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Pumpkin Sheet Cake is perfect for any fall-loving crowd! The cake is pumpkin spiced and super moist, with perfect cream cheese frosting-to-cake ratio. This pumpkin cake is so easy the kids could make it and it's ready for eager foodies to eat in under an hour!
I don't care what it's like outside. It's pumpkin season now. The end.
We all know that autumn is my favorite time of the year. It always has been, always will be.
My pumpkin bread is legendary, but let me introduce you to the wonders of pumpkin sheet cake: moist, fluffy, perfectly pumpkin-y, it's the epitome of fall baking. Especially with kids! It's a simple '1-2-3' type of recipe that only requires a hand mixer for the frosting so it's great for the littles and older kids to get involved with mixing and pouring.
I happen to have a little Masterchef Jr. in the making, he loves being able to get in the kitchen with me any chance he gets, so if you've got one on your hands this recipe is perfect for them.
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How to Make Pumpkin Sheet Cake
The biggest reason I love this sheet cake so much is because it's literally "mix in a bowl, pour into pan, bake" and that's it! Then while it cools, beat the frosting ingredients with an electric mixer and spread it on after the pumpkin cake cools.
Boom! You are done, you are ready to kick your feet up and watch Hocus Pocus with a big mug of hot chocolate or pumpkin spice latte.
Ingredients
- Pumpkin Puree. It's easy to find canned pumpkin puree around this time of year. Did you know that canned pumpkin puree is actually a mix of different squashes and sugar pumpkins? Don't worry, it all tastes good in the end.
- Granulated Sugar and Brown Sugar.
- Vegetable Oil. This makes it super moist without having to do anything like creaming or melting or the like.
- Eggs.
- Vanilla Extract.
- All-Purpose Flour.
- Baking Soda.
- Cinnamon, Clove, Ginger, and freshly ground Nutmeg. Look if you've never had fresh nutmeg, I need you to buy some and change your life around.
Make creamy, fluffy cream cheese frosting from scratch
- Full fat cream cheese. Make sure it's room temperature or it won't whip up correctly.
- Unsalted butter. Control your salt, y'all!
- Vanilla Extract.
- Powdered Sugar. This is what gives your frosting both sweetness and body. Makes it nice and fluffy.
- A little milk. This thins it out and gives it a smooth consistency.
Storing Pumpkin Sheet cake
You've got to store your pumpkin cake in the fridge. It's got dairy on top of it! You gotta put that baby away. Wrap her up with plastic wrap and she can last for up to 3 days in there.
Can I make it ahead of time?
Make the cake a day in advance, wrap it in plastic wrap. It can stay on the counter without the frosting. Make the frosting the day of; it'll stiffen up in the fridge and hard to spread across your cake if you make it too early.
Recommended Tools
- A whisk and a silicone baking spatula
Love Fall Baking? Check out these other baked goods:
- The Best Pumpkin Bread Ever (and I mean that)
Craving more cozy recipes? Sign up for the Sweet Tea & Thyme newsletter, save this recipe with the Pin button. If you whip it up, tag me (@sweet_tea_thyme on IG/@sweetteaandthyme on TikTok) and don’t forget to leave a star rating and note below, it helps more than you know, friend.
Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Fluffy Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
Pumpkin Sheet Cake
- 1 can, 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Cream Cheese Frosting
- ½ cup 1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 oz 1 pack full fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 ½ cups powdered sugar
- ¼ cup milk
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C/160 degrees C fan-forced).
- Grease a 15x10x1 inch baking pan (or 9x13 baking dish) with shortening or butter. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk together the pumpkin puree, brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla extract, and oil until well combined. Beat in eggs one at a time until fully incorporated.
- Combine the all-purpose flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture, stirring together with a spatula until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet ingredients.
- Pour the pumpkin cake batter into the greased baking pan. Bake at 350° for 25-30 minutes (or 45-50 minutes for a 9x13 baking dish) or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Cool the sheet cake on a wire rack.
Cream Cheese Frosting- In a medium mixing bowl, beat the room temperature cream cheese with an electric hand mixer until smooth with little to no lumps left. Add butter and vanilla extract with an electric hand mixer until fluffy and smooth.
- Gradually beat in powdered sugar until smooth. Add in splashes of milk until the frosting reaches desired spreading consistency.
- Frost the cake generously and serve.
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