This low calorie pumpkin dessert features healthy ingredients like pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and almond butter. It’s soft and delicious, whether you’re on a weight loss diet or not!
Table of Contents
Why you’ll love this low calorie pumpkin cake
- Packed with Fall pumpkin spice flavor.
- Options for low fat, oil free, and just 100 calories per slice.
- The moist, fluffy texture is out of this world!
- Topped with creamy pumpkin buttercream frosting that melts in your mouth.
- It’s dairy free, egg free, refined sugar free, and vegan.
- The entire recipe comes together in just one bowl. It’s so tasty and easy to prepare, you’ll want to make this cake over and over and over again.
You’ll also love this Crustless Pumpkin Pie
Step by step recipe video
Low calorie pumpkin spice cake ingredients
Pumpkin Puree – You need half a cup of fresh or canned pureed pumpkin. Make sure to buy a can of pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie mix. Pumpkin should be the only ingredient.
Water – To lower the total calories, this pumpkin cake recipe calls for water instead of higher calorie milk or heavy cream.
Almond butter (optional) – Superfood almond butter replaces the oil found in traditional cakes. For a lower calorie option, use high protein Greek yogurt, mashed banana, or additional pumpkin puree.
Flour – I’ve successfully tested this cake with whole grain spelt, white, oat, and all purpose gluten free flour. I also include a low carb option for those who want to use almond flour.
Sweetener – Most similar sized cakes require a cup of sugar or more! In contrast, this low sugar healthier cake almost cuts that amount in half. You may use unrefined cane sugar or a granulated sugar free sweetener. White and brown sugar do work as well.
*I have not tried the recipe with pure maple syrup or honey instead of sugar. Please be sure to report back with results if you experiment.
Spices – Ground cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice add sweetness naturally, without extra sugar.
Other Ingredients – You also need white or apple cider vinegar, baking powder and baking soda, salt, and pure vanilla extract to make the low calorie dessert.
Pumpkin spice latte cake
It’s so easy to turn this low calorie pumpkin cake into the viral pumpkin spice latte cake that’s been all over social media the past few months.
Replace a fourth cup of the water with strong brewed coffee or espresso. Or stir two teaspoons of instant coffee into the dry cake mix.
If you are making the healthy cream cheese frosting, whip another half teaspoon of instant coffee into the frosting.
And of course, serve with a homemade low calorie Pumpkin Spice Latte.
How to make the low calorie pumpkin recipe
Step 1: Prepare the pan. Preheat your oven to 350° Fahrenheit or 176° Celsius. Line the bottom of an eight inch square baking pan with parchment paper, or grease it well with fat free cooking spray. Set this pan aside.
Step 2: Combine dry ingredients. Add the flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda to a large measuring bowl. Stir well.
Step 3: Add wet ingredients. If not already easy to stir, gently warm up the optional almond butter until easily stirrable. Then whisk the pureed pumpkin, water, almond butter, vinegar, and pure vanilla extract into the pumpkin cake mix. Stop stirring when the batter is just evenly combined.
Step 4: Spread into the pan. Use a spatula to transfer the cake batter into your prepared baking pan, and smooth down the top of the cake.
Step 5: Bake. Place the pan on the oven’s center rack. Cook for 18 minutes, or until light and fluffy. A toothpick inserted into the center of the low calorie cake should come out mostly clean.
Step 6: Cool the cake. Carefully move the pan to a wire rack on the counter to cool.
Step 7: Add frosting. Once fully cooled, go around the sides of the pan with a knife to loosen the pumpkin cake. Pop it out onto a large serving plate and add frosting as desired. (Alternatively, you can frost the cake from inside the pan.) If you can wait, the cake tastes even sweeter a day after it’s made.
Step 8: Store leftovers. The recipe is fine to leave out at room temperature for a few hours, such as when transporting to a party or serving to family or guests. For optimal freshness, I recommend storing leftovers covered in the refrigerator and consuming within five days. Or slice and store in a tightly covered container in the freezer for up to three months. Thaw frozen cake before enjoying.
Low calorie pumpkin frosting
Feel free to use any store bought or homemade brown butter, caramel, vanilla buttercream, or even chocolate frosting. You can also dust the cake with powdered sugar.
Or serve it as a coffee cake for breakfast topped with berries or other sliced fruit.
My favorite way to eat the cake is with low calorie Healthy Cream Cheese Frosting.
With a sweet and tangy flavor, this frosting perfectly compliments the pumpkin cake, and it contains no butter or shortening.
I replace half the optional cinnamon in the icing recipe with an equal amount of pumpkin pie spice, for a low calorie and super creamy pumpkin spice frosting.
Pumpkin cake FAQ
To make low calorie pumpkin cupcakes, grease or line a standard size muffin tin instead of a baking pan. Follow the recipe below, and bake the cupcakes 15 minutes. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the center of a cupcake. It should come out mostly clean when they are fully baked.
Easy. For a rectangular 9×13 inch cake, double all ingredients. Since the depth of the cake is the same, the baking time remains the same as well.
Yes, you may replace a fourth cup of water with one egg or a fourth cup egg whites. For vegans, you may use one prepared flax egg.
100 Calorie Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups flour (spelt, white, or all purpose gluten free) (180g) (Or try this low carb Keto Pumpkin Bread)
- 2/3 cup raw cane sugar or granulated sugar free sweetener (130g)
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or additional cinnamon
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (120g)
- 1/2 cup water (120g)
- 3 tbsp almond butter or additional pumpkin puree (45g)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract (10g)
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar or white vinegar (10g)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit (176° Celsius). Line the bottom of an 8 inch square baking pan with parchment paper, or grease it well. Set aside.
- 2. Stir flour, sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
- 3. If using, warm up almond butter until easily stirrable. Stir pumpkin puree, water, almond butter, vinegar, and vanilla extract into the dry ingredients until just evenly mixed.
- 4. Spread batter into the prepared baking pan.
- 5. Bake on the oven's center rack for 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out mostly clean.
- 6. Let cool fully before adding frosting. (Tip: This low calorie pumpkin cake tastes even fluffier and sweeter the next day.)
- 7. Once cooled, you can let the cake sit out for a few hours or store leftovers covered in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Or freeze for up to 3 months.
Video
Notes
More low calorie pumpkin desserts
Crustless Pumpkin Pie (40 calories)
Flourless Pumpkin Muffins (52 calories)
Protein Pumpkin Bread (100 calories)
Pumpkin Dip (60 calories)
Healthy Pumpkin Pie (130 calories)
Pumpkin Mousse (100 calories)
Can I use brown rice flour in this recipe? It’s my new favorite!
Hi sorry we have not tried that one here.
This was SO good! I did the almond butter version and 1c flour and 1/2c oats and served it for breakfast. 😁 Mom of the year!! My house still smells amazing and all our tummies are very satisfied.
We can’t buy the pumpkin pie creamer in my country. Any suggestions on what to replace it with, or can I make my own?
Thanks for the recipe. It looks delicious. I’ll be trying it even if I can’t make the frosting.
This looks yumy!
I ordered the pumpkin spice creamer and it arrived quickly. The cake was super easy to put together. Family loved it.
Thank you so much for making it. And so glad you liked it! 🙂
I made this a day in advance to have as our Thanksgiving dessert and it was a HUGE hit amongst my non-vegan family! Great recipe. Thanks for introducing me to a new product (Laird creamers) as well. I’ve already used them in oatmeal and coffee. Delicious!
Thank you so much for trying it 🙂
Hi Katie. Would lice to try this recipe but we don’t have that creamer in Canada…would pumpkin pie spice in the frosting with a splash of cream be ok?
I was wondering what are the nutrition facts because I don’t see them
Full nutrition facts for Katie’s recipes are always linked in the posts, right under the recipe ingredients/instructions 🙂
Just made. DELICIOUS!
Just made this, it turned out great! I sprinkled some cinnamon brown sugar on top before baking and it turned out great! It may have effected the baking time as it took probably a little over twenty minutes to bake all the way through but it was worth it. Thanks for the recipe! It was a great way to use up what was left in the can of pumpkin after making your pumpkin oatmeal 😊.
Thank you for making it 🙂
I made this today and it was really good. I had to do a hodge pudge icing because I didn’t have the creamer but it still came out good 🙂
I was wondering what you think of monk fruit as a sweetener/baking ingredient. Love your recipes. Thanks.
Just tried this recipe but definitely undercooked inside. Bake for 15 minutes, really? Or was that a typo, and it’s supposed to be baked for longer?
Hm, I found this to be quite bland and kind of salty.To be clear I made the cake only, with oil and a little Chai concentrate, but still did not taste at all like pumpkin pie. I will say that it was moist so perhaps could be remedied with more spices. I put some Caramel sauce on top which is tasty, and I’m sure the listed frosting is great too.
Hi Kelsey, do you mean that you used chai concentrate instead of the cinnamon called for in the recipe?
I made some slight variations, due to what I had on hand, still came out super!
It was like a light and fluffy pumpkin sugar cookie, but a cake! Ooo!
I did not make frosting, just wanted cake. (& sometimes I just want frosting! Lol)
Used pumpkin butter, homemade, instead of puree. 2tsp of turmeric spice mix, also called golden milk spice mix, instead of just cinnamon. Added 1 Tbls of ground golden flax to the dry ingredients. For flour I used 1/2 cup each of oat, almond, and Bob’s 1-1 gf.
Baked 20 minutes.
Was great hot out of the pan, cold the next day!
Of course pumpkin anything always continues to meld flavors for a while, like wine, lol, so it starts reaching peak best flavor after 24 hours, if you can wait!
Will be making again! & again…. I’ve got about 6 cans of pumpkin left… 😁 Should last a little while…. 😂
Awesome!
Forgot to rate.
Five stars!