Gluten Free Pumpkin Birthday Cake

Let’s bring back wholesome homemade birthday cakes and ditch the ultra-processed fake ones from the grocery store :)

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve definitely bought many store bought cakes for my children’s birthday parties but nothing quite tastes the same as homemade cake, where you know exactly the ingredients you put it in.

I finally found a simple delicious wholesome real food goodness birthday cake and it’s so simple even a child can make it! My daughter has been making this Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake with homemade cream cheese frosting for us quite regularly around here and everyone loves it.

It makes a great after dinner treat, a wonderful moist birthday cake and would also make a great smash cake for a first birthday celebration!

This Pumpkin Cake is made with gluten free flour, real butter, eggs and uses a whole can of organic pumpkin.   It's flavorful, delicious and moist and the pumpkin flavor is not overpowering at all.  It can be made with or without the cream cheese frosting but the frosting definitely gives it that wow factor.  

My kids are used to eating gluten free and real whole food recipes for desserts but I was a little worried maybe the other kids at my son's birthday party wouldn't like the cake if they were selective eaters, but to my surprise everyone finished it and we got lots of compliments and many people wanted to learn the recipe.  

If we’re just making it for an after dinner treat, we just make one layer but if we’re using it to make a birthday cake we’ll make 2-4 cakes and layer them on top of eachother.

If you wanted to use it for a smashcake for a first birthday, you can just use the recipe and bake it in a muffin tin and stack the muffins on top of eachother before frosting it.

It’s a very versatile cake and also hardy so its very hard to mess it up!

Here's how to make it.

Dry Ingredients:

• -1 cup gluten free all purpose flour

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1/2 cup coconut sugar

• 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp baking soda

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 can organic pumpkin puree

• 2 large eggs

• 2 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil

Directions:

1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees and oil the bottom of a 9x2 inch round cake pan with a little bit of olive oil or coconut oil.  Add the wet ingredients to the bowl first, blend all the ingredients together well.  You can hand mix it with a whisk or you can mix it in an electric mixer, whichever is easier for you.

2. Once the batter is ready, pour it into your pre-oiled baking pan and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.  Depending on the heat of your oven, you can test the cake to see when it is ready with a toothpick. 

3. This recipe layers well for birthday cakes too as you can see from the picture here.  We baked 4 cakes and stacked them on top of each other and then frosted them with cream cheese frosting.

Easy Cream Cheese Frosting:

• 1 8 oz package of cream cheese

• 1/2 stick of room temperature butter

• 1 + 1/2 -2 cups powdered sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Whip all the ingredients together in an electric mixer until it whips into frosting (about 5-7 minutes).