This pumpkin praline cake is a decadent fall treat, with real pumpkin and crunchy praline baked into a moist and dense bundt cake. Each bite is a delightful blend of flavors and textures!

Pumpkin Pecan Bundt Cake

Here’s one of my favorite recipes of the autumn season! This pumpkin pecan cake combines the fall taste of pumpkin with crunchy sweet praline that is baked right into a moist and dense Bundt cake. Every bite is full of delicious pumpkin-spiced cake and crunchy pecan praline. So much pumpkin flavor!

This recipe uses a yellow cake mix as its base, which makes it also a really easy recipe to make because you don’t have to measure or sift the cake mix ingredients. It’s all done for you.

Pumpkin praline cake is delicious just as a plain, unfrosted Bundt cake. We decided to make a simple butter powdered sugar glaze to dress it up a bit and that took this whole cake up another level.

Bundt cakes are a fun vintage recipe that have been around for a long time. What sets a Bundt cake apart from other cakes is its round shape with a hole in the middle AND grooves in the shape.

Because of this pan, a Bundt cake is denser so it can hold its shape and stay moist with the longer baking. Because of the longer baking, a Bundt cake will often have a deeper color on the outside, compared to the inside.

This creates a delicious balance of a sweet crust on the outside and a chewy dense cake on the inside. This recipe adds the extra dimension of a crunchy sweet praline in the middle.

Bundt cakes also keep well, including freezing, so they are handy to keep on hand to serve for dessert or as a snack with coffee or tea.

This cake is a crowd pleaser and when dressed up with the glaze and chopped nuts will have everyone eager to try a piece!

Tip: Use this pumpkin praline cake to make our delicious vintage-style Butterscotch Pudding Trifle!

Ingredients

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Cake Batter

1 box of yellow cake mix
1/2 can of 100% pumpkin puree (15oz can)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
4 large eggs

Praline Mixture

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/3 cup butter (softened)

For the Glaze

2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup milk
Powdered sugar, as needed
Chopped nuts (optional to sprinkle on top)

Helpful Kitchen Tools

Non-stick Cooking spray
Stand Mixer or Electric Mixer
Bundt Cake Pan

Instructions

To Make the Cake:

To Prep: Preheat oven to 350°F and grease the bundt pan (see notes about this in the “prep tips” section).

In a small bowl, mix butter, dark brown sugar, and chopped nuts. Set the pecan mixture aside.
Combine in bowl of stand mixer: cake mix, pumpkin, oil, light brown sugar, water, and spices and beat at medium speed for one minute. You can also use a large bowl with an electric hand mixer.
Add eggs, one at a time and beat after each for one minute.
Pour half the batter into the prepared Bundt pan.
Top with pecan praline mixture.
Scoop the remaining batter on top of the praline mixture.
Bake at 350 for one hour, until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes and remove from pan.

To Make a Glaze:

Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat.
Add milk and powdered sugar, whisking until smooth.
If the glaze is too thick, add more milk. If the glaze is very runny, add more powdered sugar, a little at a time, until you have your desired consistency.
Drizzle or spoon glaze over the cooled cake.

Prep Tips

Prepping the Pan – Do not skip greasing the Bundt pan, even if it is non-stick. That praline mix is sticky! In my first attempt, it stuck too much and I couldn’t get the cake out whole. It was still delicious, so I saved all the cake pieces to use in something else. The second time I used Crisco and flour to grease my pan. That worked better, though a couple of places did stick. The glaze covered those parts up nicely. You can also use a nonstick baking spray designed for greasing cake pans.
Garnish – The original recipe did not call for additional toppings, but we found that adding a glaze and a sprinkle of chopped nuts on top of the cake made it look beautiful and added a nice flavor. This is optional. Alternatively, you could top with your favorite cream cheese frosting, or skip the frosting and serve the cake with a dollop of whipped cream.

More Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Recipes To Try:

Pumpkin Praline Bundt Cake Recipe (Printable Recipe Card)

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