Ooooh this vegan pumpkin cake you guys! Soooo good.
I searched high and low in our small town for some canned pumpkin because when you’re making pumpkin desserts, canned pumpkin purée is the business!
Sadly though it seems canned pumpkin isn’t a ‘thing’ around here. I guess pumpkin desserts aren’t really a thing around here either. Maybe folks here don’t realize how good they are!
So I had to do things the old fashioned way and make pumpkin purée from scratch! Was pretty easy really, just bought some ready peeled and chopped pumpkin cubes and baked them on a parchment lined baking tray at 350°F (180°C) for 30 minutes. No spices or oils, just plain.
And when baked, you just let it cool and then puree it in a food processor! The baking part gets rid of any excess moisture so you don’t end up with pumpkin puree that is too ‘wet’. But if you do, you can just stand the pumpkin purée in a strainer so any excess water runs off.
So it was really too easy. Probably still better to use canned though if you can get it, saves time!
And then when it comes to the frosting, I had a look around the web to see what a good pairing usually is and I saw a lot of recipes using a brown butter frosting.
So, naively I set out to try and make one using the vegan butter I’m getting here at the moment. And oh my what an utter disaster. You don’t even want to know how gross that turned out.
So it seems browning butter really needs actual butter! Hahaha! Who knew (probably everyone). Apparently it’s the milk proteins in the butter that brown, and there ain’t any of those in the vegan varieties!
So then I decided on a cinnamon buttercream frosting and that was just perfect.
There’s cinnamon and other spices in the pumpkin cake and so the pairing with a cinnamon flavored frosting did the job fabulously well.
And then I sprinkled it with some extra cinnamon and tossed some crushed walnuts on top and the result was utterly divine.
This vegan pumpkin cake sort of reminded us of carrot cake! Or a spice cake!
It’s deliciously spiced in the same way that a carrot cake usually is, with the cinnamon and the nutmeg and it’s also sweetened with brown sugar.
This pumpkin cake adds in some ground ginger and cloves too, so it’s really a treat.
So if you like carrot cake, or spice cake, then you’ll love this too!
You will love this fabulous vegan pumpkin cake, it is:
- Wonderfully spicy
- Perfectly moist
- Light and fluffy
- Topped with cinnamon buttercream frosting
- Gorgeously colorful!
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for a few days, or keep it covered in the fridge where it will stay fresh for up to a week!
So let us know what you think of this vegan pumpkin cake! So pretty isn’t it! And please do rate the recipe too, thanks so much.
And if you love cakes, you’ll probably love these beauties too:
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Vegan Banana Cake
There’s heaps more, but that’ll do for now! 
And while you’re here sign up for our email list!
You’ll get a free recipe ebook (awesome!) and you’ll stay updated with all our latest recipes (Whee!).
Vegan Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Cake:
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 cup Light Brown Sugar (200g)
- ½ cup White Granulated Sugar (100g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Cinnamon
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ½ tsp Ground Ginger
- ½ tsp Ground Cloves
- 1 and ½ cups Pumpkin Purée (337g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- ¼ cup Canola Oil (60ml) or other vegetable oil
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Flax Egg 1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water
For the Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting:
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 3 and ¾ cups Powdered Sugar (450g)
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 2 Tbsp Soy Milk or other non-dairy milk
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
For Decoration:
- Cinnamon
- Crushed Walnuts
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray two 7 inch cake pans (*see notes) with non-stick spray and cut out circles of parchment paper line the bottoms.
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves.
- Prepare your flax egg by adding 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed meal to a bowl and then adding in 3 Tbsp of Hot Water and allowing to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the flax egg, pumpkin purée, vanilla, oil and vinegar to the mixing bowl and mix into a batter. Don't overmix.
- Divide the batter equally between the prepared cake pans.
- Place into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire cooling rack and allow to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the vegan butter, powdered sugar, vanilla and soy milk to the bowl of an electric mixer. Starting at slow speed, gradually increase the speed until the frosting is thick and smooth. If your frosting is too thick, add in soy milk a drop at a time until it reaches the right consistency.
- Add the cinnamon last and mix on low until just mixed in.
- When your cakes are completely cooled, frost them and then sprinkle cinnamon and crushed walnuts on top.
Notes
- Pumpkin purée. I used homemade pumpkin purée. I baked peeled and chopped pumpkin in the oven (plain, no oils or spices) for 30 minutes at 350°F (180°C) until soft and cooked and then pureed it in the food processor. If you do it this way and your purée is a bit 'wet' then stand it in a strainer so any excess water can run off.
- For the most accurate results, weigh your flour and your pumpkin purée.
- Cake Sizes: This cake can be adapted for different cake sizes as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes.
- Two 8-inch round cake pans - bake for 20 minutes.
- One 9-inch round cake pan - bake for 30 minutes.
- 9x9 square cake pan - bake for 25 minutes.
- 9x13 sheet cake - bake for 15-20 minutes.
- Nutritional information is for 1 slice of 10 with a generous amount of cinnamon buttercream frosting. It excludes crushed walnuts.
This looks perfect for bringing to family gatherings! I think I’ll make one for my whole family this Thanksgiving 🙂
My husband and I love this recipe! We make it every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. It’s easy to make and so delicious. We love the texture of the cake and the frosting is outstanding! Anyone who thinks a vegan recipe can’t be delicious needs to try this one!
Thanks so much Carole!
Best Cake ever❤️ so delicious!!
Yay! Thanks so much!
Dear Allison,
I made the cake but since I am vegan and gluten free, I used all purpose gluten free flour. The cake itself tasted very good but it was so dry, I had to wash it down with water. Could the dryness be from the gluten free flour and if so, how can I make improvements in the recipe to make it moist? I followed your exact recipe (did add a handful of raisins). The buttercream icing was to die for (used vegan butter). I used a single layer 9” cake pan which was the perfect size for the cake recipe. My husband said the cake decor was beautiful with the chopped walnuts and sprinkled cinnamon. Please help me as I really would like to make this cake again. Love your site, it’s so inspirational!
Hi Patricia, yes this can happen with gluten-free flours as they tend to absorb more moisture than wheat flour. Firstly, make sure you measure it correctly, use the spoon and level method (spoon into measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup) or weigh it on a food scale if you have one. If you didn’t measure the flour properly before then this will go a long way towards helping, but you may also need to slightly increase the oil, I would start slow with just a couple extra tablespoons and up to 1/4 cup extra oil (but only if necessary).
I make this recipe into cupcakes instead of a cake and it works wonderfully. An amazing recipe!
Wonderful! Thanks so much Cody!
Tried this cake without the frosting. It was AMAZING. We loved it and our neighbors too. Its a keeper. Thank you so much for a fool proof recipe.
Awesome! Thanks Sheetu!
We’ve got an influx of pumpkin puree in the freezer so I’ve been making pumpkin everything recently…. The first time I made it I liked it quite a lot but my mum liked it but wasn’t the biggest fan of the spice mix (but my stepdad was!), so that’s all down to personal taste. I’d also definitely taken it out of the oven too soon (my bad!), so that wouldn’t have helped!
The second time I made it, I used the spices from the Loving It Vegan carrot cake recipe, and because I like these kinds of cakes to feel “crammed” I added cranberries and walnuts to the cake itself (and I, err, cooked it properly). It was a winner all round! Having now made the pumpkin spice mix for the pumpkin muffins from this site that I made today, I think I’ll definitely try the pumpkin spice mix in it next time I make this cake. Thank you for your, as always, fabulous recipes!
Hi Lily! So happy to hear it was a success, thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review!