Pumpkin Toffee Crunch Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Buttercream

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cinnamon cream cheese buttercream, pumpkin toffee cake

Prep Time: 20

Cook Time: 45

Total Time: 1 5

Servings: servings (approx.)

Calories: 745kcal

Author: Kara @I Scream for Buttercream

This pumpkin toffee crunch cake is like a mouth full of fall. Not only is this cake super moist with tons of pumpkin flavor, but it's got bits of crunchy, buttery toffee throughout it, then it's covered in a delicious cinnamon cream cheese buttercream.

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US Customary - Metric

Ingredients

For the cake:

2 ¾ cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, you can substitute with: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon,½ teaspoon ground ginger, ¼ teaspoon cloves and ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg.)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
⅔ cup regular sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup oil (vegetable or canola oil)
1 15 oz can solid pack pumpkin
2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract)
1 cup chopped toffee bits (I used Heath Bits O' Brickle)

For the buttercream:

1 ½ cups unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese (room temperature)
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or extract)
7 cups confectioners sugar
½ tablespoon milk or cream (can use more if needed to reach the correct consistency)
1 cup chopped toffee bits for sprinkling (just use the rest that's leftover in the bag.)

Instructions

For the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Grease and flour two, 8 inch round pans.
Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a large bowl. Whisk well and set aside.
In another bowl, mix together the brown sugar, regular sugar, eggs, oil, pumpkin and vanilla extract. Whisk well.
Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and mix on medium until combined. An electric mixer can be used or a wooden spoon to mix the batter. Only mix until all the ingredients are well incorporated. Don't over-mix the cake batter or the cake will turn out dense.
Stir in the chopped toffee bits.
Spread the batter into the pans.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 min
Cool cake layers in their pans, on a cooling rack, for about 15 minutes. Then turn out of the pans and directly onto the racks and cool completely before adding buttercream.

For the buttercream:

In a bowl, add the butter and mix well with an electric mixer.
Add the cream cheese and mix well on medium.
Add in the salt, cinnamon, vanilla and three cups of confectioners sugar. Mix on medium.
Add in the last four cups of confectioners sugar and a ½ tablespoon of milk and mix well on medium.
Check the consistency. If it's too thick, add in another ½ tablespoon of cream or milk and mix well.

Putting the cake together:

Add a cake layer to your cake board or cake plate.
Cover that layer with buttercream.
Sprinkle toffee bits over the buttercream.
Set the next layer of cake over the previous layer and cover the entire cake with the buttercream.
Sprinkle the top with any remaining toffee bits.

Notes

Keep this cake chilled, since it's covered with cream cheese buttercream. You can set it out about 15-20 minutes prior to serving so that it will soften a bit.

Nutritional values are an estimate.

Make sure to check out the TIPS & FAQs for this recipe in the blog post, which may answer questions you may have.

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Nutrition