Pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake is everything you love about pumpkin cake with a decadent cream cheese layer hiding inside. Simple to prepare and perfectly spiced, this fall cake always impresses a crowd. Both layers are simply irresistible!
If you like my pumpkin Bundt cake, you’re going to love today’s pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake. We use the same base recipe, ditch the chocolate chips, and add a cream cheese layer. Hello, fall!
Why You’ll Love This Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake:
- Easy to make
- Moist and dense
- Spiced with cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice (or you can use pumpkin pie spice!)
- Layered with a tangy cream cheese filling
- Perfect for fall celebrations
My favorite reason to LOVE this cake is that it 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.
How to Make Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
This Bundt cake isn’t as light as my favorite pumpkin cake but not as dense as pound cake. It lies somewhere in the middle with the same great flavors as pumpkin bread. And, it couldn’t be easier to make. Let’s review the steps:
- Make the cake batter. This pumpkin batter combines a few kitchen staples like canned pumpkin, eggs, oil, cinnamon, spices, flour, and brown sugar. Oil, brown sugar, and pumpkin make this one of the moistest Bundt cakes to come out of your oven. It is unbelievably rich in flavor from all the spices, pumpkin, and brown sugar, too.
- Make the cream cheese filling. You only need 4 ingredients for this layer.
- Layer the two. We follow similar layering methods when making my cheesecake swirl carrot Bundt cake and pumpkin cake cheesecake.
- Bake. I recommend using a 10-inch Bundt pan to hold all of the batter. This is a huge, thick Bundt cake so it takes a while to completely bake through.
Let’s layer:
The cream cheese mixture is thick:
The Best Cream Cheese Filling
This pumpkin Bundt cake is so grand that it doesn’t even need an icing, glaze, ganache, frosting, etc. And I can’t believe I’m saying that! The cream cheese layer inside sort of fills that “void.”
You only need 4 basic ingredients: block-style cream cheese, an egg, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract. Combine them all together and carefully layer it on top of the pumpkin cake batter. It’s pretty thick so do your best. I like to spread it as close to the edges of the pan as possible so there’s filling in every bite.
This filling isn’t overly sweet, which I love—and I think you’ll appreciate too. Real flavors shine through today!
More Favorite Pumpkin Recipes
- Pumpkin Pie & Pumpkin Slab Pie
- Pumpkin Cupcakes
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Pumpkin Bars & Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins & Simply Pumpkin Muffins
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 65 minutes
- Total Time: 3 hours, 30 minutes
- Yield: serves 10
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake features a perfectly spiced pumpkin cake with a delicious cream cheese filling.
Ingredients
- 2 and 3/4 cups (344g) all-purpose flour (spooned & 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 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)*
- 1 cup (200g) packed light or dark brown sugar (I prefer dark here)
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable or canola oil
- 4 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Filling
- 12 ounces (336g or 1.5 blocks) full-fat cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and grease a 10-inch Bundt pan.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice together in a large bowl. Set aside. Whisk the pumpkin, brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla extract together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and whisk until completely combined. Batter will be thick.
- Make the cream cheese filling: Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese on high speed until no lumps remain. Beat in the remaining ingredients on medium-high speed until combined.
- Spread half of the pumpkin batter into the prepared bundt pan. Spread all of the cream cheese filling evenly on top. Spread the remaining pumpkin batter on top.
- Bake for 55-65 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 1 hour inside the pan. Then, invert the slightly cooled bundt cake onto a wire rack set over a large plate or serving dish. Allow cake to cool completely before serving. Leftovers keep well stored in the refrigerator for a few days.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: Baked cake can be frozen up to 3 months. Allow to thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools: Glass Mixing Bowls, Whisk, KitchenAid Hand Mixer, and Bundt Pan
- Spices: Instead of 1/2 teaspoon each ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and allspice, you can use 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. (You will still add the 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon.)
- Pumpkin: You’ll need a tad less than 2 cups of pumpkin puree, which is a standard 15 ounce can. I prefer canned pumpkin in this bundt cake as opposed to fresh puree.
Keywords: pumpkin cream cheese bundt cake, pumpkin bundt cake
Can this be made into mini bundtlettes?
Absolutely! We’re unsure of the bake time for smaller size.
So moist and delicious! I took other reviews advice and really increased the spices. Also added 1/4 cup of cake batter and mixed into the cream cheese filling. This prevents air pockets or gaps from forming in the filling.
★★★★★
Funny so much confusion over 12 oz’s cream cheese Can I make this in a 9×13 pan ? I want bars.
Hi Coral, We recommend using our pumpkin bar recipe for a 9×13 inch pan. We haven’t tested them with a cream cheese layer added to the center but let us know if you give it a try!
This just came out of my oven & my kitchen smells like heaven! It baked up beautifully & I can’t wait to serve it!
Just wanted to ask … I didn’t have allspice, BUT added all other spices listed. Should I expect a crazy difference in flavor? Thanks!
★★★★★
Hi Sheila, you shouldn’t notice too much of a difference. We hope you loved the taste as much as the smell!
Hi Sally! I love all your recipes! I have a question… I’m making this pumpkin cream cheese Bundt cake tonight for a luncheon tomorrow at noon. My question is do I have to store this in the fridge tonight or will it be ok stored at room temp until tomorrow? Thanks!!
Hi Paulina, you can keep the cake at room temperature overnight. Leftovers will last in the refrigerator for a few days. Enjoy!
I’m a bit confused. I left out the cheesecake part and added white ghirardelli chips. The recipe calls for 12 oz cream cheese / one block. One block of cream cheese is 8 oz. So do you need to use 12 oz or one 8 oz block?
Hi Tonia, you need 12 ounces of block-style cream cheese, which is 1.5 8 ounce blocks. Sorry for the confusion!
The cake came out great except I would have liked more cream cheese filling. When I read the part about 12 ounces (336g) full-fat block cream cheese I just thought the 12 was a typo because our full block is 8 oz. Other than my mistake it tasted great.
Great! I noticed some commenters said it wasn’t quite spicy enough and I do like things spicy so I upped each spice by about 50%. Worked out well for me. Not too sweet, moist and delicious. Served at Thanksgiving and was loved by all.
★★★★★
Not what I was expecting. Smelled amazing but had no flavor. The cream cheese center has a weird texture, maybe because of the egg?
★★
Mindi -the egg is necessary for binding the cream cheese mixture, otherwise, it would be too runny, not set up & probably meld into the bread.
Hi Sally – love your recipes! I’m always a little paranoid to try bundt cakes because I’m scared the cake will get caught in all the fluting of the pan. Do you have any tips to ensure it comes out cleanly?
Hi Allison, just VERY generously spraying your pan! Air on the side of more than less, so that the Bundt releases seamlessly from the pan.
I was looking for a dessert for a special meal with friends. I wanted a dessert that “feels like a hug”. A friend recommended your recipe. For extra sinfulness I served it with an optional salted caramel (also your recipe) and a small scoop of walnut ice cream (we don’t have dessert often but when we do we go all out!). I cannot begin to tell you what a hit it was! Our guests were happy to leave with extra pieces to take home. It will be my new go to recipe when having friends over. Thank you!
★★★★★
We’re so thrilled this bundt cake was a hit, Sylvie! Sounds perfect with salted caramel and ice cream.
I have never seen 12 oz. blocks of cream cheese. I always buy 8 oz. packages. Is it 12 oz. or 8 oz.? Your recipe states 12 oz.
Hi Laney, You will need a total of 12oz so you will use one full 8oz block, and half of a second 8oz block. Hope this helps!
Thank you.
This was perfect! Your recipes never let me down. Right balance of moistness and spice flavor for all palates- the right spice flavor coming through has been living in other pumpkin bread recipes I have tried.
Fit great in my Nordic ware Bundt too. Thanks!
★★★★★
Perfect Fall cake! Loved the cream cheese layer. Would have liked it to be slightly sweeter as it is a cake so will add a tad more sugar next time.
★★★★
Texture was perfect, and no problems with the cream cheese filling. However I noticed the dry ingredients didn’t have a strong smell of spice. My spices are fresh, in fact I just replace 3 of the ones used. Disappointingly it didn’t have much flavor, even my 8 &10 yr old agreed. On the plus side it wasn’t sugary sweet, so that was good. I wonder what could have been done differently with the spices.
★★★
Don’t use grocery store spices if you want deep flavor. Penzey’s spices always deliver the best quality and “umph”!
Super yummy! I made this for a bridal shower, and everyone loved it! Thanks, Sally, for another awesome recipe!
★★★★★
Just made this today. Turned out wonderful! Directions were easy to follow and finished product looked exactly like the picture. Will be adding this to my cake recipes.
★★★★★