Pumpkin carving is cool… but have you ever baked a cake inside one? Level it up with my fun trick to bake a pumpkin cake inside a pumpkin!
Forget just scooping seeds and carving faces, this little trick might just win the crown for my favorite pumpkin recipe.
And here’s the baking trick: as the cake bakes, the pumpkin itself softens into this sweet, edible shell.
So every slice (or every spoonful) is a combination of tender pumpkin and moist pumpkin cake. You’ll want to dig straight in.
Pumpkin Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- Pumpkins we used two around 5″ wide and one about 7″
- 1 Box Spiced pumpkin cake mix
- 1 Can Pumpkin
- – Skewer
Instructions
- Give your pumpkins a good scrub with a veggie brush. Slice off the tops wide enough so you can scoop out the insides. (Save those seeds—hello, roasted snack time!)
- Wrap each pumpkin in foil, leaving the top open.
- Mix the cake box dry mixture with 1 full jar pumpkin. Pour it into the hollowed pumpkins, stopping a couple inches from the top so your cake doesn’t overflow.
- Pour the mixture into the hollowed pumpkins, stopping a couple of inches from the top so your cake doesn’t overflow.
- Set pumpkins on a baking sheet and pop them into a 350°F oven. Bake times will vary depending on pumpkin size: about 70 minutes for the 5″ pumpkins and closer to 1 hour 50 minutes for the big guy. Start testing around an hour in with a skewer inserted deep but not poked through the skin.
How to Bake a Cake Inside a Pumpkin
Once the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool completely. The pumpkin skin gets soft and delicate.
Then slice them open… or grab a spoon and eat it straight from the pumpkin bowl.
I think they look so fun and festive sliced up with the pumpkin rind on the sides.
Happy fall baking & if you’re in the party mood, try this pumpkin jello shot recipe.
Photography by Athena Plichta.