Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake; soft fluffy coffee and pumpkin cake with cosy Autumn spices, layered with whipped coffee vanilla frosting!
Did you really think I was going to stop at just one pumpkin spice recipe this season? Guess again, chaps.
I’ll find an excuse to sneak cinnamon into just about anything. I stir it into rice, I spoon it into curries, I add it to cereal, I dust it over cakes, and I just can’t help but sprinkle it over my morning oats.
So really, this cake is just a further extension of my love for the sweet spice, but it doubles up as a way to celebrate the basic bitch in all of us through the medium of “pumpkin spice.”
I’ll be honest, I’ve never actually tasted the Starbucks contemporary classic vegetable-inspired latte. However, I love the idea, and I know it involves cosy spices and sweetness, so I’m completely on board.
I recently posted a recipe for some yummy Pumpkin Spice Muffins – a perfect snack or breakfast to happily fuel you through Autumn. This Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake is the more decadent end of the scale, offering dreamily fluffy cake and frosting laced with the best flavours of the season.
Three vibrant orange-brown layers of fluffy, moist, spiced and gently coffee flavoured cake. Spread generously and lovingly with thick layers of whipped vanilla, cinnamon and espresso frosting. It’s a classy cake, but I couldn’t help but add some kitsch by throwing some American pumpkin candies on top. A girl’s gotta have some tackiness in her life, ok?
Obviously, this bake is a little on the large side, so I’ve left some info just below the recipe on how to adjust the recipe to make a regular two-layered cake instead. I thoroughly recommend that third layer, if you have the equipment though, more cake is never a bad thing.
Lap up pumpkin season people, it’ll be time for gingerbread and mince pies before we know it!
To make this gorgeous Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake, you’ll first need to preheat your oven and grease/line three cake tins.
Place some butter, sugar and vanilla into a large bowl and beat with a mixer or by hand until light and fluffy.
Add in some eggs one at a time, beating between each addition until fully combined.
Stir in the pumpkin puree. Don’t worry if it looks a little curdled, once you add the flour it will come right!
Sift your flour, salt and spices into the bowl along with the coffee/espresso and mix gently until everything is smooth and combined.
Scoop all the batter into the two prepared cake tins and smooth out the top as best you can.
Bake the cakes until firm, and a skewer inserted into the centre can be pulled out cleanly.
Allow the cakes to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing them from the tin to cool completely. Meanwhile, make the frosting!
To make this fluffy and damn delicious frosting, beat together the butter, the vanilla and half the icing sugar until combined. You can use a regular wooden spoon but an electric whisk or stand mixer will produce the best (and easiest!) result.
Add the remaining sugar, the cinnamon and the strong coffee/espresso and beat vigorously until fully incorporated, light and pale in colour.
Once the cake is completely cool and your frosting is ready, slather the top of one sponge with frosting.
Sandwich it with another sponge. Spread this with more frosting.
Place the third sponge on top and spread it with more frosting, pushing it down the edges too.
Smooth the edges out roughly with a knife or palette knife, this is known as the crumb-coat!
Add another few blobs of icing round the sides and the top of the cake, smoothing it out as best you can until you have no icing left. (If you do have extra, feel free to pipe little stars or blobs around the top like I have!)
Grate over some chocolate, stick on some cute pumpkins or festive sweets, or just decorate the cake however you like. If you can resist eating it that long.
Now just slice up and enjoy this tacky but gorgeously Autumnal cake!
Scroll down for the full recipe to make this Pumpkin Spice Latte cake.
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake
Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake; soft fluffy coffee and pumpkin cake with cosy Autumn spices, layered with whipped coffee vanilla frosting!
Notes
BE A MAVERICK: Why not add some chopped pecans to the cake batter before baking for a richer Autumnal flavour?
MAKE IT A TWO-LAYER CAKE INSTEAD: Reduce the flour, butter and sugar in the cake by 100g. Reduce the pumpkin in the cake by 50g. Reduce the butter and sugar in the frosting by 100g each. Bake in two tins instead of three!
MAKE IT GLUTEN FREE: Simply replace the self-raising flour with a gluten free self-raising flour blend or a plain gluten free flour blend with 1 tsp of baking powder.
Ingredients
For the pumpkin spice latte cake:
- 300g (20 tbsp) soft butter or margarine
- 280g (1 ¼ cups, packed) soft light or dark brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs
- 150g (⅔ cup) pumpkin puree (you could also use cooked and mashed butternut squash or sweet potato)
- 300g (2 ⅓ cups) self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp mixed spice (or pumpkin pie spice)
- 1-2 shots of espresso, or 1-2 tbsp of instant coffee mixed with 1-2 tbsp hot water (depending on how weak or strong you would like the coffee flavour to be)
For the the spiced espresso frosting:
- 300g (20 tbsp) soft butter
- 550g (4 ¼ cups) icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- 1 shot of espresso, or 1 tbsp of instant coffee mixed with 1 tbsp hot water
Instructions
For the pumpkin spice latte cake:
- Preheat your oven - 180°C / 160°C fan / 350°F / gas mark 4 - and grease/line three 20-25cm (6-8in) sandwich cake tins.
- Place your butter, sugar and vanilla into a large bowl and beat with a mixer or by hand until light and fluffy.
- Add your eggs one at a time, beating between each addition until fully combined.
- Stir in the pumpkin puree. Don't worry if it looks a little curdled, once you add the flour it will come right!
- Sift your flour, salt and spices into the bowl along with the coffee/espresso and mix gently until everything is smooth and combined.
- Scoop all the batter into the two prepared cake tins and smooth out the top as best you can.
- Bake the cakes for 25-30 minutes, until firm and a skewer inserted into the centre can be pulled out cleanly.
- Allow the cakes to cool for at least 15 minutes before removing them from the tin to cool completely.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting!
For the spiced espresso frosting:
- Beat together the butter, the vanilla and half the icing sugar until combined. You can use a regular wooden spoon but an electric whisk or stand mixer will produce the best (and easiest) result.
- Add the remaining sugar, the cinnamon and the strong coffee/espresso and beat vigorously until fully incorporated, light and pale in colour.
- Once the cake is completely cool and your icing is ready, slather the top of one sponge with frosting.
- Sandwich it with another sponge.
- Spread the top sponge with more frosting.
- Place the third sponge on top and spread it with more frosting, pushing it down the edges too.
- Smooth the edges out roughly with a knife or palette knife, this is known as the crumb-coat!
- Add another few blobs of icing round the sides and the top of the cake, smoothing it out as best you can until you have no icing left. (If you do have extra, feel free to pipe little stars or blobs around the top like I have!)
- Grate over some chocolate, stick on some cute pumpkins or festive sweets, or just decorate the cake however you like.
- Now just slice and enjoy!
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Hello, I only have salted butter or Lurpak Light left to make the frosting. Would either of these be ok, or do I need to buy some unsalted butter?
I used salted butter by the way, and it tastes amazing!
Ah that’s great! Sorry I didn’t get back to your first comment sooner, it’s been a crazy week. Glad to hear you experimented and it turned out well. Salted butter is usually not a problem in baking as the salt content isn’t that high, just for future! Enjoy!
WOW looks amazing! Iv’e never baked with https://www.mrsmadhouse.co.uk/about-the-madhouse/ before but I might give this a go!