Pumpkin Pudding Cake

Colder evenings call for a spoonful (or two!) of this luscious and gooey Pumpkin Pudding Cake. Your favorite fall spices and a super moist cake on top bakes into a juicy brown sugar pudding on the bottom. This pumpkin pudding cake is highly addictive.

As I’m writing this post, I am enjoying the first cold front here in Florida this season. The temperatures are perfect (meaning you can turn your AC off) and this cake is no longer here. It was baked and devoured in a very short time. 

My kids are pumpkin dessert fans, but this pudding cake took things to a whole different level of pumpkin love here in our baking headquarters. My son was quite disappointed the next morning when he thought there was one portion left and proclaimed, “This is a ripoff!”. My daughter told me that I better make another one soon. Very soon.

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PUDDING CAKE?
1. Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, almond milk, coconut oil and vanilla.
3. Mix the batter until it’s combined. Spread the batter into a 3 1/2 quart baking dish. Spread batter evenly with spatula.
4. The last step is the most fabulous step. Whisk together brown sugar and hot water. Pour sugar syrup on top of the pumpkin cake batter. Be sure to not mix it in. Let it settle on top.

HOW TO MAKE PUMPKIN PUDDING CAKE YOUR OWN?
1. Use a mixture of flours (you could use 1/2 all-purpose and 1/2 almond flour).
2. Make a gluten-free pumpkin pudding cake by using your favorite all-purpose gluten-free flour.
3. Adjust the spices to your taste (more cinnamon, less ginger, more nutmeg…however you like).
4. Use melted butter (if you don’t want it to be vegan)or you could use vegetable oil.

It’s this brown sugar syrup on top that makes the magic. Magic? Maybe not truly magic. But a great baking idea to create a syrupy, mushy, squishy, gooey, squidgy (that’s what they say in England), pudding cake.

I found that while it was baking I had to make more syrup and add it on 1/2 way through. I was looking for more of saucy border but it wasn’t happening. The syrup gets absorbed by the top cake part (which is a good thing).

This is a riff on a maple pudding cake that is called pudding chômeur, or “unemployed person’s pudding,” which happens to be a traditional and super popular Québecois deserts. Does it seem like it’s crazy sweet with that brown sugar syrup on top? Cut back the sugar in the batter. But it’s imperative that you add the brown sugar syrup on top. Or you don’t get the pudding bottom. If you don’t add the sugar syrup, then you’re making a pumpkin cake. Which is fine, but it’s not going to be as exciting as this cake.

As the pumpkin cake bakes, the cake batter puffs and rises and the brown sugar syrup thickens on the bottom of the pan and becomes like a thick pudding sauce (I’m not joking…out of this world!). The best way to eat this is when it is first baked and very warm. But there is nothing wrong with the leftovers (if you have any the next day).

*Discovered on The Kitchn and adapted Simply Scratch’s version.

Print Recipe

Pumpkin Pudding Cake

Colder evenings call for a spoonful (or two!) of this luscious and gooey Pumpkin Pudding Cake. Warm fall spices in the super soft pumpkin cake that has a juicy brown sugar pumpkin pudding on the bottom.

Prep Time10 mins

Cook Time40 mins

Total Time50 mins

Course: Dessert

Keyword: pudding, pumkin

Servings: 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup almond milk
• 2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 cup hot water
• powdered sugar for serving (optional)
• whipped cream for serving (optional)

Instructions

• Preheat your oven to 350°.
• In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
• In another medium bowl, mix together the pumpkin, almond milk, coconut oil and vanilla.
• Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir together until completely incorporated.
• Pour the cake batter into your un-greased baking dish and spread out into an even layer.
• In a small bowl, whisk dark brown sugar with hot water and pour over the pumpkin cake batter Let the sugar syrup sit on top without stirring it in.
• Carefully slide the baking dish onto the middle rack of oven and bake for 35-40 minutes.
• Let cake cool for 10 minutes. Sprinkle on some confectioner's sugar and dig in.