In today’s post: This easy pumpkin pie cake recipe tastes even better than pumpkin pie! Instead of pie crust it’s full of buttery cake crumbles. It’s a great holiday dessert for family dinners or potlucks and it feeds a crowd.
Pumpkin Pie may be the most traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best one. Pumpkin Pie Cake is an amazing update to pumpkin pie, and even pumpkin pie haters love it. Here’s why:
- Pumpkin pie cake features all the creamy goodness of pumpkin pie, but it swaps out boring pie crust for buttery cake crumbles
- Skipping the pie crust means this dessert is much easier to make than traditional pumpkin pie!
- This dessert fills a whole 9×13 pan to the brim, meaning it can be cut into 20 servings, which is much more than one pie, making it perfect for serving at Thanksgiving.
Looking for another great Thanksgiving dessert? Try this Easy Banana Pudding Recipe.
Ingredients
Here’s what you need for this recipe:
- Boxed Yellow Cake Mix
- Melted Butter: I use salted butter
- 5 Large Eggs: one gets mixed in with the cake mix while the other four get mixed in with the pumpkin
- A large can of Pumpkin Puree: note that you’ll use canned pumpkin; do not use pumpkin pie filling
- Sugar
- Salt
- Spices: the recipe calls for cinnamon, ground ginger, and ground cloves, but you could substitute pumpkin pie spice if you prefer. You could also add a little nutmeg if you like the flavor.
- Evaporated Milk: the recipe calls for 17 oz of evaporated milk, so purchase one 12 oz can and one 5 oz can.
What Is Pumpkin Pie Cake?
The first time I tried this recipe I wasn’t sure what to expect. Pie? Cake? Something in between? Well, it’s definitely part pumpkin pie, creamy and spiced to perfection.
But instead of a crust, the pie is mixed with crumbles made from a yellow cake mix and butter. Half of the crumbles get swirled into the pumpkin mixture, where they stay soft, while the other half goes on top, where they get just a little crunchy.
The result is a moist, tasty, dessert that has all the creaminess and flavors of pumpkin pie without being quite so…well…boring.
Pumpin Pie Cake or Pumpkin Dump Cake?
So what’s the different between this dessert and a pumpkin dump cake? Well, the ingredients are similar but I think this pumpkin pie cake tastes better than a pumpkin dump cake because you’ve got buttery cake all through it instead of just on top.
How to Make Pumpkin Pie Cake
Here’s the recipe for dreamy pumpkin pie cake. It’s only going to take you about ten minutes to mix everything up and get it in the oven. First, you mix the cake mix with melted butter and one egg to make crumbs, then place half of that in the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Then you’ll mix the pumpkin with the other ingredients and pour that over the cake crumbles. Top the pumpkin pie mix with the rest of the crumbled cake mix:
It takes about an hour to bake. When it’s done baking, the pumpkin pie cake will be nice and golden brown on the top, and a knife inserted near the edge will come out clean. Let it cool completely before serving. I think it tastes best chilled, topped with whipped cream (required) and caramel sauce and toffee bits (optional). You can also serve it with vanilla ice cream. You can cut it into 20 small pieces or 15 larger pieces. Either way, everyone’s going to love it!
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box Yellow Cake Mix
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 egg
- 1 can pumpkin 29 oz
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 4 eggs
- 17 oz evaporated milk
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Heat butter until just melted, not hot. Whisk in one egg. Mix in yellow cake mix with a fork until mixture resembles crumbs.
- Sprinkle 1/2 of the crumbs into a greased 9×13 pan, setting aside the remainder.
- Beat 4 remaining eggs in a large bowl and the stir in pumpkin.
- In a small bowl, mix sugar and spices, then mix into the pumpkin/eggs.
- Stir in evaporated milk 1/2 can at a time.
- Pour pumpkin mix over crust, then sprinkle remaining crumbs on top – pan will be quite full.
- Bake for 60-70 minutes (a knife inserted near the edge will come out clean, but the center may still be soft).
- Cool completely and chill before serving with whipped cream or cool whip.
Video Tutorial
Enjoy! If you love pumpkin, check out these posts:
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies
Double Chocolate swirled pumpkin bread
Elizabeth Jurgensen says
This is definitely a keeper! Made as recipe told me too and we loved it! No more regular pumpkin pie for us!
Eva Sears says
I have made this for years using a can of pumpkin pie mix. I just add eggs and milk. No need for sugar or spices. Everything else is the same.
Gail Bannister says
I changed the spices to 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp Pumpkin Pie spice, 1/2 tsp cloves.
Each time I make this, I am asked for the recipe!
Michelle says
Couple Questions
Do you know if the pumpkin pie part is a custard?
Do you know the moisture content?
Or if this is cottage food law friendly?
Autumn says
Sorry, I don’t know the answers to those questions!
Eva Sears says
Any time you have eggs and milk as a base. it is a custard and should be refrigerated