Surprisingly easy to make and truly delicious, this Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake is the ultimate in fall dessert decadence!  Believe me, you’ll want this cake on your holiday table!

So, I’m probably the last blogger in the big, bad internet world to taste a gooey butter cake.  I’d heard of them, sure, but it was sort of like the poke cake – I didn’t quite get what all of the fuss was until I tried it.

Now I’m worried that there’s no going back; that I’m going to be trying a different flavor of gooey butter cake every week and eating my way to a gazillion pounds.  Maybe not a bad way to go, but I have some cute fall sweaters I’d like to be able to wear when the weather finally cools off here. 😉

This pumpkin-pie like cake isn’t diet-friendly, and quite frankly, I don’t know why anyone would make or even waste calories on a cake that boasted to be healthy.  Go whole-hog or go home is my motto.  And anything that boasts two sticks of butter, a block of cream cheese, and three and a half cups of powdered sugar is pretty much whole-hog.  This recipe is straight from Paula Deen’s Southern Cooking Bible, and whatever your opinion of Paula, she makes a darn good cake.

The extra great thing about this pumpkin gooey butter cake is that it is so easy to make.  Mix up your batter {just three main ingredients} and spread it in the bottom of your pan – it will be pretty thick, so you’ll need to press it down gently with the back of a spatula or a wooden spoon to make sure it reaches the corners of the pan.

Next, make your filling: just blend together a can of pumpkin and cream cheese, add in a few eggs, vanilla, {more!} butter, powdered sugar, and my favorite blend of fall spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes; be careful not to over-bake.  It’s called “gooey cake: for a reason! 🙂  Allow to cool and serve with whipped cream.

This is a great cake to take for a work luncheon, pot luck, or family event – anywhere that you can make sure that other people can eat some of this cake and you’re not tempted to eat the entire thing yourself.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake

 

Print

Ingredients

Cake:

• 1 box (18¼ ounces) yellow cake mix
• 1 large egg
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted

Filling:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 box (16 ounces, or approximately 3½ cups) powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• ½ teaspoon cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
• whipped cream, for serving

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x13 pan with nonstick spray and set aside.
2. To make your cake, stir together cake mix, egg and butter with a large wooden spoon until well combined. Press the mixture into the bottom of your prepared cake pan, making sure it is smoothed into the corners.
3. To make the filling, beat the pumpkin and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixture until smooth. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Add the melted butter and beat until combined. Add the pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Next, add the powdered sugar, ¼ cup at a time, beating well in between each addition.
4. Use a spatula to spread the filling on top of the cake base. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Do not overbake - when you stick a toothpick into the center of the cake, it should have a few wet crumbs stuck to it when you remove it.

3.5.3251