Our favorite pumpkin dessert ever: Caramel Pumpkin Poke Cake.
My husband has to work so we won’t be joining my sisters and parents for Thanksgiving this year.
With that being said, there are NO RULES for our little family’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Some of my family doesn’t love pie, so I’m going to be making this Caramel Pumpkin Poke Cake for our Thanksgiving dinner.
To be honest, I love it even more than pie.
If you have pie haters (or kids) coming to your Thanksgiving, I highly suggest making this. Your guests will go crazy for this recipe.
And if you do love pie, be sure to check out our popular pie recipes:
How to make Caramel Pumpkin Poke Cake:
Step 1: Preheat oven to 350°F and grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with non stick cooking spray.
Step 2: In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.
Step 3: In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to the wet ingredients, mix throughly and pour into prepared pan.
Step 4: Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes.
Step 5: Remove from oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Take a fork and pierce the hot cake all over.
Step 6: Pour 3/4 of the jar a caramel into the holes. Try and spread it around as evenly as possible to every hole. Let it cool completely.
Step 7: For the frosting, beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth.
Step 8: Fold in the cool whip until it is fully incorporated.
Step 9: Evenly spread over the cake once it has cooled.
Step 10: Sprinkle on chopped pecans. Drizzle a little of the leftover caramel on the top of the cake.
Related recipe: if you love pumpkin recipes, you’ll love our recipe for the BEST pumpkin chocolate chip cookies ever – made from scratch!
Can I use fresh pumpkin in this recipe?
Fresh pumpkin and canned pumpkin work a little differently.
Fifteen ounces of canned pumpkin is about 2 cups.
A 3-pound pumpkin (meant for pie) will likely give you enough puree for your recipe.
For instructions on how to make your own pumpkin puree, check out this tutorial from Inspired Taste.
Did you know we have a YouTube channel?
We have hundreds of delicious and easy recipes that your family is going to love. We take you through step by step and show you exactly how to make it.
Watch how to make this delicious Caramel Pumpkin Poke Cake:
Looking for more pumpkin desserts?
Pumpkin Sheet Cake
White Chocolate Cheesecake Pumpkin Cookies
Pumpkin Pull Apart Breakfast Bread
4 Ingredient Pumpkin Dip
Complete your Thanksgiving meal with our favorite dishes:
- 30 Minute Dinner Rolls
- Grandma’s Thanksgiving Stuffing
- Green Bean Casserole
- Slow Cooker Creamy Mashed Potatoes
- How To Make Turkey Gravy From Scratch
- Slow Cooker Macaroni and Cheese
- Strawberry Jello Fluff Salad
- Easy Sweet Cornbread
- Simple Pumpkin Pie
- Pumpkin Dump Cake
- Fluffy Cranberry Salad
Caramel Pumpkin Poke Cake
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 1 ⅔ cups white sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 15 ounces pumpkin puree
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 12 ounces caramel topping (we used Smucker's brand)
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 8 ounces Cool Whip
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- ½ cup chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Grease a 9 x 13 inch pan with non stick cooking spray.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.
- Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to wet ingredients, mix throughly and pour into prepared pan.
- Bake at 350° for 30 to 35 minutes.
- Remove from oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes. Take a fork and pierce the hot cake all over. Then pour 3/4 of the jar a caramel into the holes. Try and spread it around as evenly as possible. Let it cool completely.
- For the frosting: beat together the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth, then stir in the cool whip until all is blended well.
- Evenly spread over the cake once it has cooled. Then sprinkle on chopped pecans.
- Serve with a little drizzle of caramel on the top of the cake.
Video
Notes
- This is a great dessert to make for Thanksgiving, especially if you have some people that don’t like pie.
- You can use fresh pumpkin puree – you will need about a 3 pound pumpkin to make enough puree (about 2 cups) for this recipe.
Nutrition
Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- 9×13-inch pan
Recipe Details
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This looks yummy, but is there anotherfrosting without cool whip, or could you substitute real whipped cream? Thanks.
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My 13 year old daughter made this cake for our Thanksgiving meal. It was moist, delicious, and excellent! It will definitely be made again!
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The best pumpkin cake ever!!! Everybody loved it!
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How much sugar is it supposed to be? When I pull up the recipe, it shows a question mark in the middle of where the sugar measurement is.
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Can you use this for cupcakes? If so, would anything change?
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I made this last night, cooked it for 30 minutes and it was still not set in the middle. Any idea what went wrong?
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Lindsey I am having the same problem I just went to take it out and its completely raw in the middle and I followed the recipe exactly.
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Same here. Wondering if it’s a high altitude thing? Maybe needed more flour? I’m going to try to bake it longer 🤞🏼
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For the frosting do you actually beat the cool whip with the cream cheese and powdered sugar?. Don't fold it in later?.
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The pop up ads wont let me look at the recipe. 10/17
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Yum
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My mom and I have both made this and its raw in the middle :( Looks so yummy.
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If I want to make it with fresh pumpkin what is the amount of mushed pumpkin I should use ?
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Made this pumpkin poke cake for my husbands birthday party and it was too good to be true! I baked the cake for 25 minutes and it was thoroughly baked. Everyone loved it!!! I will definitely be making this again!!!
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This was delicious! Thank you for the recipe! I added some diced apple into the cake batter and subbed 1/2 of the vegetable oil with apple sauce. No problems with the cake cooking through for me. I will say though - I think one slice at a time is enough. So rich, but wonderful!! Thank you again. This may be my next pot luck dish at church. 😊
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I just made this based upon the written recipe, not the video and realized afterwards that the amount of powdered sugar for the frosting on the video is 2 cups and the written recipe says 3 cups. The frosting is VERY sweet. I thought it seemed like too much sugar so I did about 2.5 cups before I stopped adding it. I would not recommend doing more than 2 cups and correcting the written recipe.
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Instead of the confectioner's sugar, can I substitute a can of condensed milk?
