Easy Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Moist and jam packed with fall spices! Next time try this easy 3 ingredient pumpkin cake!
Jump to:
- ❤️ Why you'll love it
- 🧾 Ingredients
- 🔪 Instructions
- 🥄 Equipment
- 🥫 Storage
- 💭 Tips
- 🥣 How to Make a Homemade Spice Cake Mix
- 👩🍳 FAQs
- 📚 Related recipes
- 📞 The last word
- 📖 Recipe
- 💬 Comments
❤️ Why you'll love it
- Rich and creamy cream cheese frosting
- SO much better than a box mix
- Two layers of decadent spicy fall flavor
Old fashioned spice cake has a decadently rich cream cheese frosting and is full of warm fall flavors like cinnamon and cloves.
Each bite melts in your mouth - it's so moist and delicious that no one can resist it!
Although this is a layer cake you can easily make as a single layer in a 13x9-inch pan.
This is one of my favorite cakes to pop into the oven when those first cool fall breezes hit - it's the perfect cake to welcome fall.
Of course in Texas THAT can be sometime in November so I have to fudge a little and use the cool breezes flowing from the air conditioning system for inspiration.
🧾 Ingredients
🔪 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.
Spice Cake
- Mix your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
- Cream the butter and sugars then at the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Add the dry ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
- The fill 2 pans and bake as directed in the recipe card below.
Best Cream Cheese Frosting
What's the best frosting for spice cake? Tangy cream cheese frosting of course!!!
- Cream the room temperature butter and sugar together.
- Add the vanilla extract and whip until fluffy.
- Add the powdered sugar a little at a time.
- Use to fill and frost the cooled cake.
Smoked Pecans (Optional)
- Heat the bacon grease and sesame oil in a heavy skillet until very hot.
- Add the chopped pecans and saute for a minute or two, watching carefully. Keep them moving around with your spatula!
- Add the salt and toast for another minute stirring constantly.
- Remove from pan. Drain on paper towels and cool completely before adding to cake.
🥄 Equipment
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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.
- electric mixer with a paddle attachment
- heavy skillet
- rubber spatula
- large mixing bowl
- medium bowl
- 8-inch round cake pans with high sides (3-inch)
- cake strips will help keep your cakes from doming up in the middle.
- wire rack
🥫 Storage
Store unfrosted cake layers wrapped tightly in plastic wrap at room temperature for a day or two - or freeze for up to three months.
Once frosted you can store the cake in a cake dome or in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.
You can also freeze this cake in an airtight container for up to three months. I like to put parchment paper between slices so I can easily remove exactly what I need.
I don't recommend refrigerating the cake - it tends to dry it out.
💭 Tips
Expert Tip: Spice cakes tend to be better on the second day. Standing overnight gives the spices a chance to really come to life and blend so if you can make this cake a day ahead of time please do!
- Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature
- This cake will likely have a rounded top - especially if you don't use the cake strips. Just carefully slice off the top to make it even.
- Don't over mix or the cake will be tough.
- This cake freezes well frosted or unfrosted.
- I baked these in 8-inch cake pans with 3 inch sides. You may need to use 9-inch cake pans if you have shorter sides.
- You can make one layer by using a 13x9-inch pan. Fill it ¾ of the way up and if there is leftover batter use it for cupcakes.
🥣 How to Make a Homemade Spice Cake Mix
Here's another thing. You DO know that you can create your own cake mixes right?
I mean if you need that time saving factor (raises hand...) you can mix the dry ingredients for this cake and keep them in a tightly covered mason jar in your pantry for a couple of months.
Be sure to use cake flour and not all-purpose flour.
Some rainy weekend afternoon just call the kids in and make a bunch of cake mixes!
You can use dry milk if you like to make it where you only need to add water but I prefer just to leave the dry milk out and use real milk.
When you are ready to bake just cream the butter and eggs, add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and vanilla (or other flavoring) and ...Voila!
👩🍳 FAQs
What is spice cake made of?
Spice cakes are usually flavored some combination of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice, and ginger. Sometimes cardamom is added as well.
What can I substitute for the buttermilk in this cake recipe?
For each cup of buttermilk called for in the recipe you can use 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice plus enough whole milk to equal one cup. Stir gently and let stand for 5 minutes.
You can also substitute plain yogurt in an equal amount.
How can I make brown sugar if I don't have any?
You actually can make your own brown sugar if you're out. Just add 3 tablespoons of unsulfured molasses to a cup of sugar and stir well. Let it sit for 5 minutes or so and stir again before using.
What is allspice?
Allspice is made from dried berries of a particular plant. The flavor is similar to a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and black pepper all mixed up.
Apparently my relatives liked cake because besides Grandma's spice cake recipe I have more than enough others to make a different cake every day of the year for a very long time.
- Banana Cake with Gooey Walnut Filling is pure comfort food, straight from grandma's kitchen — that is if you had a grandma that baked. Tender layers of banana cake are filled with a walnut filling (similar to pecan pie), and frosting with a tangy-sweet whipped cream cheese frosting that's so light it's like biting into a cloud.
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📞 The last word
Spice cake with cream cheese frosting.
Yum.
You know, there are fabulous spice cake recipes out there and terrible ones.
Spice cake is admittedly not my favorite...it makes me think of the school lunch cafeteria in Jr. High school. Squares of stale boxed mix spice cake, with a decidedly artificial flavor and too sweet frosting....ick.
This moist spice cake recipe is not that. It's nowhere near that!
It is to a boxed mix what Pavarotti is to singing in the shower.
This spice cake recipe is a sweet, tender cake packed with warm fall flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves then swathed in a whip of simple cream cheese frosting that's tangy, rich, and sensuously creamy.
Sumptuous, smoky pecans add a salty contrast and crunch.
One bite and you'll know why this spice cake recipe is a favorite - it's simply the best.
📖 Recipe
Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
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Moist and delicious! Homemade spice cake with a rich cream cheese frosting is full of cozy fall flavor! Two layers of goodness make this everyone's favorite recipe. Smoky-salty pecan topping is completely optional but adds a nice contrast to the sweet richness of the cake.
Servings: 12 servings
Calories: 503
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- 2 ½ cups sifted cake flour
- 11/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground chipotle pepper, or cayenne (optional)
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar, you may need up to 4
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Smoked Pecans
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1 tablespoon smoked sesame oil
- 1 tablespoon bacon fat
- Coarse Sea salt
-
Preheat the oven to 350F.
-
In a large bowl whisk the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, and chipotle or cayenne.
-
With the mixer on high and fitted with the whip attachment cream butter.
-
Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar and whip until light and creamy.
-
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each.
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Beat in the vanilla.
-
Whip on high speed until light and fluffy, 3 minutes or so.
-
Scrape sides with the rubber spatula a few times during beating.
-
While mixing on lowest speed, add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture alternately with the buttermilk mixture.
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Pour batter evenly into two greased and floured 8-inch cake pans.
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Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or until a wooden pick comes out clean.
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Let cool in pans for 10 minutes.
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Turn out on wire racks to finish cooling.
Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
-
Beat the cream cheese and butter together.
-
Add the vanilla extract.
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Whip until light and fluffy.
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Add the confectioners' (powdered sugar) sugar slowly until you reach the consistency that you like.
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Whip until very fluffy.
-
Add cream as needed for consistency.
Smoked Pecans
-
Saute the pecans over medium high heat in the combined oil and fat until toasted but not scorched. Keep them moving with your spatula. This will take just a couple of minutes.
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Sprinkle with about ½ to 1 teaspoon of sea salt.
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Saute another minute or so to bind the salt to the pecans
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Let cool before sprinkling on the cake.
Assembly
-
Place one cooled cake layer on the cake plate.
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Cover with a thick layer of frosting.
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Top with the second layer and cover the top and sides with the remaining frosting.
-
Sprinkle the pecans on top if desired.
Expert Tip: Spice cakes tend to be better on the second day. Standing overnight gives the spices a chance to really come to life and blend so if you can make this cake a day ahead of time please do!
- Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature
- This cake will likely have a rounded top - especially if you don't use the cake strips. Just carefully slice off the top to make it even.
- Don't over mix or the cake will be tough.
- This cake freezes well frosted or unfrosted.
- I baked these in 8-inch cake pans with 3 inch sides. You may need to use 9-inch cake pans if you have shorter sides.
- You can make one layer by using a 13x9-inch pan. Fill it ¾ of the way up and if there is leftover batter use it for cupcakes.
Calories: 503 kcal | Carbohydrates: 49 g | Protein: 6 g | Fat: 33 g | Saturated Fat: 16 g | Cholesterol: 68 mg | Sodium: 380 mg | Potassium: 315 mg | Fiber: 2 g | Sugar: 27 g | Vitamin A: 799 IU | Vitamin C: 1 mg | Calcium: 144 mg | Iron: 1 mg
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First published December 21, 2010. Last updated September 3, 2021 for readability, updated images, and better format.
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