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
More Healthy Pumpkin Baked Goods:
Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Baked Oatmeal
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Healthy Pumpkin Pie (reader favorite)
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
You Pumpkin Snack Cake was absolutely delicious; and like all your recipes, so healthy! Thank you for sharing your marvelous creations!
I don’t have a 8 inch pan but could it work in a loaf pan for more of loaf cake??
It sounds like a fun experiment! Be sure to report back if you do try!
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!!!
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.
Thanks!
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!
Definitely should be cake texture! What flour, sugar, oil did you use?
This was delicious. My daughter described it as ‘squodgey’! Not a real word but seems to suit this cake!