14 Halloween Pumpkin Cake Recipes & Ideas

By Food & Wine
May 15, 2017
© Con Poulos

Halloween is just around the corner and it’s officially time to start planning. Once you’ve got a costume in order, festive food should be your main focus. Skip the candy overload this October 31 and embrace fall flavors and the Halloween spirit with an incredible pumpkin cake. You can reserve pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, because we have 14 pumpkin cakes for you to whip up. With recipes like pumpkin layer cake with mascarpone frosting and marbled pumpkin cheesecake with brownie crust, you’ll be wishing every day was Halloween. And the crazy-delicious options don’t stop there. We’re serving up everything from mini spiced pumpkin cakes to toasted hazelnut pumpkin cake with espresso icing to Mexican chocolate chip-pumpkin seed cake. Our mouths are watering just thinking about it. Happy Halloween!

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Mini Spiced Pumpkins

© David Malosh

Not only do these adorable little spice cakes use pumpkin spice mix to bring the taste of fall to your mouth, but they also look like tiny pumpkins when they're covered with sweet orange glaze and topped with a piece of dark licorice, which is twisted to look like a stem.

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Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake with a Brownie Crust

© William Meppem

In our opinion, when you have double the batter, you have double the fun. With rich chocolate swirls adorning the vibrant orange layer of pumpkin, this festive, velvety cheesecake brings out the black and orange color theme Halloween is best known for. Plus, who can honestly resist a brownie crust?

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Pumpkin Cake with Caramel-Cream Cheese Frosting

© John Kernick

In this fun variation on traditional pumpkin pie, which we think of as a Thanksgiving dessert, this Halloween pumpkin cake spiced with ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves gets frosted with a slightly tangy, super-caramelly frosting. It's delicious served cold or at room temperature and we could finish one in a single sitting.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake with Brown-Butter Pears

© Con Poulos

We love the bright orange hue of this pumpkin cheesecake, which is a perfect choice for your Halloween party. While the original recipe author's version uses the tangy, pungent, soft-ripened Italian cheese Robiolina and house-made gingersnaps, our tasty adaptation can easily be crafted at home with store-bought cream cheese and boxed cookies.

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Pumpkin Cakes for Halloween

© Con Poulos

Skip the candy overload this October 31 and embrace fall flavors instead. A great way to do that is with a pumpkin cake and we’ve got 14 of them for you to choose from.

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Warm Pumpkin Cake

© Ray Kachatorian

Tom Fundaro asked his pastry chef Susan Masch for a pumpkin dessert that "wasn't the ubiquitous créme brûlée." Masch came up with this riff on a traditional English steamed pudding. Warm, soft, spicy and simple, it may be one of the best pumpkin desserts you'll ever eat, which makes it perfect to serve to a Halloween crowd.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with Caramel Swirl

© Alexandra Rowley

These decadent chocolate-crusted bars are topped with a luscious homemade caramel that sinks into the pumpkin cheesecake batter during baking. Since you can eat these pumpkin bars with your hands, it makes them the optimal Halloween party or trick-or-treat dessert: portable, mess-free and delicious. They really are the whole package.

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Toasted Hazelnut Pumpkin Cake with Espresso Icing

© Sarah Bolla

This cardamom scented, nutty pumpkin cake is baked with ground and chopped hazelnuts, while its crispy exterior gets drizzled with a deliciously-fun espresso icing. A slice of this cake can make for a nice treat with coffee on Halloween morning (we’re making that a thing) or served as a special dessert at your Halloween party.

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Mexican Chocolate Chip-Pumpkin Seed Cake

© FREDRIKA STJÄRNE

Based on classic almond cake, chef Rick Bayless's pumpkin-seed cake is moist and fluffy with just a whisper of a crisp crust. For a lighter variation, omit the chocolate and add lime zest. Either way, it’s the ideal Halloween dessert to serve a merry, costume-clad crowd of partiers or trick-or-treaters.

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Maple Pumpkin-Pecan Snacking Cake

© Sarah Bolla

This maple-scented pumpkin cake is made with spelt flour and both freshly ground and chopped pecans; the batter is then sprinkled with demerara sugar just before baking for a wonderfully crispy top. It might just be the best portable treat to take with you while you trick-or-treat—because everyone needs a snack between candy bars.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Tart with Cranberry Gelée

© Anna Williams

This pumpkin-cheesecake pie started its life as a petit four at New York City's Gotham Bar and Grill. With its creamy pumpkin filling and ruby-red cranberry gelée topping, it clearly deserved a spot on the menu. The combination of pumpkin and cranberries that resemble blood makes it an ideal Halloween ending.

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Pumpkin-Gingersnap Tiramisù

© Lucy Schaeffer

This Halloween, become acquainted with the ultimate mashup: pumpkin pie meets tiramisù. With layers of pumpkin-mascarpone custard and gingersnaps brushed with Calvados syrup, this dessert is beyond mind-blowing. In the freezer, the flavors and textures meld to form a deliciously creamy dessert that you’re bound to fall in love with.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Praline Topping

© Stephanie Foley

Pastry chef Katherine Beto has three rules for making the perfect cheesecake: Start with all of the ingredients at room temperature, scrape down the bowl to avoid lumps and don't overbeat the batter. The result is a sublimely silky and light dessert that she flavors with pumpkin, cinnamon and cloves and tops with a gooey, buttery pecan praline.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake

© Con Poulos

Jeremy Silansky borrowed this recipe from American Flatbread pastry chef Hannah Yerks, who developed this fluffy cheesecake using sugar pumpkins grown in the restaurant's garden and stored in a root cellar (buttercup and kabocha squash work just as well). Fresh cream cheese, which has a light, creamy texture, gives this cheesecake its airy, mousselike texture.

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