Our little Pumpkin is one! I ended up making a deliciously moist vegan pumpkin spiced cake topped with a tasty cinnamon vanilla buttercream! Such a great fall cake and perfect smash cake too!
Preamble time so if you want to get to the recipe you know what to do… get scrolling!
If you follow me on Instagram you will have noticed that I’ve gotten into making cakes! I blame those late night breastfeeding sessions spent scrolling Instagram hashtags and watching YouTube tutorials… and of course watching Erin Ireland share her creations. As I started to feel better with my postpartum journey, especially being able to stand for longer periods, I started cooking, baking and playing around with cake making. I had grand plans of making cakes for whenever friends or family came to visit and then… well, Covid and self isolation hit… so I’ve tried to reserve the cake making for special occasions.
With Felix’s big 1st birthday I was thinking about what kind of fun I could have with his cake. While I knew that something elaborate wasn’t necessary and I doubted he would actually have much of it I still wanted to do something special for little our party of three. And… we needed birthday photos… right?! I do love making cakes and trying new techniques so it’s fun for me.
After a trip to the pumpkin patch I thought… pumpkin cake!!! Felix has been enjoying pumpkin oatmeal and pancakes so I thought maybe he’d enjoy a pumpkin cake. And look – how cute!!
So I had the idea but wasn’t sure how to make it happen. I started googling to see what I could find. I came across this great video by Preppy Kitchen showing how he made his.
I decided to be a bit extra and make a large and a few small pumpkins so picked up a Bundt pan, mini pumpkin molds and icing colour from Michaels thanks to their curbside pickup.
Also, for the first time I used my own cake recipe and it turned out so well! It’s got a nice spice to it and delicious! I also whipped together a cinnamon buttercream that pairs very nicely and used gel icing colour to turn it orange. Even a few days later the cake has stayed moist! Very happy with how this turned out and even more so with how excited Felix was to dive into. It was so much watching him enjoy it
Vegan Pumpkin Cake
Equipment
- Bundt/Fluted Tube Pan
- stand mixer
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 pinch salt
- 1 tbsp pumpkin spice
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 cup dairy free milk
- 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/5 cup canned pumpkin
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil or coconut oil melted
Cinnamon Buttercream
- 200 grams vegan butter
- 200 grams vegetable shortening
- 5-6 cups icing sugar
- 1-2 tsp dairy free milk
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 gel icing sugar
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 350F and prepare pan for baking with vegetable oil or vegan butter and sprinkle with flour. Tap out excess flour.
- Prepare the vegan buttermilk in a medium sized bowl by adding the dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. Whisk together and set aside. – I used oat milk.
- In a large bowl, whisk together dry ingredients: flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pumpkin spice and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Into the vegan buttermilk mixture add pumpkin puree, vanilla extract and vegetable oil. Whisk to combine.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Fold the wet into the dry with a rubber spatula until there are no clumps. Try not to over mix!
- Pour batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake in the oven for roughly 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
- When ready, remove the cake pan from oven and let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.
- Repeat these steps for second layer of the pumpkin cake!
Cinnamon Buttercream
- Add vegan butter and vegetable shortening into bowl of stand mixer. Using the beater paddle, mix the butter and shortening together for 3-5 minutes.
- Add icing sugar one or two cups at a time and continue mixing.
- Add vanilla and dairy free milk and continue mixing. Add 1 tsp of dairy free milk at a time to get the consistency you like.
- Add cinnamon 1 tsp at a time and continue mixing. I added 4 tsps in total but recommend you do this to your preferred taste.
- Bit by bit add orange icing gel to colour the icing to get your desired colour.
Assembly
- Allow cakes to fully cool before icing! Place the first layer of the cake upside down (smaller circumference at the bottom). In a piping bag or with an offset spatula cover the top with icing and place the second cake layer right side up (smaller circumference at the top to form more of a pumpkin shape). With the spatula cover the cake with a generous layer of icing. Shave off the icing to resemble pumpkin grooves – you can do this by cutting a plastic container to help form the shape. Refer to video by Preppy Kitchen (linked in this blog) or check out my Instagram highlights. Place the cake in the fridge and allow icing to chill 30 minutes to an hour. You can then finish shaping the cake with clean hands (or gloved!) and water. Note – to fill the centre of the cake I had made mini cakes and added a couple with layers of icing.
