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Pumpkin Earthquake Cake

Cakes and Cupcakes

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This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. 

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is an easy fall recipe that is sure to be a crowd pleaser! 

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

Earthquake Cake.

Have you heard of this? Have you eaten this? Do you want to? (Yes. Always yes.)

If you’re familiar with what earthquake cake is, you know what I’m talking about when I say it’s practically irresistible. If you’re not familiar with it, let me be the first to tell you about this life changing, rich, gooey and utterly ridiculously delicious dessert.

It’s almost like cake meets brownie meets pudding and it’s weird and wonderful all at once.

I know. 

Then you add pumpkin and spice to the mix and it’s pretty much the fall dessert of all of my hopes and dreams (and hopefully yours as well).

pumpkin earthquake cake cake batter

This Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of those desserts where it’s perfectly understandable if you eat it straight out of the dish. 

Absolutely no judgement on my end, especially since I’ve definitely done that before.

This Cream Cheese Glazed Pumpkin Bundt Cake? It happened.

This Brownie Bottom Pumpkin Cream Pie? You betcha.

And this Oreo Chocolate Cream Pie? I couldn’t help myself.

Were they low moments? Probably. Were they also great moments? Oh yeah. Ohhh yeahhhh.

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

Basically, if you haven’t quite picked up what I’ve been putting down, this Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is amazing. It’s incredibly easy, it feeds a crowd, and it’s full of pumpkin spice and everything nice. It’s a little something I like to call the trifecta of fall desserts.

So, let’s talk about earthquake cake for a hot second here. Namely, what is an Earthquake Cake?

Earthquake Cake gets it’s name because the cream cheese filling sinks a bit after the cake bakes, making the cake look a little cracked and uneven, as if it’s been through an earthquake.

It’s so incredibly rich and gooey, it doesn’t need frosting, and all of those cracks and crevices in the cake make it visually interesting. Even if it isn’t the most perfect looking cake in the world, one bite and you’ll see that it’s what’s on the inside that counts. 😉

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

This Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is based off a recipe clipped from a newspaper years ago. The original recipe uses german chocolate cake mix, but I used white cake mix. You could easily use spiced cake mix or yellow cake mix as well.

The other main ingredients for this Pumpkin Earthquake Cake are:

  • pumpkin puree
  • spices and vanilla extract
  • cream cheese
  • eggs
  • oil & butter
  • water
  • powdered sugar & brown sugar
  • chocolate chips & butterscotch chips
  • coconut and pecans

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

Pumpkin Earthquake Cake Tips & Tricks:

  • First things first, do not follow the instructions on the back of the cake mix. Due to some of the additional ingredients in this Pumpkin Earthquake Cake, we use different measurements for some of the ingredients on the back of the box.
  • For the cream cheese filling, you can either whisk the mixture together by hand, use a standing mixer, or use a hand mixer.
  • I like to dollop the cream cheese mixture over the top of the cake and then swirl the layers together, but you can also pour the the cream cheese mixture right on top and then swirl it together.
  • Bake this for 35-36 minutes. While you want the top of the cake to be set, it’s all right if the cake jiggles slightly in the center when the pan is gently tapped. The cake will be gooey and rich and perfect.

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

You’re sure to fall in love… (how many times before that joke gets old? 😬)

5 from 1 vote
Print
Pumpkin Earthquake Cake
Prep Time
20 mins
Cook Time
35 mins
Total Time
55 mins
 
This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious.
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: pumpkin earthquake cake
Servings: 12
Author: Michelle
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cake
  • 1 box white cake mix (15.25oz)
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8-1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 eggs
Cream Cheese Filling
  • 8 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
  • 3 cups powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
Additional Ingredients
  • 1 cup pecans
  • 1 cup shredded coconut, sweetened sweetened
  • 1/4 cup milk chocolate chips, optional
  • 1/4 cup butterscotch chips, optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x13 baking pan.
  2. Sprinkle coconut and pecans over the bottom of the baking pan. Set aside.
  3. In a bowl, mix cake mix, vegetable oil, water, pumpkin brown sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, all spice, vanilla extract and eggs together. Mix until well combined. Pour batter over the coconut and pecans.
  4. In a separate bowl, whisk (by hand or with a mixer) cream cheese, melted butter, and powdered sugar together. Once combined, dollop spoonfuls of the mixture on top of the pumpkin cake batter.
  5. Using a knife or toothpick, swirl the cream cheese and pumpkin cake together.
  6. Sprinkle chocolate chips and butterscotch chips on top and swirl the chips in with the cake.
  7. Bake for 35-36 minutes. The cake should be set on top but the center should still jiggle lightly when the cake pan is gently tapped.
  8. Allow to cool before serving. Due to the cream cheese in the cake, I prefer to eat this cake cold, but it can be eaten warm or at room temperature as well.
  9. Store leftovers in the fridge.
  10. Enjoy!

This post was first on Julie’s Eat and Treats, where I am a contributor.

 

This Easy Pumpkin Earthquake Cake is one of the best fall dessert recipes! Doctored up cake mix is swirled with a cream cheese filling, making a rich, gooey pumpkin cake that’s 100% over-the-top and downright delicious. #pumpkin #cake #fall #dessert #recipe

Here are some other recipes you might love:

Pumpkin Pecan Banana Bread

overhead shot pumpkin pecan banana bread

Pumpkin Donut French Toast Casserole

Shared by Michelle

Comments

  1. GINA says

    October 7, 2018 at 9:53 am

    Oh my gosh!!! this cake looks so AMAZING I absolutely can’t wait to make it. Thank you for posting:)

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      October 7, 2018 at 8:32 pm

      You are so welcome! I hope you love it as much as we do!

      Reply
  2. Doris says

    November 14, 2018 at 1:23 pm

    What size cake mix box do we use. 15 or 18 oz size. Thank you

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      November 14, 2018 at 3:31 pm

      Hi Doris! I used a 15 oz size. I’ll make a note of that in the recipe. 🙂 Thanks!

      Reply
  3. Bethel says

    November 20, 2018 at 8:28 am

    5 stars
    Can this be made ahead and frozen?

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      November 20, 2018 at 1:01 pm

      Hi Bethel, I’m not 100% certain since I haven’t frozen this recipe before, but I think that it should freeze just fine. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Carlyn says

    December 30, 2018 at 2:02 pm

    5 stars
    This was so good! I actually forgot to add the sugar to the cake part but without it it was still perfectly sweet! I also used unsweetened coconut flakes and a little less butter in the cream cheese filling. I liked these bars both hot and cold the next day.

    Reply
  5. Nicole says

    September 15, 2019 at 4:49 pm

    Help! Our cake didn’t set up?!

    Reply
    • Michelle says

      September 16, 2019 at 7:23 pm

      Hey Nicole! So an earthquake cake is pretty gooey in the center because of the cream cheese filling. Do you think it was just gooey, or do you think there was something more wrong with it? It can be hard to troubleshoot without being there in the kitchen with you, but I’ll do my best! 😊

      Reply
      • Evelyn says

        September 24, 2019 at 7:57 pm

        Hey, I made this cake this evening as well, but only the outside got done even though I baked it 15 min extra… I baked the undone center for another 15 min and now it is done. So next time I make it, I’ll bake it for a good hour.

        Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Pumpkin Earthquake Cake – Cantik says:
    January 31, 2019 at 11:16 am

    […] Recipe Adapted : Pumpkin Earthquake Cake @ alattefood […]

    Reply
  2. Peanut Butter Earthquake Cake - A Latte Food says:
    September 10, 2019 at 8:06 pm

    […] year, I shared this recipe for a Pumpkin Earthquake Cake—and it was/is amazingly rich, gooey and all things […]

    Reply

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I'm Michelle and this is where you'll witness my baking addiction. I bleed coffee and breathe sugar. Come join me as I journey through life one recipe at a time! READ MORE
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