Looking for an easy fall dessert that’s completely dairy-free? You’ve found it. This dairy-free pumpkin cake comes together in minutes, and delivers warm autumn flavors with the perfect moist and tender crumb. It’s unpretentious yet impressive, and can be made as a sheet cake, round or square cakes, or cupcakes.
Why You’ll Love this Dairy-Free Pumpkin Cake
- Perfect Texture: Each slice is wonderfully moist and tender.
- Simple to Make: Just mix and bake – even kids can learn to make it!
- Basic Ingredients: This recipe uses everyday ingredients, most of which are already in your pantry.
- Rich Pumpkin Spice Flavor: This cake has a relatively high ratio of pumpkin and warm fall spices.
- Versatile: It works great as a sheet cake, square cake, or cupcakes. I’ve included pan options after the recipe.
Why Oil is Better than Butter in Pumpkin Cake
There’s no need to fuss with butter alternatives in a dairy-free pumpkin cake. Oil actually produces better results than butter in certain types of cakes, like this one. Here’s why:
- Less Water = Moister Results: Oil is 100% fat, whereas butter is about 80 to 85% fat, 15 to 20% water and milk solids. When a cake bakes, the water in the butter evaporates, which can lead to a drier final product. Since oil is pure fat, it is better at retaining moisture.
- Limits Gluten for Tender Crumb: Fats help to create a tender texture by coating flour proteins and inhibiting gluten development when mixing. Less gluten results in a softer, more delicate crumb. Because oil is a liquid that is pure fat, it can coat the flour particles more thoroughly and effectively than solid butter.
- Pure Liquid for Better Mouthfeel: Oil is liquid at room temperature, while butter is solid. This fundamental difference means a cake made with oil will have a softer bite even after it has cooled or been refrigerated. Butter-based cakes, on the other hand, can become firm and dense when chilled.
- Longer Shelf Life: The water in butter can cause cake to go stale more quickly than one made with oil.
- Doesn’t Mask Flavors: Butter can add to flavors, but can sometimes cover them up. Oil has a simple, neutral flavor that lets the taste of pumpkin and spice fully come through.
Best Oil for this Recipe: Any neutral-tasting oil will work great. Oils like extra-light olive oil (no extra virgin), grapeseed oil, canola oil, etc. That said, olive oil or avocado oil will also taste fine in this cake. Melted coconut oil will work, but like butter, it will cause a more firm, dense bite if the cake is chilled.
More Ingredient Options
- Pumpkin: You can use fresh cooked pumpkin puree, if preferred. Use about 1 7/8 cup fresh pumpkin, or a scant 2 cups. Fresh pumpkin contains more water, so you might need to cook the cake a little longer. You can also substitute butternut squash puree for a similar, but slightly different cake.
- Sugar: If you want a deeper flavor, you can use 1 cup sugar and 2/3 cup brown sugar. The cake will be a little more moist.
- Spices: If you keep pumpkin spice on hand, go ahead and use 2 1/2 teaspoons (or a full 1 tablespoon for extra spicy) pumpkin pie spice in place of the spices.
Special Diet Notes: Dairy-Free Pumpkin Cake
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, nut-free, peanut-free, optionally soy-free, and vegetarian.
Gluten-Free Option: This dairy-free pumpkin cake does work well with gluten-free flour, thanks to the eggs. You can substitute your favorite gluten-free all-purpose flour blend, like King Arthur Measure for Measure, for the all-purpose flour. Make sure it is a blend made for baking and not a single flour nor a grain-free flour (do not use coconut flour or almond flour!).
Dairy-Free Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat your oven to 350°F.
- Grease and flour one glass 9x13-inch baking dish.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg or allspice, ginger, and cloves.
- In a mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin, sugar, oil, and eggs.
- Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, and mix to combine.
- Spread the batter into your prepared pan.
- Bake the cake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool completely before frosting.
Nutrition
Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Other Pan Options
You can bake this dairy-free pumpkin cake recipe in other pan sizes. All of these options can still be baked at 350ºF.
- 2 (9-inch) Round Pans – 30 to 35 minutes
- 2 (8-inch) Square Pans – 30 to 35 minutes
- 1 (10-inch) Bundt Pan – 50 to 60 minutes
- 1 (10 x 15-inch) Jelly Roll Pan – 25 to 30 minutes
- 24 Cupcakes (fill 2/3 full) – 20 to 23 minutes
Half Batch: If you want to bake in just one square or round pan, halve all of the ingredients in this recipe. Half of the sugar would be 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup and half of the pumpkin puree would be 1 scant cup.
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