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Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. Inspired by my favourite English dessert, this cake has become a seasonal favourite but can be made at any time for year using canned pumpkin puree.

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake close up photo of a single slice

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

While Spouse still dearly loves her bread puddings, my favorite comfort food dessert still remains the English classic Sticky Toffee Pudding. The pudding is dense and sweet, served warm with a delicious toffee sauce.

The texture of the pudding appears cake-like but it sort of collapses in your mouth to a dense, rich, caramel-y, luscious bite that is simply addictive.

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake frosted on a white plate with a pumkin and coffee cups in background

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Like in our Banana Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake, I’ve taken that texture and translated it into an outstanding dessert cake. This time with the seasonal favorite flavour of pumpkin spice.

It is abundantly obvious that as a result of writing Rock Recipes website, our family has more than our fair share of delicious desserts.  Truth be told, though,  it is quite rare that anyone in our family will eat any more than a single serving.

Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake out to the Leftover list.

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake square image of cake and slice for featured image

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Friends and neighbours on the “Leftover List” are always the lucky recipients of the surplus dessert. While that is now normal procedure at our house, yesterday it became a matter of absolute necessity of practically emergency priority.

My resistance can be quite high for many desserts. But this cake, with it’s amazing texture, spicy pumpkin flavour and caramel hints from the brown butter in the frosting, was practically irresistible to me.

I had only a single slice and within an hour or so after I took the photos, I had cut the cake into 4 chunks and had them delivered them to 4 different households in the neighbourhood. 

A mixture of relief and regret immediately ensued. However, in the end I know this will become a seasonal Autumn favorite and I already have plans to serve it again at an upcoming gathering.

Be sure to add it to your Fall favourites.

Click the links below to check out our other “sticky toffee” themed desserts.

Perfect English Sticky Toffee Pudding

Sticky Toffee Banana Cake

Sticky Banana Toffee Pudding

If you liked this recipe be sure to check out this amazing collection of our 25 Best Scone Recipes.

25 Best Scone Recipes image with title text for Pinterest

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Originally published October 2013. Updated September 2019 to include a printable recipe card, notes and nutritional information.
Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake close up photo of a single slice
Yield: 20 Servings

Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Cook Time: 35 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour

Inspired by the famous British dessert, Sticky Toffee Pudding and another banana cake version of it that I developed, this dense moist cake is the perfect way to use those Fall pumpkins. This cake does not have a typical cake texture; like a good sticky toffee pudding, it sort of collapses in your mouth to a dense, rich, caramel-y, luscious bite that is simply addictive. Using brown butter in the frosting adds a beautiful caramel note to the cream cheese icing.

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

  • 2 1/4 cups pureed roasted pumpkin, you can use canned pumpkin puree if you prefer
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup dark corn syrup, or golden syrup
  • 3 large eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp allspice
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp nutmeg

FOR THE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

  • 8 cups icing sugar, (powdered sugar)
  • 1-3 tbsp milk enough to bring the frosting to a spreadable consistency
  • 1 cup butter, browned
  • 1 cup cream cheese
  • 2 tbsp vanilla extract vanilla extract

Instructions

TO MAKE THE CAKE

  1. Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper. The parchment paper greatly aids the release of the cakes from the pans when baked.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Mix together the pureed pumpkin and baking soda and set aside.
  4. Cream together the butter, brown sugar and vanilla well.
  5. Beat in the dark corn syrup (or golden syrup).
  6. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
  7. Add the pumpkin mixture and blend until smooth.
  8. Sift together the flour, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg and baking powder.
  9. Add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture in three equal portions mixing until smooth after each addition.
  10. Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  11. Let the cakes rest in the pans for 10 -15 minutes before turning them out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Frost with brown butter cream cheese frosting.

TO MAKE THE FROSTING:

  1. You must first brown the butter over medium heat. It will simmer until all the water boils off then quickly turn a golden brown. As soon as it turns a deep golden brown remove it from the heat, let it settle for 5 minutes, then decant it into a heatproof glass measuring cup. Chill until it solidifies.
  2. Mix the cooled brown butter with all the frosting ingredients and beat well until smooth and fluffy. Add only a little milk at first and just add a little at a time until you get the perfect spreadable consistency.

Notes

Please note that this is a very rich cake, meant to be served in small slices, which are still quite satisfying for any sweet tooth. We would get at least 20 slices out of this cake if we were serving it to guests, so it's a great birthday or celebration cake for a crowd.

Recommended Products

Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.

Nutrition Information

Yield

20

Serving Size

20 Servings

Amount Per Serving Calories 499Total Fat 27gSaturated Fat 11gTrans Fat 12gUnsaturated Fat 1gCholesterol 74mgSodium 247mgCarbohydrates 81gFiber 1gSugar 66gProtein 4g

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Karen Byers

Saturday 30th of September 2023

I made this cake yesterday for a gathering and it was a huge hit. The cake is super moist and the brown butter frosting really does give that unexpected toffee flavour. Next time, and there will be a next time, I'll amp up the spices a bit so that they can shine beside that tasty frosting.

Shellee Barbour

Thursday 5th of September 2019

Would it work if I left out the corn syrup?

Barry C. Parsons

Wednesday 11th of September 2019

No. The texture would be quite dry I think and not "sticky" as it's intended.

Aspasia

Thursday 5th of September 2019

This cake looks fantastic (I'm also a huge fan of sticky toffee pudding)! Do you have any icing suggestions for those who don't like cream cheese, though?

Barry C. Parsons

Saturday 5th of October 2019

Brown Butter Frosting on our website.

Bea

Sunday 17th of March 2019

Hi Barry, I was actually reading the recipe for STP, then noticed this at the bottom. Love the pumpkin! WOW, I'm a fan. I got so tickled about your story giving away the cake. I can relate to that!! I did that once and the next day repeated making it. Thanks for sharing the details of the recipe. I can't wait to make it today!!

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