Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake Recipe

This recipe is the one that Chad and I used to bake the jack o’lantern cake in the third episode of the 2020 Adventures with Andi Halloween Megaventure.

It’s a combination of two King Arthur Flour recipes: KAF GF Pumpkin Cake and KAF GF Yellow Cake . We came up with it out of necessity when we wanted to bake a pumpkin cake one time and didn’t have the box of KAF yellow cake mix that recipe called for.

You can also mix up the dry ingredients ahead of time and keep batches of them on hand, which makes whipping up this cake even faster!

Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 C (351 g) GF AP flour
  • 1 tsp xanthan gum
  • 1 3/4 C (361 g) sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 Tbs vanilla extract
  • 1/2 C (57 g) cornstarch
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1 Tbs pumpkin pie spice (add more if you like extra flavor!)
    OR 2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ground ginger, and 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 5 large eggs, at room temperature
  • 3 Tbs (64 g) molasses
  • 3/4 C (149 g) vegetable oil
  • 2 C (425 g or 15 oz) pumpkin puree

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325 F.
  2. Lightly grease cake pan(s).
  3. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and set aside.
  4. In a larger bowl, whisk together the eggs, molasses, pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, and oil.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture a little at a time, whisking until smooth. (Since this is a GF recipe, you don’t have to worry about overmixing.)
  6. Pour the batter into the greased cake pan(s).
  7. Bake until the cake’s internal temperature reaches 210 F to 212 F.
  8. Take the cake out of the oven and cool on a wire rack.

Buttercream Pecan Frosting

Chad and I find the traditional buttercream frosting recipe on the Domino powdered sugar box to be way too sweet. So we double the amount of butter, which also doubles the amount of frosting. That’s great if you’re decorating a big cake, but if you don’t need that much, cut the amount of sugar, butter, and milk in the recipe below in half.

Ingredients

  • 1 box (1 lb or 16 oz) confectioner’s sugar
  • 1 C butter, room temperature, cubed
  • 6 Tbs milk (add more or less, depending on desired consistency)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • pecans to taste, chopped
  • food coloring (optional)

Directions

  1. Add the confectioners sugar and butter to a large bowl.
  2. Mix on medium until well blended, adding the vanilla and milk partway through.
  3. Add food coloring (if you want it!) until you get to the color you’re looking for. Pro tip, don’t add three drops of black to orange if you don’t want gray frosting. *facepalm*
  4. Using a large spoon or cake spatula, stir in the pecans.
    NOTE: If you want, you can reserve part of the frosting in a separate bowl if you don’t want pecans in all of it. A lot of times, we just put the pecans in the frosting that goes between the layers of cake.
  5. Decorate your cake, and enjoy!!!

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