Pumpkin Crunch Cake

$A piece of pumpkin cake with pecans on a white plate with a fork, garnished with whole pecans, cinnamon sticks and pumpkin. There\'s a cup of espresso in the background$

Print Recipe

5 from 3 votes

Pumpkin Crunch Cake is the perfect Thanksgiving dessert for a crowd that can be made in minutes and is a great alternative to traditional pumpkin pie.

Prep Time10

Cook Time50

Total Time1

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Author: Julia Foerster

Ingredients

15 ounce can pumpkin puree
12 fluid ounce can evaporated milk
3 large eggs
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
1 teaspoon salt
1 spice cake mix 15.25 ounce package (see notes)
1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans

Cups - Metric

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 F (175 C). Lightly grease and flour the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking pan.
In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, eggs, white sugar, brown sugar, spices, and salt. Mix until well combined and smooth. Pour into the prepared baking pan.
Combine cake mix and melted butter with a fork or pastry cutter. Mix in chopped pecans. Sprinkle over pumpkin mixture.
Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool completely in the pan on a wire rack then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
Serve topped with whipped cream.

Notes

This recipe can be made a day in advance and stored in the fridge overnight
Instead of a spice cake mix, you can also use a yellow cake mix, white cake mix, or vanilla cake mix.
Instead of the individual spices, you can also use 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice plus 1 teaspoon cinnamon
This recipe uses pecans in the topping but you could also use walnuts
You can also add a handful of chocolate chips to the topping or some unsweetened coconut flakes
If you can't use nuts you can leave them out of this recipe and it will still be delicious
This cake is quite soft and moist like a pumpkin pie so it's best to serve it right out of the pan. It's easier to get nice slices if the cake is really cold
If you want cleaner cake slices you could prepare a graham cracker crust to go under the pumpkin pie layer. Combine 1 3/4 graham cracker crumbs, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 cup melted butter. Press into the pan and bake for 15 minutes at 350 F
This cake tastes best served cold from the fridge (like a pumpkin pie) and should be stored in the fridge.

Nutrition