Pumpkin cakes are perfect for the Fall.
Making this recipe fills your house with the scent of this beautiful season when we want to enjoy baking goodies more than ever. If any ingredient resonates during the Fall is the pumpkin. And for this reason, I will show you a different way to use it for a delicious dessert.
Additionally, it isn’t only sweet, spongy, and creamy. It looks beautiful too! Using a smaller size for the pumpkin cake makes it look cuter, and you can get several tiny cakes using this recipe.
But fear not because mini pumpkin cakes don’t require advanced baking techniques. On the contrary, they’re easy to make, and I’ll share with you all the tricks you need to bake perfect mini pumpkin cakes at home.
One of the reasons it’s so easy to make is that we use buttercream for the frosting. So, you can shape the cakes without using fondant, which is more demanding.
The buttercream recipe is mildly sweet and adds a creamy texture that matches perfectly with these spongy beauties. In this recipe, I’m suggesting using enough ingredients for several mini pumpkin cakes. Bear in mind that the quantity will vary depending on the size of the molds you use.
Now, let me share with you some tips that will be useful in making these pumpkin cakes.
Tips for baking a perfect pumpkin cake
- Pumpkin spice is a seasonal marvel, and although you can find plenty of it premade, you can use your own mix of spices. Additionally, having these spices separate will be helpful for many other recipes.
- Including coconut oil in the recipe improves the taste and consistency of the cake. Try it, as we did in this recipe, and you’ll notice the difference!
- If you don’t have mini-bundt molds, you can use a cupcake pan. Using this pan will give you more petite cakes, but they will still be adorable and delicious. On the contrary, if you don’t use cupcake paper, spray oil in the molds and sprinkle some flour so that the cakes don’t stick to the mold.
- Only fill half of the molds and tap against the table. In this way, the filling will fit nicely into the cavities. The mix will flatten, giving a better shape to the cakes.
- Use gel coloring -not liquid coloring- to prevent changing the frosting consistency. Be careful because it gets more intense once it’s dry, so it’s better to avoid adding too much at once. Instead, drop a bit of color gradually and slowly. You’ll get a better idea of the tone of orange you’ll get after mixing thoroughly and checking it now and then before adding more coloring.
- To give the cakes a more realistic look, you can use orange, red, and green coloring.
- Decorating a pumpkin cake is easier with a rotating cake stand. Still, if you don’t have one, you can improvise using something similar, as I did.
- To shape the buttercream, you can make a couple of tools easily. I cut the tools from a 32 oz plastic container with scissors.
Check the recipe below for all the ingredients and a step-by-step guide.
Mini Pumpkin Cake Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Hand mixer
- Handmade plastic tools to shape the pumpkins
Ingredients
For the dough:
- 3 cups of all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 1 tsp of baking soda
- 2 tsp of cinnamon powder
- ½ tsp of ginger powder
- ⅛ tsp of clove powder
- ⅛ tsp of nutmeg powder
- 2 cups of white sugar
- ¼ cup of brown sugar
- ¼ cup of melted coconut oil
- ½ cup of vegetable oil
- ½ cup of Greek yogurt
- 15 oz of pumpkin puree
- ½ tsp of salt
- 3 large eggs
Instructions
- Put the dry ingredients in a sieve: flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Then, add the powdered spices for the pumpkin spice: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and clove. Strain the dry ingredients into a bowl and put it aside while we work with the wet ingredients.
- Now, add the melted coconut oil, vegetable oil, brown sugar, white sugar, and mix until all is incorporated in a separate bowl. Then, add yogurt and the eggs, one by one, and mix.
- Mix the wet and dry ingredients gradually. You'll get a soft, liquid dough. Once it's done, prepare your molds by spraying some oil and flour. This will help to prevent the cakes from sticking.Now, transfer to your molds and fill only half of each cavity because the cakes will grow
- Place in a preheated oven at 350 °F and bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Transfer to a grill and let them cool for a while. You can simply turn the pan down and let the cakes drop gently over the grill to transfer the cakes.
- For the frosting, put the butter in the stand mixer at medium speed to soften it. Add the powdered sugar slowly to the mix. Then, add vanilla extract and milk. Let the mixer work until the mixture reaches a firm, thick, and uniform consistency. Now and then, you'll need to scratch inside the bowl with a spat to help the mixer to get everything together. Save a cup of buttercream for the filling, and use the rest to decorate.
- To boost the taste and the texture, we will use cream cheese. Batter the cream cheese to soften it, add vanilla, and mix with the cup of buttercream that you saved for the filling.
- For the frosting, we will color the decorative buttercream. Add a few drops of gel coloring and mix until you get a uniform color. If it's too light for you, keep adding it in small amounts and mix. Repeat this process slowly and carefully to get a beautiful color that isn't overly intense.
- Then, to build the pumpkins, use two cakes or cupcakes. Both will make a rounder shape, and the filling will be precisely in the middle, sticking them together.
- Before putting the cakes together, cut a thin slice from the base of each cake. In this way, they will be flat and fit better.
- Fill a pastry bag with the cream cheese buttercream and add some of it between both cakes. You can use the bits you cut from the base of the cakes to fill the center, along with some buttercream filling.
- In the case of the cakes, you can repeat the same process without filling any holes.
- Now, fill a pastry bag with the orange buttercream to decorate. If you have a rotating cake stand, you can improvise with something similar. It's important to line the cake stand with parchment paper before you start to decorate.
- Cover the bottom of the cake with buttercream, turn it and place it on the rotating cake stand. Then, cover the top of the cake with buttercream generously. Now, cover the sides. It will look like it's a lot of frosting, but don't worry. That will give us more freedom to adjust when we shape the pumpkins.
- Sculpt the pumpkin with the pointy plastic tool that you made. Then, soften the shape using the round plastic tool.
- After shaping the pumpkins, stick them in the fridge for 2.5 to 3 hours. Then, take them out of the fridge, one by one. In this way, you'll keep the buttercream firm while you work on each cake.
- Wash your hands thoroughly before starting the next step.
- Now, to soften the surface of the buttercream, wet your fingertips and gently go through the frosting, removing any bumps you find in your way. While working on this, it's crucial to continuously wet your fingertips and remove excess with a paper towel. Once you finish, stick the pumpkin in the fridge and continue with the others.
- For the stem, I used two different options. The first was a natural pumpkin stem, which adds more realism, but isn't edible. The second was a churro-made stem, which looks and tastes really good.
- In any case, choose your favorite stem, serve, and enjoy these beautiful pumpkin cakes!
Video
Notes
If you liked this pumpkin cake recipe, you might like some of my other recipes too.
And remember, if you try this recipe and want to share your pictures, tag me @lacooquette on Instagram. I’d love to share your pictures on my IG stories.
Leave a Reply