This flavorful pumpkin bundt cake is incredibly moist, perfectly spiced, and dotted with melty chocolate chips. Prefer your pumpkin cake plain? Leave the chocolate chips out!
Moist and dense, this pumpkin bundt cake delivers BIG. It’s not quite as heavy as a pound cake or quite as light as my favorite pumpkin cake. Instead, it meets somewhere in the middle and this place is called calorie-town. Worth every bite.
How to Make Pumpkin Bundt Cake
The process couldn’t be easier; this bundt cake requires just 2 bowls: 1 for wet and 1 for dry. The ingredients are all kitchen staples like flour, spices, vanilla, and eggs. Oil is the fat used in this pumpkin cake, so you’re guaranteed a super moist cake from the start. If calorie-town isn’t a place you want to be, you can sub unsweetened applesauce for half of the oil. Just as moist!
My favorite part, and this is just me being a total nerd, is that the cake uses an entire standard can of pumpkin. I always appreciate recipes calling for the whole can because you’re not stuck with a random 1/4 cup leftover. (Though it’s so good stirred into oatmeal with a splash of pure maple syrup!)
You need a 9.5 or a 10-inch pan for this pumpkin bundt cake. This is an affiliate link, but I’m glad to share my favorite bundt pan with you. Super quality, heavy-duty, great price, never warps, awesome rubber grips. I’ve been using it for years and, honestly, it’s just as durable as day 1.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake Toppings
Like the best things in the kitchen life, we’ll shower this pumpkin bundt with salted caramel. Even though salted caramel is incredible on its own, it doesn’t hold anything to the delicious pumpkin crumb underneath. And that’s saying a lot!
Other topping options:
- Brown Butter Icing from my Peach Bundt Cake
- Maple Icing from my Maple Cinnamon Rolls
- Chocolate Ganache
- Homemade Whipped Cream
- Brown Sugar Glaze from my Apple Bundt Cake
- Orange Glaze from my Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake
Instead of chocolate chips, this pumpkin bundt cake would be fantastic with a chai spice swirl.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 5 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This flavorful pumpkin bundt cake is incredibly moist, perfectly spiced, and dotted with melty chocolate chips. Prefer your pumpkin cake plain? Leave the chocolate chips out!
Ingredients
- 2 and 3/4 cups (340g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1 and 1/2 cups dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil*
- 4 large eggs
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)*
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- optional topping: salted caramel, brown butter icing, or maple icing
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 9.5 or 10-inch bundt pan.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and chocolate chips together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the oil, eggs, brown sugar, granulated sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and use a mixer or whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.
- Bake for 55-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean with just a couple lightly moist crumbs. This is a large, heavy cake so don’t be alarmed if it takes a little longer in your oven.
- Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 hours inside the pan. Then, invert the slightly cooled bundt cake onto a wire rack or serving dish. Allow to cool completely before drizzling with salted caramel (or icing) and serving.
- Cover leftover cake tightly and store at room temperature for a couple days and/or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the entire cake ahead of time (before topping with salted caramel or icing). Cover cooled cake and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Bring to room temperature before icing and serving. Baked cake can be frozen up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator and bring to room temperature (if desired) before icing and serving.
- Special Tools: KitchenAid Hand Mixer | Glass Mixing Bowls | Wire Whisk | Bundt Pan
- Spices: Instead of the 1/2 teaspoon of ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice– you can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. (Still add the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.)
- Oil: Instead of 1 cup of oil, try 1/2 cup (90g) unsweetened applesauce and 1/2 (120ml) cup oil. The cake is just as moist.
- Pumpkin: I strongly recommend using canned pumpkin puree over homemade in this recipe, though 2 cups of homemade would work just fine. I found the flavor better with canned. I prefer Libby’s brand for this cake.
Can I use pure pumpkin in the can- I’ve been to a couple of store’s and none have the purée
Hi Lynn, If it’s in a can and sold as “pure pumpkin” then it is the puree 🙂
I made this cake using a gluten free 1 to1 flour. It was absolutely perfect. I shared it with our neighbors and none could tell it was gluten free. I love the brunt butter drizzle with it. We’ve made it 4 times!! I love it as a morning snack with my green tea!
★★★★★
Good morning, if I wanted to add pecans, what is your recommendation for the amount? Thank you!
Hi Carolyn, you can add 1 cup of chopped pecans.
What adjustments would you recommend if using a 6″ bundt pan?
Hi Sally! Just curious…did you use light or dark brown sugar in your testing? I am on the fence and know both will work but….well you know the crazy minds of us crazy bakers and are major decisions in life! LOL! Have a great day!
Hi Carolyn, The above pictured cake was made with light brown sugar but either are great! The dark brown sugar yields a slightly darker cake with a slightly deeper brown sugar/molasses background flavor.
I do not have all purpose flour (just want to use what I have in the pantry), can I use self rising flour for this?
Hi Walesca, The use of self rising flour would require additional recipe testing so we can’t confidently recommend how to use it. Because it has leaveners already added into it, it’s best to use a recipe that is written specifically for self rising flour.
CROWD PLEASER! I made whipped cream with cream cheese for the topping and everyone loved it. So moist and delicious -thank you!
★★★★★
Desperately wanting to make this for Thanksgiving dessert, but can’t have egg (or dairy ) as I’m nursing my kiddo with allergies. Suggestions for replacing the egg? I’ve used flax egg with varying success, but only in recipes that call for 1 or 2 eggs so wasn’t sure if it would work here…
Has anyone used this recipe to make cupcakes?
Can this be turned into a 2 layer cake with Frosting?
If so, how would you do it?
Hi Cheryl! I recommend using my regular pumpkin cake recipe instead. See the recipe notes for turning into a 2 layer cake.
OMG! This was amazing! I decided to make a pumpkin cake instead of pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, and I settled on this recipe. It’s the lightest pumpkin cake I’ve ever made, and also it was very moist and perfectly spiced. I left out the chocolate chips, and next time I may add chopped pecans because I do love nuts in baked goods!
I made a half-batch of cake, spreading it into three 6-inch cake tins. I frosted it with cream cheese frosting and used some caramel sauce, along with the cream cheese frosting between the layers. It was definitely a hit, and I think I will always use this recipe for future pumpkin cakes (which totally beat out pumpkin pie in our affections!)
★★★★★
Can I use pumpkin spice instead of all the other ingredients. If so, do I still use the recipe amount of cinnamon? Thank you.
eileen
Hi Eileen, You can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. Still add the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.
I made this yesterday as part of my covid-Christmas baking frenzy, adding about 3 T of orange zest and a little over a cup of fresh cranberries (chopped and tossed with a bit of the sugar) in place of chocolate chips. It was all I could do to hang onto a couple of slices to have with coffee this morning. Great recipe. Thanks everso.
Hi Sally! 🙂 What should I change on the measurement of the ingredients to make it fit an 8.5 inch bundt pan? 🙂
Hi Bobbie, this blog post should help!
Thank you so much! 🙂