Delight in Fall flavors with this tasty Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Buttercream that will make your taste buds go wild!
It’s that time of year again folks!! PUMPKIN time! I probably could have waited a bit longer to roll out the pumpkin recipes, but with the crispness starting to hit the air I just could not hold myself back. I mean if I had my way, it would be pumpkin all year long.
Besides pumpkin being one of my favorite Fall flavors I also adore spice! Well I figured I’d combine the two and make this epically amazing Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Buttercream. I know, mouth-watering right? Pumpkin and spice were meant to be together.
So speaking of Fall approaching…what is your favorite things about this time of year? To be honest, there is something about the smell for me. I don’t know if it’s the leave falling, the smell of the air, the way the sun shines that just seriously brings back some amazing childhood memories.
If it was just a little bit warmer in the Fall (I am always freezing, apparently my body doesn’t like to circulate) then it would be deemed my favorite season. But alas, Summer will always remain in that top spot. I can’t wait to bust of the hoodies, boots and jeans. Country girl apparel I tell ya!
Anyways, let’s get back to this delicious cake. So you have a moist spice cake baked up until its golden. I knew I wanted to incorporate the cinnamon cream cheese in there because…duh, spice and cream cheese also pair nicely! So I decided that it would make an awesome filling.
Then I went all out and wanted to be a little different. Usually I combine my pumpkin into the cake mix to get the pumpkin spice flavor but with this version I decided I wanted to try pumpkin out as a buttercream frosting instead. OMG its heaven! Like seriously, heaven!
Oh, another great thing I love about Fall is that DQ and Culver’s rolls out there Pumpkin Pie ice cream flavors. I kid you not this buttercream is like you’re eating one of those creamy treats…minus the ice cream. I could eat this frosting with a spoon all day long if I felt that was acceptable, but my body would probably hate me for it, but at least I’d have a smile on my face while doing it.
So if you wanna get a little crazy, like the good kind of crazy. If you love cake (who doesn’t). And you just want a delicious cake to celebrate the season this Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Buttercream is the way you need to go!
So I URGE you, go by yourself the first can of pumpkin you see…took me two tries on that one because unfortunately the first store I went to had ZERO cans…either someone was just as eager as me to start with all the pumpkin flavors orrrrr they didn’t start regularly stocking them, in that case…such a shame!
Spice Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese and Pumpkin Buttercream
Ingredients
CAKE
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 stick butter room temp
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 5 eggs separated
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp all-spice
- Salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE BUTTERCREAM
- 1 cup butter room temp
- 1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
- 2 tsp vanilla
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
PUMPKIN BUTTERCREAM
- 1 stick butter softened
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 5-6 cups powdered sugar
- 3-4 tbs milk or heavy cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350.
- In 2 9" cake pans spray with cooking spray and place 2 rounds of parchment paper in bottoms, set aside.
- In bowl with hand mixer cream together your brown sugar and butter until fluffy. Slowly pour in your oil.
- Add your egg yolks one at a time, making sure to mix good after each addition.
- In another bowl mix together your flour, baking soda, baking powder, spices and pinch of salt until combined.
- Alternate adding your dry mixture and buttermilk into your butter/sugar mixture in 3 separate additions, mixing well after each.
- In small bowl beat your egg whites until stiff peaks form, fold into your cake batter.
- Pour batter evenly into pans and bake for about 25 minutes or until center is set.
- Remove from oven and let sit for about 5 minutes then turn out onto cooling racks.
- Meanwhile to make your cinnamon cream cheese filling in large bowl beat your butter until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in your cream cheese and vanilla and continue to beat for another few minutes until combined.
- Add your powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until incorporated. Lastly mix in your cinnamon.
- Refrigerate until ready to use.
- To make your Pumpkin Buttercream in bowl add your butter and shortening and mix until smooth.
- Add in your pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice and mix until incorporated.
- Add in powdered sugar 1 cup at a time until blended adding in your milk or cream until desired consistency is reached.
- Once cakes are cool, using a cake leveler or a serated knife, cut cakes in half, placing one layer onto a turntable.
- Remove your cream cheese filling from refrigerator, top cake layer with about 1/2 cup of frosting and spread to about 1/2 away from side. Repeat with remaining layers reserving about 3/4 cup of frosting for decorating outside of cake.
- Do not use to frost top layer.
- Fill a large piping bag fitted with a flat cake icer tip with your pumpkin buttercream and spin your cake while piping in large bands around cake. Spread smooth with large spatula.
- Add some of the frosting to the top of the cake and spread smooth with spatula.
- Spin turntable around with your spatulas side at an angle smoothing out sides as you turn.
- Once smooth, fill another piping bag fitted with a large star tip with the rest of your cream cheese frosting and pipe small swirls on top if desired and dab little stars around cake.
- Place in freezer for about 20 minutes to harden up if desired before cutting.
- NOTES
- We like to freeze our cake after we add the filling to make it more solid before frosting the outside.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
Kathleen Coviello
Hi- do you use light brown sugar or dark brown sugar?
Tornadough Alli
Light
the wandering cauldron
this was a great recipe, super easy to do but i switched up the design a bit. i made a really nice leaf pattern for the side of the cake. in between each leaf i placed an inch space to do a 3 rose pyramid which i topped with a cranberry i made for sugar paste. for the face of the cake i did large roses with the cinnamon cream cheese and in the center placed 3 more leaf’s that i made from the fondant. and another 3 rose pyramid at the base of each leaf and place 3 more of the cranberries on each pyramid.
helpful tips:
do place parchment paper at the bottom of your cakes. very moist cake.
when you take your cake out of your pans place them in the freezer and cut through your cake after about 30 minutes and place back in freezer for anther 30 minutes and now you can really work the buttercream for each layer if you did place your frosting in the fridge.
Dianne
I made this cake for Thanksgiving and I followed recipe exactly (except I didn’t use parchment paper – big mistake – cake is super-moist and didn’t want to come out of the pan). Everyone loved the cake and we couldn’t stop eating it. This is my new go-to fall holiday cake.
Katie
When you say a stick of butter, do you mean a half or whole cup? There’s different stick sizes…
Tornadough Alli
Sorry it would he half cup, change that in there!
Liz
Can you leave out the shortening and replace with extra butter?
Tornadough Alli
Hi Liz, absolutely you can always replace butter with shortening in the frosting. I like the mixture because it gives a better decorating texture.
Stacy
Just made this cake and it was soooo delicious!! Went over huge for my
Mom’s bday!! (Spice cake is her favorite 🙂 )
The one thing that I would say to others is that the milk in the pumpkin buttercream is not necessarily needed. I did it, even though I liked the consistency already, because I follow any new recipe to a T.. but after I added it the icing was superrrr melty and a bit watery even thought it was only a little bit.. wish it came out thicker but was still ridiculously tasty!
Thanks for the great cake! 🙂
Tornadough Alli
I’m so happy you liked this, yes sometimes I add the milk and sometimes I don’t it all depends on the softness from mixing and if people used all the powdered sugar or not! Thank you for trying it, we love it!
Angie
Does this cake need to be kept in the refrigerator at all times ? Cant wait to try it ????
Tornadough Alli
Hi Angie! It does not need to be kept refrigerated at all times. I like to keep mine stored in the fridge before and after serving because like all cakes, frosting at room temperature can melt slightly. If storing leftovers, I do recommend it be refrigerated.
Kelly Cletheroe
Hello there! I’ve posted a roundup of all my favourite pumpkin recipes on my blog, and this is one of them! I’ve credited all your work, thanks for a great recipe, here’s a link to the post: http://maverickbaking.com/10-very-best-pumpkin-recipes/
Hanna Lee
Just made this and it is AMAZING! Thanks for a great recipe and beautiful cake.
Tornadough Alli
Awe Hanna that made my day!! I’m so happy you loved it!! One of my favorites for sure.
Michelle @ O Blog Off
Wow!
I can taste all the fall flavors!
Spice cake is already awesome but cinnamon cream cheese AND pumpkin buttercream!?!? I’m in cake heaven!
Thanks!
Pinned!
Michelle
Rina
For the frosting is it salted butter?
Tornadough Alli
It’s more of a personal preference on if you use salted or unsalted. I used unsalted for this recipe.
Carlee
That cake looks amazing, Alli! And I can’t wait to try pumpkin buttercream! I too am ready for hoodies, they are my fall and winter “uniform.” 😉