Pumpkin Crunch with Cream Cheese Frosting – I hate pumpkin, but I LOVE this cake!! SO easy! Pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin spice, cake mix, pecans, and butter. Frost with a mixture of cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip. SO good. I took this to a potluck and everyone cleaned their plate. The pumpkin haters were shocked when I told them what it was!! YUM!
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Pin This RecipeEasy Pumpkin Dessert
This is the recipe that made me realize that I liked pumpkin. My Mom made this years ago and wouldn’t tell us what it was until we tried it. We all loved it and then she told us it was made from pumpkin. I would have never tried it if I knew it had pumpkin in it! Who knew pumpkin could taste so delicious?!
What is Pumpkin Pie Spice?
Pumpkin Pie Spice is a blend of four spices – cinnamon, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and allspice. You can find it in the spice aisle at the grocery store. If you don’t have any on hand, you can make your own with ½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp ginger, ¼ tsp nutmeg, ¼ tsp allspice.
How to Make Pumpkin Crunch Cake
This dessert is super easy to make with only a few simple ingredients. Spray a 9×13-inch cake pan with cooking spray and set aside. In a large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, milk, sugar, pumpkin spice, and eggs. Pour pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan. Sprinkle cake mix evenly over the pumpkin mixture. Add a layer of chopped pecans on top of the cake mix. Lay butter slices on top of the pecans and bake. Let the cake cool.
In a bowl, beat together cream cheese, powdered sugar, and cool whip with an electric mixer. Spread whipped cream cheese frosting over the cooled cake and enjoy.
Helpful Tips & Frequently Asked Questions
- Make sure to use a can of pureed pumpkin. Do not use pumpkin pie filling.
- Can use any flavor of cake mix you prefer. I used a box of yellow cake mix. Butter pecan or spice cake mix would also be delicious.
- Can swap walnuts for pecans.
- If you don’t like nuts, feel free to leave them out. You could swap them for toffee bits.
- If there are some dry cake mix spots, drizzle melted butter oven them, and bake for an additional minute or two.
- Can use zero-sugar or fat-free cool whip for a lower calorie dish.
- Store the baked cake in the refrigerator until serving.
- The cake will keep 3 to 4 days in an air-tight container.
- If you don’t want to make the frosting, you can sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar instead.
Pumpkin Dump Cake Recipe
I made this last week and took it to work. It was a huge hit. Everyone wanted the recipe. This is so quick and easy to make. It would make a perfect ending to a fabulous Thanksgiving feast next week! This is great served as it. It is equally delicious with some caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream!
Want more pumpkin recipes? Here are a few of our favorite pumpkin recipes from the blog:
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Ritz Carlton Pumpkin Cheesecake
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Pumpkin Crunch
Ingredients:
- 1 (15-oz) can pumpkin
- 1 (12-oz) can evaporated milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin spice
- 3 large eggs
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- ¾ cup butter cut in pieces
- 1 (12-oz) container cool-whip
- 1 (8-oz) package cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup powdered sugar
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Mix pumpkin, milk, sugar, pumpkin spice and eggs and pour into 9×13 baking dish.
- Sprinkle cake mix on top. Sprinkle pecans on top of cake mix. Cover nuts with pieces of butter.
- Bake for 1 hour. Let cool completely.
- Beat cool-whip, cream cheese and confectioners sugar together and spread on top.
Notes:
- Make sure to use a can of pureed pumpkin. Do not use pumpkin pie filling.
- Can use any flavor of cake mix you prefer. I used a box of yellow cake mix. Butter pecan or spice cake mix would also be delicious.
- Can swap walnuts for the pecans.
- If you don’t like nuts, feel free to leave them out. You could swap them for toffee bits.
- Store the baked cake in the refrigerator until serving.
- The cake will keep 3 to 4 days in an air-tight container.
- If you don’t want to make the frosting, you can sprinkle the cake with powdered sugar instead.
Steph
Remember this recipe.
Pin this recipe to your favorite board now to remember it later!
Pin This Recipe
Just made this the other day….divided the batter between two 8×8 pans to make two cakes….baked it for a little less time than the hour called for…everyone loved it! Hubby said it’s definitely a keeper! Just an FYI…. Tried leaving a positive comment on Pinterest but for some reason it wouldn’t let me. 😟
SO glad you enjoyed it!
Hi there! You say in the ingredients list a box of cake mix and then your directions say to sprinkle the cake mix. Is it the whole box or just some? That isn’t quite clear. Also, you did not specify salted or unsalted butter.
I made it with an entire package of cake mix since that is what the ingredients say. It’s quite moist, juicy and runny with juices. Which leads me to believe that perhaps your writing box of cake mix in the ingredients should actually say not to use the whole box, use 1/2, so many grams or cups, etc.
Would appreciate some clarity on this. I’ve been looking forward to making this and am hoping I didn’t ruin the batch by using the box mentioned.
Thanks!
A fellow recipe fanatic
I used the whole box of cake mix as indicated in the ingredients. Use only the dry mix. Do not make the cake batter.
Thank you! That’s exactly what I did. Is yours typically runny/juicy?
Also, unsalted or salted butter to top?
Thank you again, very much!
It doesn’t matter if you use unsalted or salted butter.
Can you substitute another type of milk for the evaporated milk?
Thanks
I have only made this as written, so I can not say.
I am guessing that you cool it before putting the icing on. Is that correct? I want to take it to a club meeting Tuesday.
Yes – in step 4 it says to cool completely. Enjoy!
Don't guess it matters that cake mixes are smaller these days since is just a sprinkle? Does it matter if mix has pudding or not? Thanks.
I haven't used a cake mix with pudding in the mix for this recipe, so I'm not sure if it matters or not.
I have. It tastes fine, came out no different. I even used chocolate cake mix. Tastes yummy, at least to me. And we flip ours, so the top becomes the crust, and then top with whatever you want (whipped cream or cream cheese).
have you ever substituted chocolate cake mix instead of yelllow cake mix?
I haven't, but that sounds delicious!
Yes, it's delicious!
Ok thank you!! Making it today but my husband will be taking it to work tomorrow . Didn’t know if making it a day early is good
Do you refrigerate if making day before ? Bettercseeved warm!
You can refrigerate it if you prefer. It doesn’t have to be refrigerated
I made this for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! I don't like pumpkin pie and I even liked it. Great recipe!
Made this yesterday for one of our Thanksgiving desserts. We loved it, even better today as leftovers. I had to promise my husband that I would make it every year!
This is also very good, hot out of the oven without the icing! I love the butter becan crunch on top!
This looks delicious!
Add it to the list. This recipe sounds great, thanks for sharing.
This looks amazing. The kind of dessert that would be welcome at every gathering.
I thought I hated pumpkin until I finally tried my Mother's pumpkin muffins that have butterscotch chips in them (although I do still hate butterscotch in anything else!)they're my favorite Fall treat and everyone loves them!
I would love to have that recipe.
I would love to have that recipe.
this recipe has been on my 'to make' list forever!I need to get at it!! Yours sounds great Steph!
How come this blog is not called "plain fat" cause if I ate all the good stuff you made that's what I'd be.
Sounds like a great recipe.
My first mother-in-law made this every Thanksgiving! It was so wonderful… I never had the recipe. She passed away in 1991 before I had a chance to get it… and then I got divorced. I'm so happy to have this recipe! I'm going to make this soon for just my husband and I to enjoy (I might share with my daughter!)