Homemade Pumpkin Bundt Cake – Made with sweet autumn spices, plenty of pumpkin, a rich browned butter glaze, and a finishing touch of crunchy toasted pecans. It’s a simple cake with superb flavor!
Every fall calls for a few pumpkin desserts, it’s always fun to make a favorite and to try something new. This year the amazingly tasty creation to try is this blissful pumpkin bundt cake with a decadent browned butter glaze.
The cake batter is incredibly easy to make, you don’t even need an electric mixer for the recipe. You simply blend the wet ingredients (and sugars) and dry ingredients, then combined them. After that spread it in a bundt pan bake it in a hot oven until it’s set.
Let it cool (the hardest part, the waiting!), then smother it with a copious spoonfuls of that nutty browned butter glaze and highlight it with the pecans.
You’ll want to savor every bite of this autumn inspired pumpkin dessert!
Pumpkin Bundt Cake Recipe Ingredients
All purpose flour: Builds up the foundation of the cake.
Pumpkin pie spice: You use a store-bought blend or create your own using cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves (amounts are listed in the notes below).
Baking soda: A crucial ingredient in helping the cake rise.
Salt: This brings out the flavors of the cake.
Brown sugar and granulated sugar: Added to sweeten the cake.
Oil: Vegetable oil, avocado oil or even light olive oil all work well here.
Eggs: These help bind all the cake ingredients together and also help the cake rise.
Vanilla extract: Added for extra background flavor.
Canned pumpkin: This is just the plain canned pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling. You can use homemade pumpkin puree as well.
Pecans: Pecans can be toasted or raw though I recommend toasting them for more flavor.
Powdered sugar: This is the sweetener that is used for the glaze for a smooth consistency.
Salted butter: A key ingredient in the glaze, the butter is to be browned for a bolder, nutty flavor.
Milk: Just a little is used to help thin out the glaze into a spreadable consistency.
How to Make Pumpkin Bundt Cake from Scratch
Prepare oven: Set oven rack one level down from center. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
Mix sweetener and wet ingredients: In a separate large mixing bowl whisk together brown sugar, granulated sugar and oil. Whisk in eggs and vanilla extract then blend in pumpkin.
Blend wet/dry mixtures: Add flour mixture and stir and fold mixture until combined.
Prepare bundt pan, add batter: Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and dust with a little flour, shake out excess. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread top even.
Bake through: Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean or with a moist crumb but not batter, about 45 to 50 minutes.
Cool cake: Let cake cool 15 to 20 minutes in pan then run an offset spatula under edges where allowed to ensure it is loosened. Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Make the browned butter glaze: Brown the butter in a medium skillet or a saucepan, stirring frequently, until it has just browned and has a nutty aroma. Pour into to a heatproof mixing bowl.
Add powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth while adding more milk to thin as needed or a little more powdered sugar if you need to thicken it (it should have a thick drizzle-able consistency).
Spread glaze over cake: Set wire rack with cake over a baking sheet, then spoon glaze evenly over cake. Immediately sprinkle over pecans before glaze starts to set. Let the glaze set at room temperature then cut into slices.
Storage
Store the pumpkin bundt cake in an airtight container.
Keep at room temperature up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 6 days. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Cake can also be frozen up to 3 months. For a prettier appearance of glaze wait to add that until serving or it may wrinkle when frozen and thawed.
Possible Variations
Gluten free pumpkin bundt cake: To make this cake gluten free (which I have successfully tested here), replace the all-purpose flour with an equal part 1:1 gluten free flour such as King Arthur Gluten Free Measure for Measure Flour. Ensure other ingredients are packed in gluten free facilities.
Chocolate chips: This cake is also delicious with 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (with or without the glaze included).
Whole wheat flour: For a bit of added nutrition you could replace half of the white flour with white whole wheat flour (by weight).
Fresh pumpkin: In place of canned pumpkin you can roast and puree a fresh pie pumpkin or sugar pumpkin and use that here.
Homemade pumpkin pie spice: For your own pumpkin pie spice blend simply combined 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and 1/4 tsp cloves.
Helpful Tips to Remove a Bundt Cake from Pan
- Use a good quality non-stick bundt pan.
- Grease and flour the bundt pan immediately before pouring batter in. Otherwise the non-stick cooking spray can run and settle at the bottom of the pan and therefor doesn’t work as effectively in releasing the cake since it’s unevenly coated.
- Don’t let bundt cake rest too long in pan to cool or the sugars and steam can make it stick to the pan and not release as well. About 15 to 20 minutes works well.
- Run an thin metal offset spatula around the edges of the cake before you invert it onto a wire rack. Set the wire rack over the cake pan (upside down) before turning the bundt cake.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
A simple yet superb fall cake made with sweet autumn spices, plenty of pumpkin, a rich browned butter glaze, and a finishing touch of crunchy toasted pecans. Every bite will be savored!
Servings: 12
- 2 cups + 2 Tbsp (300g) all-purpose flour (scoop and level to measure)*, plus more for dusting pan
- 3 1/2 tsp (7g) pumpkin pie spice**
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup (150g) packed light brown sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 cup (215g) vegetable oil or avocado oil (not extra virgin)
- 4 large eggs, brought to room temperature***
- 2 tsp (8g) vanilla extract
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
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Set oven rack one level down from center. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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In a medium mixing bowl whisk together flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda and salt.
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In a separate large mixing bowl whisk together brown sugar, granulated sugar and oil. Whisk in eggs and vanilla extract then blend in pumpkin.
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Add flour mixture to wet mixture and stir and fold mixture until combined.
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Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with non-stick cooking spray and dust with a little flour, shake out excess. Pour batter into prepared pan and spread top even as needed.
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Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean or with a moist crumb but no batter, about 45 to 55 minutes.
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Let cake cool 15 to 20 minutes in pan then run an offset spatula around edges where allowed to ensure it is loosened. Invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.
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For the browned butter glaze: Brown the butter in a medium skillet or a saucepan, whisking frequently, until it has just browned and has a nutty aroma. Pour into to a heatproof mixing bowl.
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Add powdered sugar and milk. Whisk until smooth while adding more milk to thin as needed or a little more powdered sugar if you need to thicken it (it should have a thick fairly drizzle-able consistency).
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Set wire rack with cake over a baking sheet, then spoon glaze evenly over cake. Immediately sprinkle over pecans before glaze starts to set. Let the glaze set at room temperature then cut into slices.
**To make your own pumpkin pie spice blend use 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves.
***To bring eggs to room temperature quickly submerge them in warm water for 5 minutes.
****Instead of glaze this bundt cake is also delicious with 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips added instead. Add them to the batter along with the flour.
