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Pumpkin Cake With Butter-Pecan Frosting

Pumpkin cake is an easy recipe: Just stir together canned pumpkin, flour, sugar, eggs, oil, and spices; pour the batter into a pan; bake it; and top the cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake should be moist and velvety, with just the right balance of pumpkin and spice, but the recipes we tried made damp cakes with a harsh burn of spice. And the cream cheese frosting was way too sweet and rich in my recipe tests.

Test Kitchen Discoveries

  • Instead of canned pumpkin pie filling, we used packed pumpkin puree, which has just pumpkin and no spices. The cake made with the puree actually tasted like pumpkin.
  • By controlling the amount of spices ourselves, we were able to use just a bit of ginger, cinnamon, and allspice to give the cake a subtle spiciness.
  • The solution to heavy and cloyingly sweet frosting was to back up on the butter and confectioners' sugar and increase the amount of cream cheese. The result was a tangy frosting that perfectly complemented the spiced cake.

  • Pumpkin Cake With Butter-Pecan Frosting

    Serves 16

    Be sure to use canned pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling, for this recipe.


    Cake
    2 cups all-purpose flour 
    2 teaspoons baking powder 
    1 teaspoon baking soda 
    1 teaspoon salt 
    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 
    1/4 teaspoon ground allspice 
    1/4 teaspoon powdered ginger 
    1 teaspoon salt 
    4 large eggs 
    1 cup vegetable oil 
    1 2/3 cup granulated sugar 
    1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree 

    Frosting
    6 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
    1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar 
    1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese , softened, cut into 8 pieces
    1 teaspoon vanilla extract 
    1 1/2 cups glazed pecans , chopped

    1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 13 by 9-inch baking pan. Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and salt in bowl. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs, oil, and granulated sugar until thick and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Reduce speed to low, add pumpkin, and mix until incorporated. Slowly add flour mixture and mix until only a few small lumps of flour remain, about 1 minute. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and cool completely.

    2. For the frosting: With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat butter and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add cream cheese one piece at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition. Add vanilla and mix until smooth. Fold in pecans. Turn cooled cake out onto wire rack then invert onto serving platter. Spread frosting evenly over cake. Slice and serve. (Cake can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.)

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