Mini Pumpkin Cakes: Adorable Fall Snacky Cakes
These mini pumpkin cakes give you all the flavor of a big slice of pumpkin cake but in a cute snackable size. They’re great to pop in Fall lunches, or to add to your Thanksgiving dessert spread along with other mini desserts like Mini Cherry Pies, Mini Pumpkin Pies, Mini Cranberry Tarts, or Mini Apple Hand Pies.
| Taste | Texture | ||
| Classic pumpkin cake | Soft, moist |
| Active time | Total time | Yield | Difficulty |
| 10 minutes | 40 minutes | 24 mini muffin sized cakes + 6 mini bundts | Easy |
Why You’ll Love Mini Pumpkin Cakes
- Fast!: Big bundt cakes take a while to bake even though they’re easy. These bake in about half the time.
- Pumpkin Pie Flavor but Cake: If you love the flavor of pumpkin pie but aren’t a fan of the custard texture, these cakes are for you.
- Tender: Tangy buttermilk balances the sweetness in the cake but also tenderizes the cake so you have moist, lovely texture.
- Cute Factor: Mini desserts are too cute, and when they’re this easy to make, it’s a win win for everyone.
The Best Pans for Mini Pumpkin Cakes
This recipe makes enough for 24 mini muffin pan sized cakes + 6 mini bundt pan cakes. I’m using a Nordicware bundt tea cakes pan + a Nordicware mini bundt pan with 6 wells. I freely admit I’m an inveterate collector of cool looking pans, so if you don’t have these pans, here are my recommendations:
- Mini muffin pans: enough for 24 cakes
- Trudeau mini loaf pan : I adore this pan because you don’t have to grease it! It’s one of my all-time favorites I use with my students.
Ingredients For Mini Bundt Pumpkin Cakes
Pumpkin Cake Batter
- Butter, at room temperature
- Dark brown sugar
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs, at room temperature
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon
- Ground cloves
- Canned pumpkin puree
- Buttermilk (homemade buttermilk is best!)
- Vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze
- Powdered sugar
- Whole milk or water
- Vanilla extract or spiced rum
Equipment
Can I Use Spice Blends for Pumpkin Cakes?
Absolutely. While I like the simpler flavor of just cinnamon and cloves for these cakes, you can easily use jarred store-bought Fall spice blends or try my homemade gingerbread spice blend, pumpkin pie spice, apple pie spice, or chai spice blend.
How to Make Mini Pumpkin Cakes
- Prep: Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Brush each well in your pans with melted butter or spray them thoroughly with cooking spray. Fill each well with some breadcrumbs or flour and shake the pan to coat the sides with the breadcrumbs. Tap out any excess crumbs. Mix the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, and ground cloves in a small bowl.
- Make the Pumpkin Cake Batter: Beat the butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until it is light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add in the eggs, beating them in one at a time until combined. Stir in about half of the flour mixture, beating for a few seconds. Add in the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla extract, beating until smooth. Stir in the rest of the flour just until the flour disappears.
- Bake the Cakes: Fill the pans with the batter. For the mini muffin pans (or Charms Bundt Cake pan), fill the wells near the top. Divide the rest of the batter among the wells on the mini bundt cake pan (or mini loaf pans ). Bake the mini muffin pan cakes for 17-20 minutes until the tops of the cakes spring back when touched. The mini bundt cakes will take a little longer to bake—about 28-30 minutes.
- Finish the Cakes: Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 5 minutes. After that, turn them out onto a wire rack to cool. Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Drizzle the cakes with the glaze off the end of a fork
Why Breadcrumbs Are Better Than Flouring for Perfect Mini Bundt Cakes
There are some techniques I refer to with my students as Grandma Hacks because they’re not the super modern way to do things, yet they work better. Such is this idea:
- Melted Butter for Greasing: Brush the bundt pans with melted butter. The complex designs in the molds of bundt pans make them difficult to spray thoroughly and worse yet to grease with a solid fat like shortening. A pastry brush can easily get into all the grooves with the melted butter.
- Breadcrumbs, Not Flour: Fine breadcrumbs do a better job of dusting the inside of the pan vs. flour. Both create a barrier between the batter and the metal pan during baking, helping the cake release easily later. Flour can create a cast on the outside of the cakes as they bake. Breadcrumbs instead tend to sink into the batter, leaving a cleaner outside. If there are excess breadcrumbs after baking, you can easily brush them off, while excess flour can bake into a sticky film that’s difficult to remove. After buttering the pan, sprinkle in breadcrumbs and tilt the pan around to dust the insides before filling with the batter.
More Thanksgiving Desserts
Mini Pumpkin Cakes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 6 mini bundt cakes + 24 mini muffin pan sized cakes 1x
Description
These little glazed cakes give you all the flavor of pumpkin cake in a fun bite size for the perfect Fall treat to go with an afternoon coffee. Bake them in mini muffin pans or mini bundt cake pans for a bigger, shareable snacking cake. The light spice is a little more delicate than a pumpkin pie spice to make the flavor of the pumpkin shine through. This recipe will make 24 mini muffin size cakes + 6 mini bundt cakes.
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon melted butter or cooking spray for the pan
- Plain fine breadcrumbs (not panko) or flour for the pan
Pumpkin Cake Batter
- 12 Tablespoons butter (170 g), at room temperature
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (106 g)
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 3 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (292 g)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 and 1/4 cups canned pumpkin puree (305 g)
- 3/4 cup buttermilk (homemade buttermilk is best!), (177 mL)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon milk
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or spiced rum
- Handful of crystallized ginger, chopped or sliced (optional)
Equipment
Instructions
Prep
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Brush each well in your pans with melted butter or spray them thoroughly with cooking spray. Fill each well with some breadcrumbs or flour and shake the pan to coat the sides with the breadcrumbs. Tap out any excess crumbs.
- Mix the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt cinnamon, and ground cloves in a small bowl.
Make the Batter
- Beat the butter with the brown sugar and granulated sugar until it is light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add in the eggs, beating them in one at a time until combined.
- Stir in about half of the flour mixture, beating for a few seconds.
- Add in the buttermilk, pumpkin and vanilla extract, beating until smooth.
- Stir in the rest of the flour just until the flour disappears.
Bake the Cakes
- Fill the pans with the batter. For the mini muffin pans (or Charms Bundt Cake pan), fill the wells near the top. Divide the rest of the batter among the wells on the mini bundt cake pan (or mini loaf pans).
- Bake the mini muffin pan cakes for 17-20 minutes until the tops of the cakes spring back when touched.
- The mini bundt cakes will take a little longer to bake—about 28-30 minutes.
Finish the Cakes
- Let the cakes cool in the pans for about 5 minutes. After that, turn them out onto a wire rack to cool.
- Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl. Drizzle the cakes with the glaze off the end of a fork. Alternatively you can scrape the glaze into a small plastic bag, clip the corner and then squeeze out the glaze in fine lines over the cakes.
- If you’d like, top the cakes with pieces of crystallized ginger.
Notes
Breadcrumb Hack: If you can’t find fine plain breadcrumbs, pulse panko breadcrumbs for a few seconds in a food processor , blender, or coffee grinder until they’re about the texture of coarse cornmeal.
Big Pumpkin Bundt Cake: This recipe makes enough batter for a full-sized bundt pan too! Simply grease and flour the pan as described and bake for 50-55 minutes.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
