Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake: two layers of delicious pumpkin cake with a creamy cheesecake center. Frosted with cream cheese frosting! You’ll love this holiday dessert.
If you love our pumpkin bundt cake (with cheesecake swirl), today’s recipe takes that to a new level. Our delicious cheesecake is stuffed between two thick layers of moist pumpkin cake!
Thanksgiving Cake Recipe
Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake Cake is TWO incredible desserts in one.
If you’ve never made cheesecake cake before, prepare to have your mind blown. Decadent, flavorful and full seasonal spices, this Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake makes a delicious addition to any holiday dessert table.
- A homemade cheesecake is sandwiched between layers of pumpkin cake.
- It’s slathered with generous amounts of rich cream cheese frosting.
- Crunchy pecans and a caramel drizzle add the finishing touch!
Love today’s recipe? Try our red velvet cheesecake cake next! Or give our layered pumpkin cheesecake a try next.
Ingredient Notes
- Pure pumpkin puree – We used canned pumpkin in the cake layer. Make sure to use only pure pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie mix in today’s recipe.
- Applesauce – Makes the cake tender and moist without needing to add oil or butter. Use our homemade applesauce for great flavor!
- Spices – A blend of cinnamon, cloves, ginger and nutmeg gives the dessert the perfect cozy fall flavor! You can swap the individual spices for two tablespoons of Pumpkin Pie Spice if you prefer.
- Cream cheese – You will need full-fat cream cheese for both the cheesecake layer and the frosting.
- Sour cream – Blended into the cheesecake filling, it makes the cheesecake smoother and tangier than cream cheese alone.
- Caramel sauce – You can use any bottled caramel ice cream topping for drizzling over the finished cheesecake.
Cheesecake Layer Notes
If you’ve ever made a cheesecake before, you know that cheesecake fillings can be a little temperamental. But you don’t need expert baking skills or a degree in chemistry to make this cheesecake cake!
Follow these tips and methods and you’ll be on your way to creating a perfect cheesecake layer for this pumpkin cake.
- Preheat your roasting pan. Stick the pan in the oven while it preheats. This will help the water bath come to the right temperature more quickly.
- Wrap the springform pan in foil. A layer of foil along the bottom and sides of the pan helps with removing the baked layer.
- Bake the cheesecake in a water bath. Put the springform pan with the cheesecake filling directly into the roasting pan.
- Use boiling water. Pour the boiling water into the preheated roasting pan before baking the cheesecake layer.
- Let the cheesecake rest. After baking, turn off the oven and leave the cheesecake insider for an additional 30 minutes. This reduces the likelihood that the cheesecake will crack.
Once your cheesecake layer is baked and cooled, you’ll transfer it to the refrigerator to chill until you’re ready to assemble the Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake.
If you won’t be be assembling the dessert within 24 hours, freeze the cheesecake layer instead!
How to Assemble
Assemble the layers in this order.
- Pumpkin Cake
- Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Cake
- Cream cheese frosting
Sprinkle chopped, toasted pecans and drizzle caramel syrup on top. Cover and refrigerate the assembled cheesecake cake until dessert time!
Tips and Tricks
- Cheesecake cake is cold and firm when it’s fresh out of the fridge. Let the chilled cake sit for 15 minutes at room temperature before slicing and serving.
- You can make all the layers of this pumpkin cheesecake cake days, or even weeks, ahead of time. Freeze the layers individually wrapped until ready to assemble.
- Don’t forget to spray the inside of your springform pan with baking spray! I also cut out a circle of parchment paper to place at the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking.
- Leftover cake? Not a problem. Freeze slices of cake individually using my guide on how to freeze cake.
Recipe FAQs
After assembly, the pumpkin cheesecake cake should be stored tightly covered in the refrigerator.
Yes, you can freeze the assembled dessert if desired. Freeze before adding the pecan and caramel topping for best results. Frozen cheesecake cake stays good for about 2 months.
Of course! If you need this dessert to be nut free, or just don’t like pecans, feel free to leave them out. Pumpkin cheesecake cake tastes delicious with or without the toppings!
Because rapid temperature changes lead to cracked cheesecakes! By letting the cheesecake and oven cool down at the same time, the temperature change is gradual.
The bad news is there’s no way to fix cracked cheesecake. The much better news is that no one will see the crack. You’re going to hide it underneath a layer of pumpkin cake anyway!
Since cracking doesn’t affect the great taste of the cheesecake you can assemble and serve this pumpkin dessert worry free!
More Cheesecake Cakes
Like my Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake recipe? You may also enjoy some of my other cheesecake cakes!
- Salted Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake Cake is another perfect option during cooler fall weather.
- During the holidays, I love Eggnog Cheesecake Cake and Chocolate Peppermint Cheesecake Cake.
- I have even turned breakfast into dessert with Cinnamon Roll Cheesecake Cake!
- Lemon Cheesecake cake features two layers of moist lemon cake, creamy cheesecake, and buttercream frosting bursting with citrus flavor!
More Cake Recipes:
- Chocolate Pound Cake
- Pumpkin Magic Cake
- Chocolate Eclair Cake
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars
- Perfect Chocolate cake
- Chocolate Sheet Cake
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Pumpkin Cheesecake Cake Recipe
Ingredients
FOR THE PUMPKIN CAKE LAYERS:
- 1 can pure pumpkin puree 15 ounce
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup light brown sugar packed
- ¾ cup applesauce
- 4 large eggs
- 2 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
FOR THE CHEESECAKE LAYER:
- 2 packages cream cheese, softened 8 ounce each
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- pinch of salt
- 2 large eggs
- ⅓ cup sour cream
- ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
FOR THE FROSTING:
- ½ cup butter softened
- 8 ounce cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 cups powdered sugar
- 3 Tablespoons heavy cream
- 3 Tablespoons pecans (or walnuts) chopped
- 1 Tablespoon caramel sauce
Instructions
FOR THE CHEESECAKE LAYER:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a large roasting pan on the lower 2/3 of the oven, preheat the pan too!
- Prepare springform pan by wrapping bottom of pan (outside) with double layer of foil. Spray pan with nonstick baking spray and line bottom (inside) with a circle of parchment paper.
- Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water to use later.
- Beat cream cheese with granulated sugar for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add in salt and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, heavy cream and vanilla.
- Pour into prepared 9inch springform pan. Place pan in center of preheated roasting pan in the oven. Pour boiling water slowly into the roasting pan, until there is about an inch of water coming up the sides of the springform pan.
- Bake cheesecake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheesecake sit in oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely on counter.
- When cooled, transfer entire springform pan into the freezer for several hours or overnight. I put it in the freezer for about 2 hours. **If using within 24 hours, feel free to just refrigerate cheesecake!
FOR THE CAKE LAYERS:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9inch round cake pans by spraying generously with baking spray. Line bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Beat pumpkin, sugars, applesauce and eggs until fully blended. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and seasonings. Pour batter into prepared pans.
- Bake cakes for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Flip onto wire rack and cool completely. When cooled, wrap each layer in saran wrap and freeze for two hours, or overnight. **If using within 24 hours, just wrap cake in saran wrap and keep on counter.
FOR THE FROSTING:
- Beat butter and cream cheese for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla, powdered sugar and heavy cream.
- To assemble cake, lay one layer of pumpkin cake on cake plate. Top with cheesecake and second layer of pumpkin cake. Frost sides and top with a thin layer of frosting to apply a crumb coat. Refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour. Remove from refrigerator and frost remaining cake, decorating using a tip if desired. Sprinkle pecans on top of cake and drizzle with caramel sauce. I keep the cake covered in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Remove and allow to sit about 15 minutes before slicing. ENJOY!
Just made this today, this cake is a keeper! My husband took his first bite and said whoa! I wanted to lick my plate but figured I shouldn’t do that in front of my mother-in-law. Will definitely make again and again….
Loved this, and so did everyone else! Thanks.
So glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the feedback!!!!
Aimee – I made this again today and I was going to freeze it for Christmas. The pumpkin cake was raw in the middle even though I baked it longer than I did the first time I made it. I noticed that my baking powder was past the “best if used by” date, so I bought new powder and used it today. This is the only thing that I did different. Any ideas? I always remove my baked goods at the shorter side of the recommended baking time with success, but this time I went beyond the recommended time and it was still not done.
Seeing that you made it before with no issues, I can only guess that maybe you made a mistake on the ingredients? I’ve made it twice now too with no problems! I’m not sure why it wouldn’t cook properly. What size round baking pans are you using? Are they 8inch or 9inch? Even one inch makes a difference in adding/subtracting baking time!!!
This would be one of my favorites too!! I need to check my cupboard for pumpkin.
I made this cake twice last week for my families Thanksgivings, there were loved so much by everyone. My family has also renamed the cake Princess Cake because the finished product is something a princess would eat. Thanks for sharing your recipe!
So happy to hear you love this cake as much as I do!!! Thanks for sharing your sweet comment 🙂
Cake turned out beautifully.. Everyone loved it!!
Thanks for the recipe, it’s a keeper!!!
Cranky here. This is not the initial recipe. The one I linked to off of pinterest had a box cake base.
this is what I get for linkng to your page instead of printing the recipe.
Marianne,
I’m not quite sure what you mean. My recipe is exactly the same as I originally posted. Maybe you saw a different recipe with a boxed cake mix for this?
Aimee
My best friend made me this cake as a surprise birthday cake. It’s the most delicious cake I have ever tasted!! Thank you so much for posting this amazing recipe!
Happy Birthday! So glad you enjoyed it (AND YOU didn’t have to make it)!
Is it necessary to freeze the cake overnight? Could I just put it in the fridge? We will be eating dessert around 3:30 or so. I guess I am not understanding what the point is of freezing the layers.
Thanks
I freeze the layers so I don’t have to make it all in one day. You can totally just stick it in the fridge! ENJOY!!!
Making this cake now, cheesecake done, cake in the oven. Gonna have a hard time waiting until Thanksgiving to try! 🙂
Delicious!
Oh my gosh!! This is so incredible! Might just have to make this for my FriendsGiving party!
What a wonderful recipe. I cant wait to try it. As for your decorating skills, you have no reason to be shy about them, your cake looked absolutely beautiful. Keep up the good work.
This looks delicious! I featured them with other pumpkin recipes at: http://projectqueen.org/delicious-pumpkin-desserts
I’m so happy you linked to this because I missed it somehow. It looks amazing! I’m not a cake decorator either and so I kind of hate to post cakes but yours looks pretty well decorated to me. 🙂
Amazing job! Looks delicious!
Hi,
I’m an Aussie and really want to try this but we don’t have canned pumpkin, would it work if I boiled up some pumpkin and mashed it? thewoods59@hotmail.com
I made your cake today and it was wonderful. Thanks so much for posting this. 🙂
oh. my. goodness! This sounds SOOO good! I cannot wait to try this! You should totally enter this into Craftbaby’s Fall Food Challenge! 🙂 http://www.craftbaby.com/contests/30/Fall%20Food
Oh My GOODNESS!! Wow – what an unbelievable cake!! I might just have to do this for Thanksgiving dessert!
i’m a little confused on how to foil the springform pan…does the foil go on the outside bottom of the pan or the inside of the bottom of the pan and the cooking spray and parchment paper go on top of that? i’ve read the instructions and can’t seem to figure it out…
Sorry, I just fixed it. The foil goes on the outside bottom of the pan and the parchment paper goes on the inside of the pan. Spray the whole inside with baking spray! ENJOY!
i finally figured out that the foil went on the outside to prevent the water from getting in =) thank you!