Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Warm Vanilla Cinnamon Sauce
This pumpkin bundt cake is easy (one bowl recipe!), deliciously soft, and so moist. With the warm vanilla sauce, it is heavenly!
There are two main reasons to love this cake:
- All cakes just taste yummier baked in a bundt pan 😉
- Warm vanilla cinnamon sauce (spoiler alert: it’s ridiculously amazing drizzled on this cake).
Bundt Cake Batter
Don’t let “bundt” and “cake” intimidate you! The batter for this pumpkin cake is easy, easy. It’s a one-bowl recipe!
ALL the ingredients, minus the flour, get whisked together:
- canned pumpkin
- sugar (granulated and brown)
- eggs
- oil
- baking powder + baking soda + salt
- cinnamon + nutmeg + cloves
Once the flour is added, it’s just a few goods stirs away (don’t overdo it!) from meeting the bundt pan.
What Size Bundt Pan to Use
Bundt pans and their weird finicky dimensions can be a bit confusing.
Here are a few tips that might help:
- the most common type of bundt pan is a 9- or 10-inch bundt pan (all of my bundt recipes use this size of pan)
- these pans may also be labeled as 12-cup bundt pans
- if a bundt pan is labeled “12-cup bundt pan” that means 12 cups of batter/liquid will fill it to the very brim: YOU DO NOT WANT TO BAKE 12 CUPS OF BATTER IN A 12-CUP BUNDT PAN OR IT WILL OVERFLOW
- fill bundt pans no more than 2/3 to 3/4 full
I’ve found that almost every bundt recipe I’ve ever made (from internet searches, my grandma’s cookbook, and others) work in a 9- or 10-inch bundt pan like this one {aff. link}.
Warm Vanilla Cinnamon Sauce
One of the reasons this pumpkin bundt cake is so special is because of the vanilla cinnamon sauce.
Served warm and drizzled over the soft, moist cake, it elevates this pumpkin bundt cake to dessert heights worthy of holidays and entertaining (but simple enough to make any day of the week!).
If you’re wondering about the merits of serving cake with a warm velvety sauce, look no further than these testimonials:
- Cranberry Coffee Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce
- Rhubarb Streusel Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce
- Apple Dapple Cake with Warm Vanilla Sauce
- Blueberry Coconut Cake with Lemon Sauce (which one is not like the others 😂)
Or…Skip the Sauce
The pumpkin bundt cake + the sauce has kind of a sticky toffee pudding vibe. Which means, I LOVE IT.
However, if you are on the hunt for a really dazzling pumpkin bundt cake all by itself, you can skip the sauce!
This pumpkin cake is really delicious with or without the sauce.
You could even dust the top of the pumpkin bundt cake with powdered sugar. Or whip up a bit of lightly sweetened cinnamon whipped cream to serve with cake slices?
With a cake this delicious, you can’t go wrong!
One Year Ago: Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup
Two Years Ago: Perfect Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins
Three Years Ago: Homemade Oatmeal Cream Pies
Four Years Ago: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Streusel Cake
Five Years Ago: Instant Pot Cheesy Potato Soup
Six Years Ago: Step-by-Step Whole Wheat Quinoa Bread {My New Fave}
Seven Years Ago: 15-Minute Homemade Root Beer
Eight Years Ago: Creamy Glazed Fruit Salad
Nine Years Ago: Whole Grain Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins
Ten Years Ago: Pumpkin Cheesecake Crumble Bars
Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Warm Vanilla Cinnamon Sauce
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 (15-ounce) can (425 g) pumpkin puree
- 1 ¾ cups (370 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (170 g) vegetable or canola oil
- ½ cup (106 g) lightly packed brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 2 ½ cups (355 g) all-purpose flour
Sauce:
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) butter, cut into chunks
- ¾ cup (159 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (173 g) heavy cream or evaporated milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (If your pan has a dark finish/coating, decrease the oven temperature to 325 degrees.)
- Grease a 12-cup bundt cake pan with butter or shortening, lightly dust with flour, and tap out excess flour. Set aside. (If your pan is nonstick, you may not need the flour and can just grease the pan.)
- For the cake, in a large bowl, add the pumpkin, granulated sugar, oil, brown sugar, eggs, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and cloves. Whisk until really well-combined.
- Add the flour and mix just until the dry streaks disappear. Try not to over mix.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for 55-65 minutes until the top springs back lightly to the touch.
- Let the cake cool for 5-10 minutes in the pan. Invert onto a serving platter.
- For the sauce, in a medium saucepan, add the butter, sugar, and cream. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring often, and cook for 5-6 minutes. Off the heat, whisk in the vanilla and cinnamon.
- Serve the pumpkin cake cut into slices with warm sauce drizzled over the top.
This is the absolute best pumpkin bread/cake recipe ever!! Don’t skip the sauce
Making it today for work. Can you pour sauce over top of cake? It would be hard to serve with sauce on side
I haven’t tried that – I don’t know if doing so would make the cake soggy? Did you try it?
I tried it today. Doesn’t work well. The sauce is too thin and it does kind of make the cake wet, plus it leaves a mess on the plate. If there were a way to thicken the sauce up more it might work. This is the only time I’ve tried it this way. The sauce poured over it sliced or no sauce at all work better, I love this recipe and make it all the time,
Five stars, especially with Mels’s butter syrup!
This a family fav. I like to make it muffin style for easy serving (just be prepared, it takes longer to cook than you might expect. I half the recipe and get a full tin of large muffins and almost half a tin of minis.) Last year, I followed the recipe, but this year it had to be GF. I used King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluted Free flour and guess what: it was great! My dinner guests had no clue it was gf and since it has been a year since we had the regular version, neither could I. We use the butter syrup recipe instrad. So good!
This cake is amazing! Definitely filing this one as a dessert to make every fall season!
Simple deliciousness!
Made this last night for Sunday dinner. Had kids Sams grandkids have seconds and thirds, and then ask if they could take some home.
The cake and the sauce are a perfect pair.
I have a question. Could I substitute the oil for coconut oil and keep the measurements the same?
I think so – sometimes a high amount of melted coconut oil can lend a greasy texture to baked goods (and a coconut flavor if using unrefined coconut oil), but the substitute usually works fine.