This marble bundt cake is a Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Maple Icing. Vanilla cake batter and pumpkin cake batter are swirled together to make a perfectly spiced vanilla pumpkin cake filled with all of the flavors of fall.
If you love all things pumpkin during the fall, then you’re going to L-O-V-E this swirled Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe topped with the best maple icing of all time.
In typical southern Cali fashion, it’s not anywhere near fall temps, buuuuut, I’ve bought more sweaters and ankle boots than I know what to do with.
I have this positivity problem where I’m always certain “this is going to be the year fall comes back to California!” and I find myself in sandals and tanks well into October.
Granted, I live in sandals—even when it actually is relatively cool, I often still pick sandals over anything else (clearly moving out of California would be problematic for me)—but still, it’s the principle of the thing.
Someday it’ll be warm enough to throw on a sweater, scarf and booties without sweating, but until then, I’ll be enjoying my fall through the lens of food and fall flavors.
And this Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe? With a maple icing that I could eat by itself? It’s just the thing to put me in the spirit of fall.
One of my all time favorite fall recipe I’ve shared it for this Cream Cheese Glazed Pumpkin Bundt Cake.
It’s incredibly moist, incredibly spicy (in the whole cinnamon-and-sugar-and-everything-nice spiced) and full of pumpkin flavor.
Plus, pumpkin and cream cheese kind of have to be one of the best combinations in the world (although, I am a sucker for anything cream cheese).
However, as much as I do love strong pumpkin flavor, there are times when I just want something that is a little less intense. Sometimes I can get a little pumpkin-ed out during fall (I know—that’s almost sacrilegious to say as a food blogger) and I long for a bit of a more subtle pumpkin flavor.
This swirled Pumpkin Vanilla Bundt Cake is that perfect combination of pumpkin and vanilla without being overly flavored one way or the other.
While it’s a little more difficult to see in the photos, the vanilla cake batter and the pumpkin cake batter are swirled together.
The vanilla batter helps mellow out the pumpkin flavor while also being rich in sweet vanilla flavor, and the swirling of the two batters makes for a perfectly spiced bite each time.
I chose a maple glaze to pair with it because I love the flavors of maple, vanilla and pumpkin. I’ve used a similar glaze on this Maple Glazed Banana Bread and it’s very similar to the glaze on a maple bar donut (aka, the best donut in the world).
If this is a vanilla pumpkin marble bundt cake, do I have to make two separate batters?
No, the vanilla batter is the base of both batters. The vanilla batter is made, then some of the batter is mixed with pumpkin puree and pumpkin spices (like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.) and is swirled with the vanilla batter.
Do I have to make this a maple glazed pumpkin bundt cake?
No (although why wouldn’t you?! 😉), you could make a vanilla glaze, a cream cheese icing or serve it with whipped cream or ice cream. You could even leave it plain and dust it with powdered sugar instead (although it won’t be as sweet without a glaze).
Let’s talk about a couple of things with this Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe.
First of all, this recipe is a butter and sour cream pumpkin bundt cake recipe. The butter gives this pumpkin cake a good amount of flavor while the sour cream adds richness and moisture.
However, you can substitute plain or vanilla Greek yogurt for the sour cream.
Secondly, the batter calls for a mixture of granulated sugar and brown sugar. The brown sugar gives this cake a rich flavor that pairs perfectly with the pumpkin and spices. However, the color of the brown sugar does darken the batter, which is why the swirl between the vanilla cake batter and the pumpkin cake batter is so subtle.
If you would prefer the swirl to be more prominent, you can omit the brown sugar and use all granulated sugar.
Tips & Tricks to this Vanilla Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe made from scratch:
- Grease your bundt cake pan well. Cakes can really stick to your bundt cake pan and given the shape of the pan, it’s really difficult to get the cake out if it’s stuck. I like to grease my pan with baking spray and I make sure I’ve sprayed every square inch.
- Make sure you use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.
- I use my own combination of spices, which are listed in the recipe down below. However, if you have pumpkin pie spice, you can use that as a substitute.
Who’s ready for all things fall and pumpkin?!
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 4 eggs, large
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 4 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup maple syrup
- 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 12 cup bundt pan well. Set aside.
In the bowl of a standing mixer (or with a hand mixer) cream the butter until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add in granulated sugar and brown sugar. Cream the mixture until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, sift all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
- Alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture, add in the flour mixture and the buttermilk. Mix until just combined.
- Add in the sour cream and vanilla, mixing until well combined.
- Spoon two cups of vanilla cake batter into a separate bowl.
- Add in the pumpkin puree, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger and ground cloves and mix until combined.
- Spoon half of the remaining vanilla cake batter into the bundt cake pan.
- Spoon half of the pumpkin cake batter on top. Using a knife, swirl the batter together.
- Next, spoon the remaining vanilla cake batter on top of the pumpkin batter.
- Lastly, spoon the remaining pumpkin cake batter on top. Swirl the batter together.
- Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, then remove from the bundt cake pan and allow it to finish cooling.
- In a small saucepan, melt butter and maple syrup together.
- Once melted, remove from the heat.
- Sift the powdered sugar into the melted maple syrup/butter mixture (if you don’t sift, your icing might be lumpy). Using a whisk, mix the icing until smooth.
- Lastly, add in the vanilla extract and ground cinnamon. Whisk until smooth.
- Allow the icing to sit 10 minutes to set up. After the 10 minutes, whisk it once more then drizzle the icing over the cake.
- Allow the icing to set before serving the cake.
- Enjoy!
- Cake can be stored at room temperature for 2-3 days, otherwise you can store it in the fridge.
Here are some other pumpkin recipes you might love:
Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Donut Holes
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