Small Pumpkin Cake Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Why is my pumpkin cake too moist? ›

If you find that your pumpkin cake is too moist, isn't holding it's shape and is gummy in certain areas, it's usually caused by too much liquid in your recipe.

This Pumpkin Spice Cake is everything you love about pumpkin desserts — it is perfectly cinnamon-y and pumpkin spiced, it is wonderfully moist, and it is topped with a heavenly cream cheese glaze. Believe it. Then try it. :) I used to start baking with pumpkin in October.

Pumpkin purée is simply cooked and mashed pumpkin.

Pumpkin purée can be homemade with whole pumpkin or canned and sold in grocery stores. Canned pumpkin purée that says “100% pumpkin” on the label may also contain one or more types of winter squash, like butternut, Hubbard, Boston Marrow, and Golden Delicious.

Both pumpkin bread and pumpkin cake freeze beautifully. To freeze pumpkin bread or pumpkin cake, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, then place inside a Ziploc bag. Store in the freezer for up to 4 weeks. Defrost it overnight in the fridge the day before you want to serve it.

If you're unsure, it's safest to use a 50/50 combination of butter and oil instead of replacing the butter completely. This way you'll get the added moisture from the oil without sacrificing the structural integrity that butter provides.

Queensland Blue Pumpkins

The QLD blue is perfect in baked dishes and also lends itself really well to boiling, making it great for mashes and soups.

Pumpkin Spice vs Pumpkin Pie Spice

Pumpkin pie spice is the same as pumpkin spice, just under different labeling. These two are interchangeable and feature the same base ingredients. The ratio of the ingredients may vary slightly from brand to brand.

Some think it relates way back to our colony days where pumpkins were one of the only crops the settlers could sustain and so, subconsciously, pumpkin reminds us of our roots. Others believe that the seasonal appeal of the pumpkin-flavor is what creates the allure. Either way, the pumpkin spice craze is here to stay.

Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing. These terms are often used interchangeably in recipes, though you may also see the term solid-pack pumpkin. All these terms mean 100% steamed and pureed pumpkin—no extras, no add-ins—not even in the canned variety.

Is Libby's pure pumpkin the same as pumpkin puree? ›

Canned pumpkin (labeled as "100% pure pumpkin") is a purée of pumpkin that is sometimes mixed with other kinds of winter squash. It is unsweetened and does not contain any added spices. Canned pumpkin and pumpkin puree are the same thing, and you'll often see the terms used interchangeably in recipes and cookbooks.

Libby's, the quintessential canned pumpkin brand, uses a proprietary strain of the Dickinson pumpkin variety in their product, which is also often called a Dickinson squash. On Libby's website, it states that their product is 100 percent pumpkin.

The FDA's official stance is that homemade pumpkin pie can sit out for up to two hours.

There are a few ways to check if your pumpkin pie has gone rancid. Toss the pie if it has a foul smell, looks like it has excessive separation or weeping, or has grown mold. Homemade pie that has been left out for longer than two hours should be thrown away.

Ideally, make an iced cake on the day to keep it fresh. Refrigerated: Your cakes will last longer in the fridge, but for an event, you won't want to push it longer than about 3 days. Make sure you wrap them carefully and take them out for an hour to return to room temperature before you serve.

The ratio of wet to dry ingredients determines a cake's moisture level. If there's simply too much flour and not enough butter, a cake will taste dry. On the other hand, if there's too much milk and not enough flour, a cake will taste too wet. Finding the right balance between wet and dry ingredients is key.

So, to prevent moist cakes, make sure you're binding the ingredients well. If over-mixing is a problem, so is under-mixing.

If you notice that the pie is dewy when you remove it from the fridge, it's just condensation. It simply means that the pie was still warm when you placed it in the refrigerator.