Sweet, spicy, moist pumpkin snack cake – a Fall staple recipe you will make again and again!
This pumpkin cake’s charm is in its simplicity.
It’s an everyday Fall dessert can be dressed up for a party, served unadorned with afternoon tea, or simply eaten as a late-night snack. Whether or not you choose to use the frosting is entirely up to you – the cake is just as good without it!
Sometimes, the simplest desserts really are the best, and a basic pumpkin snack cake is a recipe everyone should have in their repertoire.
The cake comes out light and fluffy, and it tastes even sweeter the next day. So I highly recommend waiting… if you have enough willpower to wait that long!
Packed with real pumpkin puree instead of oil or butter, it’s also perfectly healthy enough to eat for breakfast. You may have noticed, I am a big fan of eating dessert for breakfast!
For the Maple Greek Yogurt Frosting:
Blend together 1/2 cup cream cheese (such as Trader Joes vegan) with 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt – I used my dairy-free Homemade Greek Yogurt.
Stir in a scant 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract and either a pinch of uncut stevia or 5 tbsp powdered sugar. Finally, stir in 4 drops maple extract. Taste, then add more maple extract if desired.
*Go slowly with adding the maple extract; it is quite strong, and a little goes a long way!
Pumpkin Snack Cake – With Maple Greek Yogurt Frosting
Ingredients
- 1 cup plus 2 tbsp canned pumpkin or sweet potato
- 1/2 cup milk of choice
- 1/4 cup oil OR additional pumpkin for a fat-free cake
- 2/3 cup pure maple syrup, agave, or honey
- 2 tsp white or cider vinegar
- 1 cup spelt, white, or oat flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon
- optional 1/2 cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch pan with parchment paper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 F. Whisk together all wet ingredients in a bowl. Let sit at least 10 minutes. To ensure even mixing, stir all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Pour dry into wet, stir just until evenly mixed, and smooth into the prepared pan. Bake 30 minutes on the center rack, then—without opening the oven door even a little—turn off the heat and leave the cake in the closed oven for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and let cool. This cake is much firmer after a few hours and tastes sweeter the next day. The first night, you can store it very loosely covered on the counter; after that, store covered in the fridge for optimum freshness. Frost with coconut butter, cream cheese icing, or the maple frosting listed earlier in this post.View Nutrition Facts
Notes
Have you made this recipe?
Tag @chocolatecoveredkatie on Instagram
More Healthy Pumpkin Baked Goods:
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Healthy Pumpkin Pie (reader favorite)
Belsante says
How would butternut squash work instead of pumpkin in this?
Julie Dove says
Feel free to experiment!
Chloe says
Personally, I’d opt for sweet potato puree if you want something other than pumpkin.
Anna says
Could I use sugar instead of maple syrup or honey? I don’t really like their taste… Thanks!
Julie Dove says
You can definitely experiment!
Jeanette says
Baking this for the nibblings’ after-dinner treat, and already the house smells like heaven. Can’t wait to taste!!! I was running out of maple syrup AND honey, so I supplemented with blackstrap molasses. Also guestimated a gluten-free version with half oat four, half almond meal with a bit of arrowroot…fingers crossed! I’ll be back after dinner with the boys’ thumb report (they usually give my experiments one-up-one-down, but whenever I’ve used Katie’s recipes, I’ve gotten four little thumbs pointing high!)
Savannah says
Hi, I don’t have any vinegar at home so will the recipe turn out alright if I left it out or are there any substitutes I could use?
Julie Dove says
It helps the cake rise. You can try lemon juice, or you can experiment. I would honestly just go buy vinegar, as it’s good to keep around and they sell it at any grocery store.
Amy says
What kind of vinegar?
Jason Sanford says
white or apple cider vinegar work!
Marina @ A Dancer's Live-It says
This might be the most perfect pumpkin cake I’ve ever seen!! How did you know to post this on the day I buy a fresh giant can of pumpkin?? 😉
Joanne says
This looks delicious! I plan to swap the flours you listed for almond flour, since I am watching my carbs.
Jenn@ sweetgreenkitchen.com says
I do love pumpkin everything! And especially with maple syrup, so yummy. I’m just not quite ready to say goodbye to summer yet, but soon enough I will be making this cake. The cream cheese and yogurt maple topping sounds so good, probably would be great with my oatmeal and maple scones too (https://sweetgreenkitchen.com/2014/05/06/oatmeal-maple-scones/)
Sam says
As a Canadian, I totally approve of this maple pumpkin cake, yum!!!! Combining my favourite ingredients!
Brooke Butler says
This looks amazing – I’ll be making this for sure!
XO, Brooke
https://livethepreplife.blogspot.com
AZvegangirl says
Looks yummy! One question though….are the nutritional facts based on using pumpkin instead of the oil? The fat grams per serving look much too low for using oil.
Julie Dove says
https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/faq-page/recipe-questions-and-troubleshooting/
The Wooden Spoon says
This sounds so good. I could definitely see this being the perfect lazy sunday snack with a cup of coffee.
Sue Langlois says
Hi Katie I made your pumpkin snacking cake . Just wondering if it is supposed to be gooey inside. I doubled the recipe. Thank you. Love your Website.
Julie Dove says
Doubling a recipe does not always work. http://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/techniques/baking-problems/baked-goods
Maria says
I am absolutely making this for an event monday. I love love greek yogurt frosting and with maple I bet it will be even better. I make a maple cream cheese icing with gingerbread cake during the holidays, but pumpkin is my favorite!! So looking forward to this! YAY!
Deena says
Just made this with canned sweet potato purée and chocolate chips. INCREDIBLE!!! Thank you for another winning recipe 🙂
Rusty says
Yay pumpkin season! I don’t usually comment but I wanted to let you know if you didn’t already that the link to your recipes page doesn’t work anymore. It gives a parse/syntax error both clicking straight from Google and using your menu button. Idk how to fix it but good luck! Thanks for all the delicious recipes!
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Thank you so much for letting me know! Troubleshooting now…
Tara says
These are so good! I made them with oat flour. I bet the icing is delicious, but I left them plain. Yum!!!
Mrslawrence says
I just made this tonight and I couldn’t wait to let it set overnight! It’s seriously yummy! I made it with the icing, but I honestly don’t think it needs it. Super yum! Thanks for another tasty healthy recipe, Katie! I haven’t been disappointed with anything I’ve tried from your website! You’re awesome, girly! Keep up the amazing work!
Belsante says
Just made it! To those who are wondering about butternut squash, it works. I personally found it a touch too sweet, even though I used slightly less maple syrup. Still doesn’t stop me eating half of it in one go. Also, I found it undercooked when I followed the recipe, and after the 5 minutes of in the oven, I put it in for another 10 minutes.
Chloe says
I brought this to a dinner party last weekend –with the addition of coconut cream whipped cream instead of the yogurt frosting, and topped w/ chopped toasted pecans– and it got rave reviews!
Last night I made a version of Katie’s chocolate chip cookie mug cake in which I subbed 1/4 cup of pumpkin in place of the applesauce along with a shake of cinnamon, and it was AMAZING. It’s going to be a regular on my dessert roster now! Next time, I think I’ll add 1/2 tsp vinegar since this recipe for pumpkin snack cake includes it. Also, I use oat flour with any of the mug cake recipes here and they come out great.
Julia says
Just made this and it turned out great! I used a large baked and pureed sweet potato in place of the pumpkin and oil and it worked just fine for me at least in case anyone is wondering 🙂
Laken Gehris says
I make the pumpkin cake last night, and after I took it out of the oven it was nice and fluffy looking. Then I lit cool for 15-20 mins and it fell flat?? Did this happen to anyone else, just curious, i know it will still taste great.
Laken Gehris says
I make the pumpkin cake last night, and after I took it out of the oven it was nice and fluffy looking. Then I lit cool for 15-20 mins and it fell flat?? Did this happen to anyone else, just curious, i know it will still taste great.
Emi says
Can you bake in a round pan? 🙂
Chocolate Covered Katie says
Baking time may change but I don’t see why not 🙂
Cassie Autumn Tran says
Cake for breakfast? Don’t mind if I do! This cake looks PERFECT! Can imagine what it would taste like if you added cacao or cocoa powder!
Caroline says
Would it work with oat flour?
Caroline says
Would oat flour work?
Julie Dove says
You can always experiment. Be sure to report back if you do!
Jess says
I just made this cake last night and it was incredible! I’m always nervous making ‘healthy’ recipes, but this was delicious! I made the maple cream cheese frosting to go on the cake, and it was very soupy–it did not set up like a normal frosting would. I went ahead and frosted the cake anyway, since the frosting tasted fine, thinking it might firm up in the fridge. No such luck. Any ideas??
Ali says
Could I use a flavored balsamic vinegar, like cinnamon pear, or do you think it would be too intense? What kind of vinegar do you use in this cake? Thanks.
Emily ADAMS says
Is there a way I could substitute a smaller amount of honey with a little sugar?
Jason Sanford says
You can always experiment! Be sure to report back if you do!
Esther says
Almost ate half the pan myself… SO GOOD. Family stamped their approval as well. Thanks Katie!!
Charmain says
I made this today, it didn’t rise for me but it was still delicious, the kids loved it. The only sub I made was I ran out of gluten free flour so just used regular plain flour, maybe that was a mistake, anyway it’s lovely x
Margaret says
You Pumpkin Snack Cake was absolutely delicious; and like all your recipes, so healthy! Thank you for sharing your marvelous creations!
Rudy says
I don’t have a 8 inch pan but could it work in a loaf pan for more of loaf cake??
Jason Sanford says
It sounds like a fun experiment! Be sure to report back if you do try!
Mo says
OMG this is delicious!! So moist and very pumpkin-y! I put Katie’s Healthy Chocolate Sauce on it and they’re to die for!!!
Meg says
I made it as written except subbed butter for the oil. We did put in some chocolate chips. Turned out great. Kids all liked it. I’m the only one who used frosting. Everyone wanted seconds.
Amy says
Thanks!
Allison says
How gooey are these supposed to turn out? Mine are more like pumpkin mash vs cake, baking at 350 deg for a good 40 minutes then another 10 minutes after turning off oven. Flavor was still delicious and l love the guilt free version. FYI instead of icing, I topped mine with chopped pecans, coconut and a little brown sugar. Yummy!
Jason Sanford says
Definitely should be cake texture! What flour, sugar, oil did you use?
Dara says
This was delicious. My daughter described it as ‘squodgey’! Not a real word but seems to suit this cake!