Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting

A big thanks to Sara (nestie TheMRS0127) for sharing this pumpkin recipe! It's a fairly dense cake, but nice and moist. My husband said it would be better if it was lighter and fluffier, but I think it's great as is :)

What piqued my interest in this recipe was actually the frosting; I had never heard of a honey frosting before. Let me just say that it is sooooo good! There is just a hint of cream cheese, but the honey flavor really does come through. I don't frost my cakes too heavily, so I ended up with about 1/2 cup of leftover frosting.

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting
from Martha Stewart


1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice (or 1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon each allspice and cloves)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
One (15-ounce) can solid-pack pumpkin puree
Honey Frosting (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin-pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, and pumpkin puree until combined. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, and mix gently until smooth.

Turn batter into prepared pan, and smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes in pan, then turn out of pan, and cool completely, right side up, on a rack.

Spread top of cooled cake with Honey Frosting. Cut cake into squares to serve.


Honey Frosting

Makes 2 cups

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) regular or reduced-fat cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup honey

In a medium bowl, whisk all ingredients until smooth.