Pumpkin-Praline Cake

Pumpkin-Praline Cake Ingredients

Let’s break up the ingredients by cake component to see what each one contributes to make this the best pumpkin praline cake:

Praline

Butter: Adds a richness and dairy flavor to the praline topping. The flavor of praline is similar to caramel, with the addition of pecans.

Whipping Cream: The richness of cream is needed to bring out the richness of the praline that milk just can’t muster. Feel free to use heavy whipping cream for the most indulgent flavor or half-and-half would also work well in this recipe.

Brown Sugar: It lends the caramel flavor to the praline. Brown sugar comes in either light or dark varieties. Use whatever you have on hand.

Pecans: Pecans are the signature ingredient. The praline topping of this cake gets its inspiration from traditional Louisiana praline candies. The sweet treats are made with brown sugar and pecans. We suggest using chopped pecans, rather than pecan halves, makes it a lot easier to cut beautiful slices of this cake.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Super Moist Cake Mix: Starting with a yellow Super Moist cake mix significantly cuts down on preparation. You can mix it up in less than 5 minutes, rather than the almost 30 minutes it would take if you made a cake from scratch.

Canned Pumpkin: Use plain canned pumpkin for this recipe—not pumpkin pie mix. Canned pumpkin is pure pumpkin, picked at its peak of flavor, and pureed to be completely smooth. Pumpkin pie mix contains sugar and other ingredients. These additional ingredients can affect the volume of the cake and can make the cake too tender. Causing the cake to be difficult to remove from the pans, breakage, and to be crumbly when cut.  

Water: Just a little water is needed to make a cake that is moist and easy to cut. Follow the recipe here for the amounts—rather than the box—because adding the pumpkin to the cake mix requires a different ratio of water as well as oil and eggs, than if you make a regular cake from the cake mix.

Vegetable Oil: A light-tasting oil that won’t take away from the pumpkin-spice flavor of the cake is what’s needed to make the cake tender. Either vegetable oil or canola oil are the preferred varieties.

Eggs: We always use large eggs for our recipes, unless otherwise stated. They are the most commonly used size. If your eggs are smaller or larger, they can affect the performance of the cake.

Pumpkin Pie Spice: Is a blend of several of the warm, cozy spices, in one. If you don’t have any on hand, you can substitute 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and a dash of ground cloves, instead.

Frosting and Toppings

Cream Cheese Frosting: Using Betty Crocker™ Cream Creese Rich & Creamy Frosting takes the work out of making your own frosting, so that you can get to the eating of this cake, even faster. One container has just the right amount for both the filling and frosting of this easy pumpkin praline cake.

Caramel Topping: Look no further than the ice-cream toppings aisle, for a bottle of this decadent sauce. Caramel topping not only adds a ooey, gooey indulgent layer of yumminess, but it brings out the caramel flavor of the praline filling.

Additional Pecans: While not needed, garnishes are a fantastic way to indicate what flavors and textures are in a dish. The visual texture they bring also enhances the look of this cake, making it even more indulgent-looking and too good to resist.

How to Make Pumpkin Cake

Let’s walk through the basic steps for making this pumpkin praline cake recipe, and you can see just how easy it is to whip up in your kitchen. Follow the recipe below for all the specifics you’ll need for making this irresistibly impressive cake.

Heat the Praline Ingredients

Place unsoftened butter in a saucepan with the cream and brown sugar. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Wondering why you don’t just add melted butter to the other ingredients? Heating them together makes it easier for them to blend and dissolves the brown sugar, so it won’t be grainy.

Creating the Praline Layer

There’s no need to grease the cake pans first—the brown sugar mixture has a lot of fat from both the butter and the cream—to allow the cake to come out of the pans. Just pour it into the ungreased pans and sprinkle them evenly with the 3/4 cup of chopped pecans.

Mix the Cake Ingredients

Mix the cake mix, pumpkin, water, oil, eggs, and 1 teaspoon of the pumpkin pie spice. First on low speed to moisten the ingredients, and then on medium speed to incorporate air into the batter. This will ensure a light and fluffy cake texture when the cakes are baked. Carefully spoon the batter over the praline layer in the pans, so that the batter stays on top and doesn’t mix with the praline.

Bake the Cakes

Place both cake pans on the middle rack in the center of your oven, leaving an inch or more of space all around them. Set your timer for the minimum time—when it goes off, check to see if the cakes spring back when touched lightly in the center. If they don’t, add a minute or two of additional bake time before checking again.

Remove the Cakes from the Pans

This step is crucial to being able to successfully remove the cakes from the pans. Cool them in their pans on a cooling rack for just 5 minutes. Don’t walk away here, set a timer or watch the clock. If you take your attention away from how long they’ve been cooling the praline mixture can cool too much, making it too thick and viscous to release from the pans. After 5 minutes, one at a time, invert a cake onto a cooling rack. It will be upside-down now. Quickly invert it again onto another cooling rack, so that it is right-side up. Cool the cakes completely before trying to move them to a serving platter.

Fill and Frost the Cake

Stir the remaining pumpkin pie spice into the frosting. Move one cake to a serving platter. Spread half of the frosting over the top. Add the second cake on top of the frosting. Frost the top with the remaining frosting. If you’re adding caramel topping and additional pecans—now is when you can add them. Drizzle the caramel over the top of the cake and sprinkle with additional pecans.

How to Store Pumpkin-Praline Cake

For the best results, this cake is at its peak flavor and texture when served the same day it is made. When the cake is stored longer, the praline layer starts to soak into the cake layer, making it less noticeable while the cake becomes overly moist and gummy where the two layers meet.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t make it ahead! You can make this cake up to 2 hours ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve. Our favorite way to keep the cake from drying out and to not mess up the beautiful appearance is to cover the cake on the platter with a large bowl inverted over it.

If you do have leftover cake, cover it loosely and store in the refrigerator up to 4 days. While the praline layer becomes less noticeable and the cake becomes moister, it is still safe to eat.

Other Delicious Pumpkin Desserts

If you can’t get enough pumpkin-spice flavored desserts or have those that won’t eat pumpkin pie, try any of these tantalizing pumpkin dessert recipes:

Pumpkin Bundt Cake is the same great cake, made in a bundt pan, but without the praline layer. Frosted with our cream cheese frosting, it’s an uncomplicated way to enjoy your favorite flavors.

Harvest Pumpkin Spice Bars are a totable way to enjoy the flavors of the season, in a treat that can go with you to potlucks, tailgate parties, or a holiday gathering.

Pumpkin Cheesecake is a luscious, creamy, mile-high cheesecake with the cozy flavors of brown sugar, pumpkin, and spice. A great make-ahead dessert, this recipe takes only 20 minutes to whip up.