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Pumpkin Crunch Cake Recipe

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It’s time for the best Pumpkin Crunch Cake you’ve ever tasted! While visiting family out of town for the holiday this past weekend, I baked so many yummy goodies that it’s truly hard for me not to share them with you all at once. Not to overwhelm you, I’m sharing the recipes one by one over the next couple weeks.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

This holiday I really knocked it out of the park with the desserts I chose to make. I’m not one to make the same thing over and over, so I chose to make new-to-my-family-recipes that included a cake, bars, bread, dessert balls and more.

Today I’m starting out with one of the best. This cake ties for the first place dessert that my family loved the most on Christmas Eve. My family couldn’t decide if the Pecan Pie Truffles that I shared with you on Monday or this Pumpkin Crunch Cake was the best so we called them both the best. The Pecan Pie Truffles were the “Best. Dessert Balls. Ever.” and the this cake is the “Best. Cake. Ever.”

Seriously, I wouldn’t lie to you, this cake is delicious! I ran into a problem in the middle of making the cake when I was taking the cakes out of the pans that almost made it a complete Pinterest Fail but I was able to pull it all together and make it look perfect. It just took a little tender loving care and piecing some of the cake back together but you’d never know it by the finished product.

Pumpkin Cake

IMPORTANT NOTES:

DO NOT LET THE CAKES COOL IN THE PANS. This is important because the crunch mixture will stick to the pans and you’ll be scraping it out. I made this mistake and ended up scraping much of the crumb mixture off the pans and piecing it back together on top of the cake layers. This was almost a Pinterest FAIL! Luckily I fixed it all in the frosting stage of the cake.

*Store cake in refrigerator. Serves 16-20.

Once you are finished frosting your cake, refrigerate it for a few hours before serving. Chilling the cake will help hold every thing together and firm the cake up. Since the frosting has cream cheese in it, keep it stored in the refrigerator. This is a very rich, heavy cake and will feed loads of people. You can feed AT LEAST 12-16 people! It’s a great cake for a party or a holiday. Every one in my family LOVED it! For your next party or holiday, you have to whip this one up. It’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!

Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Cake
Pumpkin Cake

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Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Hollie Schultz
A delicious pumpkin crunch cake that will be the winner of any party or get together.
5 from 2 votes
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 25 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Servings 20 servings
Calories 877 kcal

Ingredients
  

CRUNCH TOPPING

  • 3 cups walnuts finely chopped
  • 3 cups vanilla wafers
  • 3 cups brown sugar
  • 12 oz butter

PUMPKIN CRUNCH CAKE

  • 1 1/4 cup sugar
  • 6 oz butter softened
  • 16 oz canned pumpkin
  • 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup greek yogurt
  • 1 tbsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 2 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 4 eggs

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

  • 24 oz cream cheese
  • 8 oz butter softened
  • 2 cups powdered sugar
  • 1 tbsp vanilla

Instructions
 

CRUNCH TOPPING

  • Melt Butter. In a food processor, pulse cookies to a fine crumb. Remove from processor and put into a medium bowl. Then pulse walnuts to very small pieces. Add walnuts to the bowl with the cookie crumbs.
  • Add in Brown Sugar and mix well. Add in Melted Butter and mix until completely blended.
  • Place one very full cup of the mixture into 3 greased 8″ round cake pans, pressing into bottom and spreading it evenly into the cake pans. Reserve about 2 cups of the mixture which will be baked to use on the sides of the cake. Set pans aside and begin cake.
  • Preheat Oven to 350 degrees.

PUMPKIN CAKE

  • In your mixer beat sugar and butter for about 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy, scrapping down the bowl frequently . Add In Pumpkin and all the rest of the ingredients, except the eggs. Mix just until blended. Do not over blend. Add in the Eggs, one at a time just until blended.
  • Divide batter equally into your 3 prepared cake pans on top of the nut/cookie mixture, smooth it out and make it as even as possible in the pan. Place remaining crunch mixture in a 4th cake pan or pie dish and allow to bake for the same amount of time as the cakes.
  • Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you use 2 racks to bake on in the oven, at the halfway mark rotate the pans .Allow pans to cool about 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire racks and allow to completely cool. 
  • DO NOT LET THE CAKES COOL IN THE PANS. This is important because the crunch mixture will stick to the pans and you’ll be scraping it out. I made this mistake and ended up scraping much of the crumb mixture off the pans and piecing it back together on top of the cake layers.
  • Break up the extra crunch mix to very small bits to use to decorate the cake with. While your cakes are baking prepare a Cream Cheese Frosting.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

  • Whip the cream cheese and butter till very smooth and creamy. Slowly add in the powdered sugar while mixer is on low setting. Add in Vanilla and mix well. Set aside till needed.

CAKE ASSEMBLY

  • After your cake is completely cooled. I recommend refrigerating the layers for an hour or so to make frosting easier, especially if you had to piece the crumb mixture back on top of the cake. Then begin frosting the layers and putting the cake together.
  • Frost one layer of cake. (If you use the icing recipe I list here, you’ll have plenty of frosting to make pretty thick layers in between the layers.) Top the frosted layer with a second layer and frost the top. Repeat with the third layer.
  • When you have assembled all the layers with some frosting between them, start to spread the remaining frosting on the sides and top. When finished frosting the cake, coat sides and top with your extra crunch mixture. Just take handfuls of the crunch mixture and carefully smash it into the sides of the frosted cake.
  • Once you are finished frosting your cake, refrigerate it for a few hours before serving.

Notes

Chilling the cake will help hold every thing together and firm the cake up. Since the frosting has cream cheese in it, keep it stored in the refrigerator. This is a very rich, heavy cake and will feed loads of people. You can feed AT LEAST 12-16 people! It’s a great cake for a party or a holiday. Every one in my family LOVED it! For your next party or holiday, you have to whip this one up. It’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!
 

Nutrition

Calories: 877kcalCarbohydrates: 87gProtein: 9gFat: 57gSaturated Fat: 28gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 150mgSodium: 352mgPotassium: 278mgFiber: 3gSugar: 64gVitamin A: 4960IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 134mgIron: 2mg
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pumpkin crunch cake
Recipe Rating




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Janet Royall

Saturday 19th of November 2016

Can you use cake flour?

MOIRA BULIVOU

Monday 7th of December 2015

i will be baking this cake for x-mas this year

Danie

Tuesday 2nd of December 2014

Hi Holly, I really want to make this cake... it looks soon delicious!!! Question though; can i make it with a 'fresh' pumpkin and if yes: how? I can't find cans with ready-to-go pumpkin mash (maybe because i'm from Holland :)

Thanks! D

Twinkle

Saturday 4th of January 2014

This looks like the same recipe from: http://www.askchefdennis.com/2011/10/pumpkin-crunch-cake-my-holiday-tradition/ which was written in 2011. It would be nice to give credit where it is due but that's my opinion.

Hollie Schultz

Monday 6th of January 2014

It is the recipe from Chef Dennis that was adapted from Good Housekeeping Good Desserts! We have had both credits at the bottom of the recipe since we posted it. Yes, it's a great recipe and definitely deserves credit where credit is due and we did just that. :)

Gina

Friday 27th of December 2013

Thank you! One last question. I just baked the cakes, is the topping on the bottom supposed to be more on the moist side as opposed to crisp? Not sure if I just greased the pan too much or what because when I took out of the pan parts of the topping fell apart seemed very moist

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