This brown butter pumpkin bundt cake is moist, delicious, and surprisingly easy to make! With a crunchy brown sugar pecan ribbon through the middle of the cake and a maple cream cheese glaze, it's a fun flavorful fall dessert!
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Why You'll Love This Bundt Cake!
- Super moist pumpkin pound cake!
- Crunchy brown sugar pecan ribbon through the middle of the cake.
- Topped with a light maple cream cheese glaze!
- Simple but show stopping dessert for fall holidays (like Thanksgiving or Christmas)!
You might also like this bourbon pecan bundt cake or these pumpkin meringue cupcakes!
Ingredient Notes
You just need a few simple ingredients to make this brown butter pumpkin bundt cake!
Cake Flour - I always use cake flour in my cakes because it makes them super soft and tender, but all purpose flour also works great!
Pumpkin Puree - I almost exclusively use Libby's Pumpkin because it really is the best of the best! A ton of people have run blind taste tests comparing different brands of pumpkin puree, and Libby's is always the winner!
Pumpkin Pie Spice - You can buy pumpkin pie spice at most grocery stores, or just make your own!
Brown Butter - My favorite ingredient of all time is brown butter!! Brown butter is just unsalted butter that has been melted and gently cooked to bring out a toasty, nutty flavor. If you've never made brown butter before, you can check out this post with all my tips for how to make brown butter!
Pecan Meal - Pecan meal is literally just finely ground pecans! I love using it in place of some of the flour for an extra nutty flavor and tender texture. But it's completely optional!
Pecans - This recipe works best with plain, unsalted, dry roasted pecans!
Pure Maple Syrup - If you do nothing else, please use REAL maple syrup for the cream cheese glaze! It can be a little pricey but the flavor is unmatched! Use dark maple syrup for the most robust flavor!
The complete list of ingredients and amounts is located in the recipe card below.
How to Make a Bundt Cake
In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the brown sugar pecan ribbon and set aside.
Whisk the cake flour, pecan meal, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt together in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until smooth.
Then whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract until combined.
Then gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. The batter will be thick.
Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
Pour about half cake batter into your prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
Then sprinkle the brown sugar pecan mixture over the top and cover with the rest of the batter.
Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature before glazing.
To make the glaze, cream together the softened butter and cream cheese using a hand mixer. Then add in the powdered sugar until fully combined. Slowly drizzle in the maple syrup until the glaze is a thick, but pourable consistency.
Drizzle the maple glaze over the top of the pumpkin cake.
Tips for the Best Baked Goods
Use room temperature ingredients! Always make sure ingredients like butter, eggs, milk, yogurt, etc. are at room temperature before baking (unless the recipe indicates otherwise)! This ensures they'll incorporate into the batter more easily and leads to overall better texture. Remove all ingredients from the fridge 30 minutes to an hour before baking for best results.
Measure your flour correctly! It's most accurate to use a kitchen scale, but if you're measuring by volume you want to spoon and level! Fluff up the flour a bit with a spoon, and then spoon flour into the measuring cup. Once it's overflowing, use the back of a knife to level it off. Don't ever pack flour into the measuring cup or you'll end up with way too much! Improperly measured flour can lead to dry, dense baked goods. [Measure cocoa powder the same way!]
Use an oven thermometer! Just because your oven says it's 350, doesn't mean it is! If you oven hasn't been calibrated recently, it can be as much as 30 degrees off, which will negatively affect all baked goods from cakes to macarons! An oven thermometer is the easiest/cheapest way to ensure your oven is always at the proper temperature.
Make sure you baking powder is fresh! Baking powder is important for helping baked goods rise properly, but it has a relatively short shelf life once opened, so it's one of the few items I never buy in bulk! To test if your baking powder is still fresh, add a small amount to boiling water. If it bubbles it's still good to use, but if not it's time to toss it!
Bundt Cake Tips
Using a high quality non-stick bundt pan will increase your odds of the cake sliding cleanly out of the pan! I only use Nordic Ware bundt pans because they’re extremely well made and won’t break the bank. You can also find them on sale all the time! For this pumpkin maple bundt cake I used my fun swirl bundt pan!
This recipe is designed for a 10-12 cup bundt pan. Simply halve the recipe to use a 5-6 cup bundt!
You also want to use a good pan spray! I love Everbake Pan Spray or Baker's Joy, but any vegetable oil spray will work. You do not want to use butter though as the milk solids can solidify during baking and cause your cake to stick in some of the smaller crevices.
Recipe FAQ's
This pumpkin pecan bundt cake will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. I recommend getting an airtight bundt cake keeper for best results.
This can happen for a few reasons. The pan you're using and the nonstick spray are usually the biggest culprits! See the above notes on what I recommend!
Nope! I love the extra flavor that brown butter adds to the cake, but you can use regular unsalted butter if you prefer.
Tips for Success!
For best results I always recommend using weight measurements (especially when baking) because it's the most accurate. Kitchen scales are super affordable and also reduce the number of dishes you have to do! However, all my recipes also include US customary measurements for convince. Use this chart to convert measurements for common ingredients!
Substitutions: In all my recipes, I've included substitutions that I know will work, but I cannot guarantee results if you substitute ingredients that I have not recommended. [For example, granulated sugar and honey are indeed both sweeteners but they have very different properties so they can not always be swapped 1:1. Using honey in a cookie recipe that calls for granulated sugar will yield a giant mess.] In the recipe card you'll find links to the specific ingredients/brands that I use.
A note on salt: I almost exclusively use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt because it's the best all-purpose salt for cooking and baking. If you're not using kosher salt, consult this handy guide for a conversion chart! When in doubt, if you're using table salt just reduce the amount by half for baked goods. When cooking, I prefer to under-salt because you can always add more! If you've over-salted, adding a little bit of acid (like lemon juice) can help.
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Recipe Card
Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze
Special Equipment
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cake
- 2 ¼ cups cake flour, substitute all purpose flour
- ½ cup pecan meal, substitute all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted brown butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups light brown sugar
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
Pecan Ribbon
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup toasted pecans, finely chopped
Maple Cream Cheese Glaze
- 2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-4 tablespoons maple syrup, as needed
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the brown sugar pecan ribbon and set aside.
- Whisk the cake flour, pecan meal, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and salt together in a large bowl.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the brown butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until smooth.
- Then whisk in the eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract until combined.
- Then gently fold in the dry ingredients until just combined. The batter will be thick.
- Prepare your bundt pan by spraying thoroughly with a vegetable oil based pan spray.
- Pour about half cake batter into your prepared pan and spread into an even layer.
- Then sprinkle the brown sugar pecan mixture over the top and cover with the rest of the batter.
- Bake at 350°F for 40-50 minutes or until a cake tester inserted near the middle of the cake comes out clean. Note: Pans with a darker interior will cook faster, as will a smaller 5-6 cup bundt pan. Start checking at 30-35 minutes in those cases.
- Remove from the oven and let the cake rest in the pan for 1-2 minutes.
- Use a butter knife and gently slide it between the cake and pan around the edges and the center hole. Place a cooling rack on top of the bundt pan and turn over. It should fall right out but if it doesn’t let it sit for a couple minutes and then tap the top of the pan to gently coax it out of the pan.
- Allow the cake to cool completely to room temperature before glazing.
- To make the glaze, cream together the softened butter and cream cheese using a hand mixer. Then add in the powdered sugar until fully combined. Slowly drizzle in the maple syrup until the glaze is a thick, but pourable consistency.
- Drizzle the maple glaze over the top of the cake and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information on this website is only an estimate and is provided for convenience and as a courtesy only. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
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