Pumpkin Sheet Cake With Molasses Cream-Cheese Frosting

By Yossy Arefi

Pumpkin Sheet Cake With Molasses Cream-Cheese Frosting
Meredith Heuer for The New York Times
Total Time
45 minutes, plus cooling
Rating
5(968)
Comments
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This simple, warmly spiced pumpkin cake is enough to feed a crowd, making it a perfect holiday treat. It's also relatively versatile: You can serve it in the pan for an easy presentation, or transfer it to a platter for something a little more refined. The frosting is just enough to coat the cake in a thin layer, but, if you want more, you may want to more for a generous coating. And, for a more subtly flavored frosting, substitute an equal amount of dark maple syrup for the molasses, or skip the molasses entirely for pure cream-cheese flavor.

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Ingredients

Yield:One 9x13-inch cake

    For the Cake

    • ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), softened but cool, plus more for the pan
    • 2cups/256 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
    • 1teaspoon baking powder
    • 1teaspoon baking soda
    • ¾teaspoon kosher salt
    • 2teaspoons ginger
    • 2teaspoons cinnamon
    • ¼teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
    • ¼teaspoon ground cloves
    • 1½cups/330 grams light brown sugar, firmly packed
    • ¼cup/60 milliliters grapeseed or other neutral-flavored oil
    • 2large eggs
    • 2teaspoons vanilla extract
    • 1(15-ounce/425-gram) can pumpkin purée

    For the Frosting

    • ½cup/4 ounces/113 grams cream cheese, softened but cool
    • ¼cup/57 grams unsalted butter, softened but cool
    • 2cups/226 grams confectioners' sugar, sifted
    • 1tablespoon molasses
    • 1teaspoon fresh lemon juice
    • ½teaspoon vanilla extract
    • Pinch kosher salt
Ingredient Substitution Guide

Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9x13-inch baking pan.

  2. Step 2

    In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices until well combined.

  3. Step 3

    In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the brown sugar, butter and grapeseed oil. Beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing for about 20 seconds between each. Add the vanilla extract and pumpkin purée and mix until well combined, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl as necessary.

  4. Step 4

    Turn the mixer to low, and add the dry ingredients. Stir until a few spots of flour remain. Remove the bowl from the mixer, and use a rubber spatula to finish folding in the dry ingredients. The batter will be thick and fluffy, so make sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure it is evenly mixed.

  5. Step 5

    Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top, and firmly tap the pan on the countertop a few times to release any large air bubbles. Bake the cake until golden and puffed, and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

  6. Step 6

    Cool the cake, still in the pan, on a rack for 15 minutes, then use the tip of a knife to loosen the edges and carefully invert it onto the rack to cool completely.

  7. Step 7

    Make the frosting: Add the cream cheese and butter to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium-high until smooth. Turn the speed to low and slowly add the confectioner’s sugar, mix until the sugar is moistened, then turn the mixer up to medium-high and whip until smooth. Add the molasses, lemon juice, vanilla and pinch of salt, and whip until smooth.

  8. Step 8

    Invert the cooled cake to a serving platter, frost and serve. Alternately, you can also frost and serve this cake in the pan it was baked in, if you’d rather not transfer it to a serving platter.

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Ratings

5 out of 5
968 user ratings
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Comments

Elizabeth

This turned out AWESOME! Love the cake... No changes except to use canola oil since I didn't have grapeseed. Frosting recipe didn't seem quite right... I doubled the cream cheese, doubled the vanilla and only used about 1 1/2 c of powdered sugar. Definitely will make again!

Lydia

Also makes great cupcakes (~24), bake them for 17ish minutes at the same temperature. The frosting recipe is not enough to pipe on all of them, but it never hurts to make a double batch!

Stacie P

Moist cake and very flavorful....i thought all that ginger and cinnamon would be too much but it was balanced. As described in the recipe the batter was fluffy and perfect. My only set back was the molasses, i ended up icing the cake as is and then this morning, scraped it and diluted the intense molasses flavor with an extra half recipe of the cream cheese icing. It helped....molasses is no joke!

Lori

Love the cake. I upped the cream cheese and decreased the sugar in the frosting, but still found it cloyingly sweet. I'll make this again with a different cream cheese frosting recipe.

Patty G

I made this last night for a Halloween party. Everyone enjoyed it and it was very moist and flavorful. I followed the insights from others and used maple syrup instead of molasses and it was perfect. The frosting is sweet so probably cut back on the sugar next time and may try cupcakes with some toasted walnuts on top!

TEB

I made this cake to share with my colleagues and it was a hit. This is a keeper and I will make this again and again. I did increase the spices just a little bit based on some of the comments and I would repeat that, too.

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