a 9×13 baking dish for these pumpkin bars. It’s a large cake so you really need to use a large baking pan.
Nuts: To really enhance the fall flavor, add some toasted walnuts or pecans to the top of the frosting. Nuts pair really well with pumpkin treats, especially pecans and walnuts.