Butterscotch Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This Butterscotch Pumpkin bundt cake recipe features an airy and super moist pumpkin bundt cake loaded with pumpkin and your favorite fall spices. Topped with the most delicious butterscotch sauce that has a lovely buttery, brown sugar flavor profile. Easy and quick candied pecans are added for some extra crunchiness. The best thing that can happen to this year´s pumpkin season!

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• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe?
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe
• ❓ Recipe FAQs
• 🎃 Other Pumpkin recipes
• Butterscotch Pumpkin bundt cake

🌟 Why this is the best recipe?

1. It is super easy – You won´t need any fancy ingredients or baking skills to make this Pumpkin bundt cake with Butterscotch glaze. The recipe comes together really easily, totally doable from scratch even for beginners.
2. It is super quick – I do not overcomplicate anything in this recipe! The recipe is the perfect choice if you want something quick and impressive that is literally ready in an hour
3. It is so delicious – I never compromise on taste! This cake is super moist with fall spices everyone loves, and the butterscotch glaze is really "icing on the cake"
4. No special equipment is needed – All you need is a bun tin that you probably already have at home and you are good to go to make this butterscotch bundt cake! However, if you do not own a bun tin, this cake can be made in any cake tin or even in a muffin tin.
5. It is super versatile – The Pumpkin bundt cake can be made with tons of different spices eg. nutmeg or ginger would fit really well with pumpkin. Orange zest can be another great idea to spice up the Pumpkin cakes. You can also use a different glaze, eg. chocolate glaze or cream cheese frosting.

📝 Ingredient notes

For the Pumpkin bundt cake

1. Oil: this is an oil-based cake (no butter) that keeps the cake super moist, soft, and fluffy, any no flavor vegetable oil can work just fine.
2. Sugar: I am using a combination of granulated white and brown sugar in this Butterscotch Pumpkin Bundt Cake. I absolutely love the brown sugar deep molasses flavor and regularly use it in autumn theme recipes. If you want to learn about the different types of sugar and how to use them in baking, please read my Sugar guide.
3. Egg: Use room temperature for the batter to perfectly emulsify
4. Flour: I am using pasty flour but AP works too, they are so-called “soft flour” which are low in protein resulting in a delicate, tender texture on your Butterscotch Pumpkin Bundt Cake. If you want to be a Pro when it comes to deciding what type of flour to use in your baking, please read my Flour guide.
5. Baking powder + Baking soda: Makes the cake tender and helps the rise
6. Salt: We always need at least a pinch of salt in any cake batter to balance the flavors
7. Spices: I recommend a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or feel free to use pumpkin spice. Check my DYI pumpkin spice
8. Pumpkin puree: Butterscotch glaze Pumpkin Bundt Cake requires good quality, intense pumpkin puree! I like making my own pumpkin puree by roasting pumpkin and blending it – learn how to make homemade pumpkin puree from scratch. You will need a thick pumpkin puree that is not too watery so the flavors are intense enough and the consistency is not too wet.
9. Nuts: Use either walnut or pecan and it is a good idea to toast it first in the oven for a few minutes. Toasting nuts enhances their flavors. It is worth chopping pecan or walnut into smaller pieces as while larger pieces are still delicious, they make it difficult to slice the cake later

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

For the Butterscotch glaze

1. Sugar: Butterscotch glaze is made of brown sugar, which will give the deep molasses flavor of the sauce. The glaze will turn out similar to a caramel sauce however brown sugar has a more deep flavor profile than white sugar
2. Egg: Room temperature as always, you will only need the yolk part of it
3. Butter: Use always unsalted as you want to be in control of the quantity of the salt. I am using 82% fat-content butter in all my recipes. In this recipe, the butter will need to be melted with the rest of the ingredients therefore you can use it at any temperature you like
4. Heavy Cream: Also known as whipping cream, has a fat content between 36% and 40%. Heavy cream will make the glaze extra smooth and creamy
5. Milk: I am using a mix of milk and cream to balance the richness of the sauce, use high-fat content milk.
6. Salt: We always need at least a pinch of salt to balance the flavors for such sweet, brown sugar-based glaze

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

For the Candied pecan

1. Sugar: Use simple white granulated sugar, you will have to make dry caramel out of it to glaze pecans
2. Pecan: Pecans are cut into half or quarters, alternatively if you can´t find pecans, use walnuts

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to make this recipe

1. How to make spiced Pumpkin bundt cake

This is a super easy pumpkin bundt cake recipe, you will literally need 2 bowls only and it comes together in less than 5 minutes.

1. Unless you are using canned pumpkin, make pumpkin puree
2. Prepare your bundt cake pan, I am using the Silicone Bundt Cake mould
3. Pre-heat oven to 180 C / 356 F (no fan). Use a Digital oven thermometer to make sure you are aware of your real oven temp
4. Ingredients must be all measured with a Digital scale
5. Whip oil, eggs, and the 2 different kinds of sugar with an Electric hand mixer for only a minute or two until combined then fold pumpkin puree in
6. Sift dry ingredients together (flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, spices) before adding to the mixture
7. Fold dry ingredients in by hand (using Rubber spatula). Do not use a mixer at this point
8. Then fold in toasted and chopped pecan
9. Pour batter into the Silicone Bundt Cake mould and bake for 45 minutes. Do not open the oven door during baking.

💡 Top Tip: After 45 minutes check the middle of the cake with a toothpick. Bake until the toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let the bundt cake cool on a cooling rack before glazing.

2. How to make butterscotch glaze

Think about it as caramel sauce´s less know little sister. While I love my caramel sauce I must say this butterscotch sauce is equally smooth, creamy, and buttery but with a way more complex flavor profile due to brown sugar and egg yolk. I have a new favorite sauce for sure!

Making butterscotch sauce could not be easier: place all the ingredients into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until thickens, a few minutes literally.

Enjoy this sauce on literally anything, cakes, cupcakes, cheesecakes, etc. This sauce will make the Pumpkin butterscotch bundt irresistible!

💡 Top Tip: Whisk the mixture while cooking so egg yolks won´t make a sweet omelet.

3. How to make candied pecan to decorate the Butterscotch pumpkin cake

Making candied nuts is surprisingly easy and they can be an absolutely great, crunchy addition to any recipe like this Butterscotch glaze Pumpkin Bundt Cake recipe!

1. Make dry caramel by melting granulated sugar in a saucepan over medium heat
2. You can drop pecans in early on or at a later stage when the sugar already melted
3. Cook pecan pieces while sugar caramelizes and pecans get coated with the caramel
4. Remove from heat and let the pecan pieces cool on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper

I absolutely love this crunchy candied pecan decoration on the moist and soft pumpkin bundt cake!

💡 Top Tip: Make sure you place the pecan pieces apart from each other so they do not stick to each other.

4. How to prevent Bundt cake from sticking

There are many tricks on the internet on the topic of how to prevent Bundt cake from sticking to the tin however if you are unsure or less experienced, simply choose a Silicone Bundt Cake tin and then you won´t have to worry about this question at all.

I am using a silicone mold which gives perfect definition to my Pumpkin Bundt cake without worrying about the sticking issue. With silicone molds, I usually wait until the cake cools to room temperature however this particular mold was surprisingly easy to remove straight after baking.

For more information about how to get a cake out of a bundt pan, please check my article.

❓ Recipe FAQs

🎃 Other Pumpkin recipes