Recipe from Tieghan Gerard
Adapted by Julia Moskin
Published Oct. 30, 2023
- Total Time
- 1¼ hours
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 1 hour
- Rating
- 3(114)
- Notes
- Read community notes
Tieghan Gerard, who runs the wildly popular Half Baked Harvest blog, posts a new recipe nearly every day, all year round, but her favorite season is (of course) fall, when she brings out the pumpkin-shaped pots, pumpkin-scented candles and toasted pumpkin seeds. Even if you don’t identify with the P.S.L. set, separating the pumpkin spice (cake) from the latte (frosting) makes this a delicious snack cake. Pumpkin purée makes it very moist, so test to be sure the batter is baked all the way through. —Julia Moskin
Featured in: The Star of Half Baked Harvest Inspires Loyalty — and Controversy
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Ingredients
Yield:1 (8-inch) cake
- ½cup/120 milliliters coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing
- 1(15-ounce) can pumpkin purée
- ⅔cup/146 grams packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2large eggs, at room temperature
- 1tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1½cups/192 grams all-purpose flour
- 1¼teaspoons baking powder
- ½teaspoon baking soda
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½teaspoon ground ginger
- ½teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¾teaspoon fine pink Himalayan salt or fine sea salt
- ½cup/1 stick salted butter, at room temperature
- 2ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1½cups/185 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 1tablespoon instant espresso powder
- 1tablespoon vanilla extract
For the Cake
For the Frosting
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on two opposite sides. Grease the parchment with coconut oil.
Step
2
Make the cake: In a stand mixer, beat together the pumpkin, brown sugar, melted coconut oil, eggs and vanilla on low until combined, about 1 minute. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and salt. Mix on low speed until completely smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
Step
3
Bake until the center is just set, 25 to 30 minutes. Carefully use the parchment paper overhang to remove the cake from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. Let cool for about 30 minutes.
Step
4
Meanwhile, make the frosting: In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until combined, 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar, espresso powder and vanilla; beat until the frosting is fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes more.
Step
5
Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Slice, snack and enjoy! Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.
Ratings
3
out of 5
114
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
annalou
The recipe makes way too much frosting. You could cut in half. And double the coffee. I used instant decaf. But the cake itself is so moist and wonderful, you could drop the frosting all together!
Rachel
I read the recipe this morning and made it immediately. The cake was so dense. The toothpick came out clean, but when I cut it the cake was almost like a baked pudding. There was too much frosting, too sweet. Very disappointed.
Ted S
I am wondering why we've all had such differing experiences. I cooked the recipe exactly, other than slightly extending the cooking time. Cake is great IMO - actually the texture I expected and wanted, not too dense but not light and cakey, either. Exactly the right amount of frosting, also, and no need for extra liquid at all.
Kelli C.
Use three eggs and use 1/4 buttermilk with 1/4 coconut oil to get a less dense cake.
Kelli C.
As some suggested, I added an egg. I also subbed 1/2 the coconut oil for buttermilk and my cake is not dense. Also halved the icing and used fresh brewed espresso so tweaked the frosting to accommodate the extra liquid.
Cathy C
I made this just as listed re the ingredients. I used an 8" springform pan and Baker's Joy spray instead of the square pan with parchment, and it came out great. We found the icing too coffee-intense for our taste. I think a tsp of espresso powder (I used King Arthur brand) would be plenty, but I'll play it by ear next time.
Beth
I made this cake yesterday and followed the directions exactly, though I did need to cook it a bit longer (a might just be my oven.) I was uncertain how all the flavors would meld (coconut oil, cardamom and coffee?) but the sum total was fantastic, and it got rave reviews from everyone. I will definitely make this again!
crlnwill
I made 12 cupcakes and with the leftover batter, I covered the bottom of a pie plate. No frosting. It's really good - reminiscent of ginger bread. My variations: 1/4 olive oil plus 1/4 room temperature butter instead of coconut oil, 1 cup of AP flour plus 1/2 cup of ground hazelnuts for the flour, 1/2 t of kosher salt instead of Himalayan pink salt.
Kat
Not sure about this — the frosting tasted good, but it broke and looked really ugly. Perhaps my butter and cream cheese were too soft? After reading all the comments I feel like there are better pumpkin recipes out there, but hopefully if I try the frosting again it will work better. I like the idea of coffee icing on pumpkin cake/bread.
Sonoma SMB
This cake is easy and great! It is wonderfully dense and rich, so don’t expect a pumpkin or banana bread texture.Made as directed but with heaping measures of spices.Baked in a 9” springform pan and was done in 25 minutes.For the frosting, used 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, 4 T. Butter, and a heaping cup of powdered sugar. Started with 1 t. espresso powder and added another 1/2 t.The texture was perfect, no need for extra liquid.
Susan F
I needed to increase the baking time by a good ten minutes.
Sarah
Just took it out of the oven after 35 minutes. Looks set but when i tried to lift it out of the pan, it fell apart. Suggest adding "until toothpick comes out clean" to the directions. I'm putting it back in the oven. Sigh.
Pamela
This recipe makes a dense, moist pumpkin cake, similar to pumpkin bread. The icing is mind-blowing, and, in my opinion, just the right amount. I immediately started thinking of other things I might put the icing on-- chocolate cake? Brownies? Honestly, I could just eat it with a spoon.
Colette B
I made a Frankenstein cake that turned out fantastic- the espresso pumpkin combo is quite delicious…. The nyt cooking Sheet Pan Pumpkin cake is a great recipe- this pumpkin cake is too claggy (in the GBBO sense of the word) imo. I changed the butter to cream cheese ratio to make it more cc heavy, so half a stick of butter and 4 ounces cc. Also- I have found decaf instant espresso at the store- helpful hint if you are looking to give this to kids or anyone sensitive to caffeine
lisa
It needed about 35 to 40 minutes to bake, maybe because I used fresh pumpkin. With half the quantity of frosting, it’s delicious.
Sonoma SMB
This cake is easy and great! It is wonderfully dense and rich, so don’t expect a pumpkin or banana bread texture.Made as directed but with heaping measures of spices.Baked in a 9” springform pan and was done in 25 minutes.For the frosting, used 4 oz reduced fat cream cheese, 4 T. Butter, and a heaping cup of powdered sugar. Started with 1 t. espresso powder and added another 1/2 t.The texture was perfect, no need for extra liquid.
Valerie
The texture of this cake reminds me of sweet potato pone. As long as you're not expecting a light cake, it tastes fine. Could use extra spice and extra coffee. I made 3/4 the frosting and it was still too much for an 8 inch single layer!
MrsEverett
This was a simple recipe to follow and we found the cake delicious but the coffee frosting was over powering. Next time I would make it with a maple cream cheese frosting.
Cara
Cake came out dense and flavorless. Frosting came out WAY too sweet. I was hoping they would balance each other out when put together, but they did not. The taste of the frosting overwhelmed the cake. I like the concept, though. So I am going to try again, and here are some adjustments I think would help:- double the sugar and spices in the cake batter- an additional egg and/or leavening agent in the cake batter- a tangy cream cheese-coffee frosting instead of buttercream
Ted S
I am wondering why we've all had such differing experiences. I cooked the recipe exactly, other than slightly extending the cooking time. Cake is great IMO - actually the texture I expected and wanted, not too dense but not light and cakey, either. Exactly the right amount of frosting, also, and no need for extra liquid at all.
Ferguson
We liked this cake. I used King Arthur espresso powder in the frosting. If you don't want to buy salted butter, you can use a stick of unsalted butter and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Kat
Not sure about this — the frosting tasted good, but it broke and looked really ugly. Perhaps my butter and cream cheese were too soft? After reading all the comments I feel like there are better pumpkin recipes out there, but hopefully if I try the frosting again it will work better. I like the idea of coffee icing on pumpkin cake/bread.
Cathy C
I made this just as listed re the ingredients. I used an 8" springform pan and Baker's Joy spray instead of the square pan with parchment, and it came out great. We found the icing too coffee-intense for our taste. I think a tsp of espresso powder (I used King Arthur brand) would be plenty, but I'll play it by ear next time.
Pat
The frosting recipe is missing milk or cream. It requires some liquid in addition to the vanilla.
Richard
You are alone (twice!) in saying that the recipe is missing liquid. I note that you do not say the frosting is missing liquid, so I'm assuming you are not speaking from experience. I and other readers did not find that additional liquid was needed for the frosting. One reader did add espresso to the frosting and modified to accommodate the "extra" liquid.
Pat
The frosting recipe needs liquid. Such as milk OT cream.
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