Salted Caramel Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe

Delectable layers of moist pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting and covered with a glaze of salted caramel sauce. Top it off with glazed pecans and you have a gorgeous layered cake ready to be displayed on your Thanksgiving table. Not only is it beautiful to look at, but once your guests dive into a slice of this lusciousness, they’ll be raving about this Pumpkin Spice Cake for weeks.

Don’t Be Intimidated by Layered Cakes

I was always afraid of layered cakes. I’m not sure why. Maybe because they seemed so daunting of a task. What intimidated me the most was slicing the layers horizontally. And then, of course, stacking the layers, there’s the possibility of it looking like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

But within the past several years, I determined to overcome my resistance to “layered” cakes and now this cake has become my all-time favorite. Let me take you through the steps and I think you’ll agree it’s easier than originally thought.

Ingredient List:

For the Pumpkin Cake

• All-Purpose Flour – When measuring flour, fluff it while it is in its canister, then spoon it into the measuring cup. Use the flat straight edge of a dinner knife to scrape off the excess flour.
• Leavening Agents – Baking Powder and Baking Soda are chemical leavening agents that cause the batter to rise when baked. I change out my baking powder every six months because when stored too long it loses some of its potency. Make sure both baking powder and baking soda are stored in an airtight container as well as in a cool dry place such as a pantry.
• Salt and Five Spices – Cinnamon, Ginger, Ground Cloves, Fresh or Ground Nutmeg, and Cardamon
• Pumpkin Puree – Go with the canned because it is so convenient and there is really not a lot of difference between it and fresh. If you want to be sentimental though and make your own from those picked from the pumpkin, it definitely can be done. Just know going into it there is a lot of prep work. Pioneer Woman has a good pumpkin puree recipe that you can link to.
• Granulated Sugar
• Canola Oil
• Eggs
• Pure Vanilla Extract

For the Cream Cheese Icing

• Crean Cheese (room temperature)
• Butter (room temperature)
• Powdered Sugar
• Thick Salted Caramel Sauce
• Pure Vanilla Extract
• Caramel Extract (optional)
• Glazed Pecans (for topping

Step by Step Instructions – How To Make a Layered Pumpkin Spice Cake

Step #1 – Begin by preparing the pans

Parchment paper is going to be your best friend with this recipe. It prevents your batter from sticking to the bottom of the pan and allows the baked cake to fall out easily when turned upside down.

Tear off a large sheet of parchment paper and place the bottom of the cake pan on top of it. Take a marker and mark around its parameter. Cut it with scissors and you have a perfectly fitted sheet to go in the bottom. Prepare two 8-inch round cake pans by spraying both the bottom and the sides with Pam before adding the parchment paper. 

Step #2 – Combine the dry ingredients and Wet Ingredients

Combine the spices, salt, and leavening agents with the flour and separate from the wet ingredients. Make sure these are well incorporated so it will give consistency throughout the batter. Using a whisk or a sifter to combine everything works great.

Mix the wet ingredients. With a hand mixer, beat the pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until well combined. Beating the wet ingredients together before adding them to the dry ones is an important part of baking. Otherwise, you will end up overworking the flour causing a dense and somewhat gummy baked product.

Add the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture. Make a well in the dry ingredients and fold in the pumpkin mixture until completely combined and the flour is no longer seen. This will result in a light and airy cake. 

Step #3 – Fill the round pans with Batter 

Normally you should fill cake pans about 2/3 full and give the batter room to expand. But because I am cutting each of these round cakes to produce a four-layered finished product, I wanted them extra tall. I ended up filling them a little over 3/4 full. That gave me plenty of room to level off the top part where it domed and still had plenty of depth left to make two halves per round cake.

This recipe makes plenty of extra batter. Therefore, I was able to make a few mini bundt cakes as well. You could do the same for cupcakes.

Step #4 – Bake the cakes in a 350°F Oven

Because these round cakes are so thick, they need to bake longer than usual. Mine stayed in a 350°F oven for 55 minutes. But every oven is different so here are a couple of ways to test if this Pumpkin Spice Cake is done.

• First, use a toothpick and insert it into the middle of the cake. If it comes out clean with no batter marks, then you’re good to go. A few crumbs are fine.
• Secondly, if you gently press in the middle of the cake and it springs back (a pillowy effect), then you know the cake is fully baked.
• Once baked, let the cakes sit for about five minutes before removing them from the pans. Run a knife around the edge of the pan before inverting them onto a baking rack. Let them completely cool before icing and assembling the layers.

How to Make the Cream Cheese Frosting

Step #1 – Combine Cream Cheese, Butter, and Powdered Sugar

Start with room temperature butter and cream cheese. Beat the butter and cream cheese before adding the powdered sugar. Continue until the mixture is smooth, otherwise, you can end up with lumps in your icing. 

Incorporate the powdered sugar into the creamed mixture a little at a time. You don’t want to dump all eight cups in at once. Start with two cups and beat it with a hand mixer until it is smooth. Continue adding two cups at a time until all the powdered sugar has been used.

Step #2 – Add the Caramel Sauce

Add thick caramel sauce to the cream cheese frosting and beat until well combined. My homemade Salted Caramel Sauce is so easy to make and works great in this recipe. Make sure it is completely cooled before you add it to the icing otherwise, the butter and cream cheese will soften too much making it difficult to frost the cake. You can use store-bought caramel sauce, but it is best to spend a little extra on the more expensive, thick sauce. 

Layering the Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Step #1 – Slice the Layers

First of all, make sure the round baked cakes are completely cooled. If they are still warm, the cakes more flimsy and fragile to work with.

When cutting, first of all, slice off the domed top with a long serrated knife. And by the way, don’t discard this extra cake you’ve just seared off. It serves wonderfully in a trifle recipe. Or, I’ve been known to stand at the counter and eat it right then and there. Sad, I know.

• Using a “lazy susan” or a cake turntable helps tremendously when cutting the different layers. Once the domed top is off, eyeball about halfway down the cake and insert your serrated knife horizontally and turn the lazy susan as you saw back and forth. This gives you a more consistently sliced layer.
• To keep the cake stand nice and clean while icing, you can cut three pieces of parchment paper and lay them down in a triangle on the cake stand before placing the cake layers on top. This way, it will catch all the drippings. When you are finished frosting the cake, carefully pull out each piece of parchment and it will leave you with a spotless stand.

Step #2 – Frost between the Layers

Start with about a heaping cup of icing on the bottom layer and spread it around. Make sure there is plenty around the edge. Continue with each layer, gently pressing down on it while paying attention to keep it level. Add another heaping cup of cream cheese frosting with each layer until you get to the top and then wait.

• The favored “must-have” cake frosting tool in my kitchen is an offset spatula. It makes the job much easier when spreading the frosting. 

While icing the first three layers, it doesn’t matter if you place the cut side up or down. But when I get to the top layer, I always use the layer that was the bottom part of the cake. I place the cut side down giving me a smooth, consistent, and even top for this layered pumpkin spice cake. (see above photo)

Step #3 – Create a “Crumb Barrier & Freeze

What is a crumb barrier you may ask? It is a thin layer of frosting on the top and sides of the layered cake causing all the little crumbs to get caught in this initial frosting. Then put the whole cake in the freezer for about 20 minutes until it is nice and firm. This step makes for a clean and crumb-free finished cake. 

Step #4 – Frost the Entire Cake with the Cream Cheese Frosting

Once you’ve pulled the cake out of the freezer, you’re ready to frost the entire layered spice cake. Evenly spread about 1/2 cup of frosting on top of the cake. Next work down and around the sides of the cake with as much frosting as needed to cover the sides. With a lazy Susan or a cake turntable, use the offset spatula while turning the cake to get a nice smooth look. Finish smoothing out the top. 

Step #5 – Drizzle with Caramel Sauce

Before you drizzle, return the frosted cake to the freezer for 20 more minutes. You want the cake really chilled when you begin to apply the caramel. If you are using a really thick caramel sauce, make sure that it is slightly warm but not too warm when you begin to drizzle it down the sides.

Begin by edging the top of the iced cake with the sauce while letting it drizzle down the sides in columns. There’s no rhyme or reason to the drippings. Grab a spoonful of Salted Caramel Sauce, and let it fall from the spoon while you slowly turn the cake  (see above photo) until all the sides have drippings down them. Finish it off by spooning and spreading more caramel sauce on top of the cake.

Step #6 – Add glazed pecans as the finishing touch

The crowning touch of this Salted Caramel Layered Pumpkin Cake Recipe is the glazed pecans that adorn it with textured loveliness. Pick up a bag of glazed pecan pieces in your grocery store and sprinkle them around the top and bottom edge of the cake. There are times I haven’t been able to find the glazed pecan, so I went with regular pecan pieces in the baking aisle and it was just as good.

Can You make the Pumpkin Spice Cake Ahead of Time?

The baked round cakes can be made in advance and frozen. Make sure and cool them completely, wrap them in foil and place each of them in a jumbo ziplock bag. These will last in the freezer for two months. 

The Cream Cheese Frosting can also be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator. You’ll need to let it set out and come to room temperature for about an hour when ready to use it because it will have hardened while in the fridge. You may want to use a mixer and fluff it up a bit. 

The Caramel Sauce can be made ahead of time as well. Follow these instructions on how to store it from my Homemade Salted Caramel Sauce Recipe. 

If want to make the entire cake ahead of time, store it in a cake container or carefully cover it with plastic wrap. It will last in the refrigerator for up to five days. 

I came across this recipe on Glorious Treats years ago when I was looking for a Fall dessert and I fell in love with it. There are only a few things I have changed over time but the original recipe and inspiration came from their site. 

I’ve made this scrumptious tiered cake on many occasions and I’ve always gotten oooh’s and ahhhh’s from my guests. It’s on my Thanksgiving menu list again this year. It really is worth the little bit of extra work that comes with a layered cake. It’s beyond rich and decadent. I know it’s hard to believe, but honestly, one piece is almost too much. You have to pace yourself when eating it.

If you’re looking for more Fall & Holiday Recipes, check these out:

Salted Caramel Pumpkin Cake Roll

Pumpkin Spice Vodka Martini

Caramel Drunken Apple Galette

Gingerbread Layered Cake

Follow me on Pinterest – Linger.

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