Slow Cooker Sticky Caramel Pumpkin Cake (2024)

Pumpkin Cake is a crock-pot dessert recipe that came to me later in life but when it showed up, it did so in a big way. This pumpkin cake recipe was our first recipe to go viral, within our first year of starting Platter Talk back in 2013.

Featured in Country Living, Better Homes and Garden, House Beautiful, MSN Food, and in various other high-profile media outlets, it is one of our most popular cake recipes. Best of all, you can make this easy pumpkin cake recipe in just two hours at home.

About this

Halloween is still a few weeks away, but suddenly, gourds and pumpkins are popping up all over the place.

Speaking of pumpkins, one of them ended up in the most unexpected places the other day – in my slow cooker. When it came out, it looked like this:

Growing up on a big Mennonite family farm, I always had a special relationship with pumpkins. And cakes.

In fact, homemade cakes are my favorite recipes to make. I’m talking about such yummy desserts as Chocolate Cake made with Whiskey and Coffee, Traditional Swedish Almond Cake, and Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake.

They’re all so delicious! We even came across a Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake, which uses a carrot cake box mix. It is an incredibly delicious fall dessert!

Each year I would plant a row or two in my mom’s huge garden, and as I grew older, I would try to grow the biggest pumpkins possible.

I tried milk-feeding them as I read about in the Little House on the Prairie books, using fresh milk and cream from our cows via a bowl and a candle wick spliced into the pumpkin vines.

It wasn’t until the fall season when I first left for college that some of my pumpkins had tipped the scale at over 40 pounds!

As fate would have it, I was over 100 miles away and wasn’t even able to bask in the glory of my pumpkin pride.

And then, 35 years later, this pumpkin cake recipe showed up.

It was given to my recipe pimp and beautiful friend, Amy, who picked it up in the grocery store check-out isle.

I made this easy pumpkin dump cake for my new food and recipe blog, and all of a sudden, Platter Talk became real.

And so did this incredibly simple crock-pot dessert.

Ingredients

• Packed pumpkin
• Flour
• Sugar
• Butter
• Eggs
• Baking Powder
• Baking Soda
• Pumpkin Spice
• Salt
• Caramel Sauce (optional topping)

Recipe highlights

• This pumpkin dessert recipe is inexpensive or downright cheap at less than $10 for the whole thing.
• Make this crock-pot dessert in just two hours.
• You don’t need to be a baker to make this pumpkin dump cake, anyone can put it together!
• Most importantly, the taste of this pumpkin cake recipe is nothing short of a miracle, IMHO.

In conclusion, this pumpkin cake recipe pretty much has it all.

It’s affordable, it’s extremely easy to prepare, and it is scary delicious.

This is the perfect crock-pot dessert recipe to make for guests or family for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or any holiday.

Speaking of holiday treats, if you haven’t tried our homemade chocolate peanut butter truffles yet, you must make this no-bake treat now!

If you were like me and thought that crock pots were just for making dinner and meals for the family while you are spending your entire day doing something else, I say, “Think again.”

Speaking of the different ways to make a cake, check out this incredible air fryer cake! If you’re a fan of easy air fryer recipes, you’re going to love this one!

Oven Method

If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can make this slow cooker cake in an oven. Here is how to do that:

• Bake at 350° F.
• The type of pan you have will determine how long to bake.
• A loaf pan will require 45 minutes, a sheet cake or double layer cake will take about 30 minutes.
• It is recommended that you not use a glass baking pan for this cake as metal and ceramic pans seem to help keep the batter from falling.

To avoid using processed (granulated white sugar), you can use 1/3 cup of maple syrup and 1/3 cup of honey.

If you don’t want to use butter, readers have used 2/3 cup of sunflower oil with great success.

Finally, some people have added a little extra pumpkin spice to the batter and a cap-full of vanilla.

Try this recipe and let us know how you make it!

More of our Favorite Dessert Recipes:

• RumChata Cupcakes
• Baked Pumpkin Donuts
• Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts
• Soft Pumpkin Cookies
• Forgotten Cookies
• Danish Kringle Recipe

Some of our Most Popular Holiday Recipes

• Giblet Gravy
• How to Roast Prime Rib
• Southern Cornbread Dressing
• Open-Face Apple Pie
• Cherry Christmas Cookies
• 101 Best Christmas Cookie for 2021

If you love caramel, you have to have a taste of our homemade caramel popcorn. One handful is all it takes to get you hooked!

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Updated from the original post of September 19, 2014