Fall is in full swing with this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cake. Browned pumpkin cake and indulgent snickerdoodle filling mingle with brown sugar cinnamon swirls and crumbles. Brown butter cinnamon and salted caramel frostings make for the ultimate duo for this cake.
This is my first pumpkin cake of the season and I am pumped! Given, I made cupcakes and cupcakes are mini cakes. Yet, cupcakes cannot substitute a thick slice of a classic three layer cake.
To get a deeper pumpkin flavor, I cooked the pumpkin puree until it darkened in color and some of the liquid evaporated.
Adding the spices to the cooking puree is an important step. The heat in the pan blooms the spices and produces a more complex flavor profile.
I used cream cheese and sour cream to give the snickerdoodle filling a soft consistency. I needed the filling to stay soft, even after the filling rested in the refrigerator.
Unlike frosting which acts like a glue, cookie dough will do its own thing. Meaning what? When you slice into a cookie dough filled cake, the cookie dough will not stay perfectly between the cake layers. You will get triangles of cake and triangles of cookie dough, no pretty slice of cake.
This cookie dough filling is thinned out to a thick brownie batter like consistency and it the perfect soft, but not gooey, texture.
The frostings are a great combination. That nutty aroma you get from browning butter shows up in this Brown Butter Cinnamon Frosting. This frosting pairs well with the salty-sweet punch from the Salted Caramel Frosting.
The striping design on the cake is ridiculously easy to do but looks super fancy. I’m always a fan of watching cake tutorial video.
Seeing the motions is extremely helpful to replicate the cake decorating designs. Here I used I Am Baker’s video tutorial.
Brown butter, cinnamon, caramel, snickerdoodles, and pumpkin—This Pumpkin Snickerdoodle cake hits all of the fall flavor bases!
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- For the Cinnamon Swirl:
- 2 cups packed light brown sugar
- 5 tablespoons cinnamon
- ¾ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- For the Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Cake:
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon cloves
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon fine salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
- ½ of the Cinnamon Swirl batch, chilled then crumbled
- For the Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough Filling:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 2/3 to ¾ cup full-fat sour cream, room temperature
- ½ batch Cinnamon Swirl batch, softened to room temperature
- For the Brown Butter Cinnamon Frosting:
- 1 cups (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter
- 16 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- ¼ teaspoon fine salt
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- For the Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 1 cup (2 sticks, 8 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup caramel sauce (homemade or prepared)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon fine salt
- 5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- gold, red, yellow, and orange food gel coloring
- Whisk the brown sugar, cinnamon, flour, and salt in a medium bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the melted butter, stir to combine. Divide the batch into two portions. Refrigerate one portion until firm and then crumble up into pieces. Leave the other portion out at room temperature.
- Heat the pumpkin puree in a cast iron skillet over medium heat, about 5 minutes. Add the cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves. Keep cooking until it has darkened in color and has reduced, abut another 4 minutes. Cool completely before using.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 3 8-inch cake pans with baking spray, set aside.
- Shift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars until well combined and fluffy, about 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl down. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and cooled pumpkin puree.
- With the mixer’s speed on low, add the dry ingredients in three batches and the buttermilk in two batches, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Give the batter a final mix by hand.
- Divide the cakes between prepared pans. Sprinkle the cinnamon swirl crumbles over the batter and gently push them partially (not completely) into the batter. Bake for 20 to 28 minutes, rotating halfway. A toothpick inserted should come out mostly clean with a few moist crumbs.
- Immediately invert into a cooling rack.
- Whisk the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter and cream cheese on a medium speed until smooth and lump free. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl down. Add the granulated and brown sugar, beating until combined, about 1 minute.
- With the mixer’s speed on low add half of the dry ingredients and sour cream, beating until the mixture becomes a thick brownie-batter like consistency. If it’s too thick, add a bit more sour cream.
- Gently fold in the Cinnamon Swirl mixture by hand, do not over fold, you want to keep the cinnamon and snickerdoodle distinct. Refrigerate until ready to assemble.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, swirling the pan and stirring with a rubber spatula. Cook until the butter turn a deep golden brown and it develops a butty smell.
- Transfer the brown butter into a heat proof bowl and cover. Chill in the freezer until it solidifies but is still pliable and soft, about 45 minutes. It should have the same texture of a normal room temperature stick of butter.
- Beat the brown butter in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, about 1 minute on a medium speed. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl down. Beat in the cream cheese and vanilla until it is smooth and lump free.
- With the mixer’s speed on low, add the powdered sugar, salt, and cinnamon.
- Raise the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 to 2 minutes.
- Use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment to beat the butter until creamy and pale, about 1 minute. Add the cream cheese, caramel, vanilla, and salt, beating until combined. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl down.
- Raise the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy. With the speed on low, gradually add the powdered sugar. Beat until smooth and lump free. Add the food gel colorings to achieve the desired caramel color shade.
- If the cakes have domes, use a serrated knife to level off the cake layers. Place a dollop of frosting onto a cake board or plate and secure the first cake layer. Use a pastry bag fitted with the Brown Butter Cream Cream Frosting to pipe a moat of frosting around the cake’s perimeter. Spread the Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough into the layer. Secure the second layer and repeat the following steps. Top with the final third layer. Press a thin layer of the Brown Butter Frosting into the cake and chill in the freezer for 20 to 25 minutes.
- Apply another very thin layer and freeze for another 15 minutes.
- Fit two pastry bags with round tips. Fill one bag with the Brown Butter Frosting and the other bag with the Caramel Frosting. Alternate frosting frosting single stripes around sides and top of the cake. Use a bench scrape to smooth, creating even stripes.
- Use a star tip to finish the cake with a border. Garnish with sprinkles.
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