Very Moist And Delicious Caramel Pumpkin Italian Cream Cake

Want a spectacular dessert? Check out this pumpkin layer cake with an autumn look. It is an Italian cream cake with pumpkin in the batter, a salted caramel layer and cream cheese frosting on the outside, a beautiful, tall cake for a Thanksgiving table.

The pumpkin, pecan, coconut and salted caramel combination sounds heavenly. Add a great cup of coffee and you have a very good slice of fall.

Photo at the top: Lorie at Mississippi Kitchen.

Caramel Pumpkin Italian Cream Cake

This is Lorie’s recipe from her blog Mississippi Kitchen. She made it one Thanksgiving by adding pumpkin to her usual Italian cream cake and caramel frosting to the layers, and it became one of her family’s staple recipes.

What You’ll Need

• For the cake: baking powder, baking soda, butter, buttermilk, canned pumpkin, cinnamon, eggs, flour, light brown sugar, nutmeg, pecans, salt, shortening, sugar, sweetened flaked coconut, vanilla
• For the caramel frosting: butter, coarse sea salt, heavy cream, light brown sugar, powdered sugar, vanilla
• For the cream cheese frosting: butter, cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla

It is a layered cake, made for a crowd.

Why It Stands Out

• Most Italian cream cakes lean on a thick coat of cream cheese icing. This one puts a salted caramel layer between the cakes instead, so it is less heavy on the frosting.
• Toasted pecans and coconut on the outside give it the look of a bakery cake without any piping.
• Good to know, from Lorie’s own notes: it is a very tall cake, the caramel layer sets firm rather than staying soft, and the cake keeps in the fridge. Let it come back to room temperature before you serve it.

Tips for a Pumpkin Layer Cake

• Use pure canned pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling. Pie filling is already sweetened and spiced.
• Make it ahead. A layer cake like this one is a good job for the day before Thanksgiving, so the oven is free on the day.
• Want more spice? The cinnamon and nutmeg can go up a little. No nutmeg in the cupboard? Our pumpkin pie spice substitute chart shows what works.
• No buttermilk? See our buttermilk substitute guide. Out of brown sugar or cream for the caramel? Try our brown sugar substitute and heavy cream substitute pages.

More Pumpkin Desserts

• Libby’s pumpkin pie
• Pumpkin pecan cobbler
• Pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies
• Southern pecan caramel sauce

Get the full written Caramel Pumpkin Italian Cream Cake recipe from Lorie at Mississippi Kitchen: saved copy of her recipe page. Her blog is no longer online, so this link goes to the Internet Archive’s copy of her original page.

Thanks to Lorie at Mississippi Kitchen for this amazing recipe and featured image!