Last Christmas we shared our Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake recipe and knew immediately that we needed a Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake!
Every single Thanksgiving we get gobs of emails begging for dessert ideas that aren’t pie. I can’t wrap my head around not wanting pie at all. Like, at all. It’s the best dessert ever!! But in case you’re in the same place, I really think you’ll go crazy for our Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake Recipe.
It’s a tender, moist pumpkin sheet cake swirled with the most perfect cinnamon roll filling. On top of that, which would honestly be just fine on its own, a rich and creamy vanilla cream cheese frosting or maybe a bit more like a thick glaze.
Dessert That Isn’t Pie for Thanksgiving
Alright you pie haters, this one is for you.
Actually, it’s for all of you, even if you adore pie because this is one of those recipes you’ll want to use time and time again for parties, holidays, and family gatherings.
I absolutely adore recipes that become family favorites. Not just something yummy and good, but something that you get asked time and time again to make for when you have a big party or potluck. The recipe that your kids think of when they reminisce about their childhood. The recipe you become known for and everyone wants the recipe for.
There’s nothing wrong with that, am I right?
Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
Our Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake starts out with our favorite pumpkin sheet cake.
You’re right, we’ve never posted the recipe. I have no idea why other than our heads are literally so full of recipes it’s just plain hard to keep up with everything.
In fact, that’s a question we get asked all the time, “Do you ever feel stressed about trying to think up recipes?”
Heck no! We have so many recipes bursting out of us I’ve started keeping a paper taped to the office wall just to keep me on track with photographing. I write them all down, photograph them and won’t add to the list until the list only has 1-2 recipes left on it. Otherwise I could write down handfuls of ideas every day.
Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Filling
But back to the Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake. This filling isn’t exactly like Cinnabon, but it totally carries that same flavor. We want it to melt into the cake a little creating pockets of cinnamon so we have to make it a little different.
Mix together your brown sugar, cinnamon and butter. Set it aside.
Cooked Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing
I never know if I should call our cooked vanilla cream cheese icing a frosting, icing or glaze. It’s kind of a little of them all. You call it whatever you want.
This is a cooked frosting so start out with a pot and be sure that your cream cheese is softened or even though there will be hot ingredients it will still clump as you make it.
How do You Make a Moist Pumpkin Cake?
There are three ingredients needed to make a moist pumpkin cake.
- Pumpkin Puree – Pumpkin puree gives added moisture to the cake, not just the flavor.
- Sour Cream – Sour cream adds a little more fat that doesn’t evaporate in the baking process like the butter does.
- Oil- We do use butter in the recipe for flavor, but I’ve found that using half butter and half oil leads to a more moist pumpkin cake as again, the butter evaporates out a bit during the cooking process while the oil retains moisture.
How Long Will Pumpkin Cake Last?
Pumpkin cake is good to be left out on the counter for up to 4 days or up to one week in the fridge.
Can You Freeze Pumpkin Cake?
You absolutely can freeze pumpkin cake if you properly store it.
Take the unfrosted pumpkin cake and allow it to cool completely.
Wrap the cake in saran wrap and place in the freezer for up to 1 week.
Allow the cake to sit at room temperature for a couple of hours without the plastic wrap to defrost.
Frost as normal.
Dessert Recipes for the Holidays
It really isn’t that hard to get going on dessert recipes for the holidays, but finding the good ones, the ones you’ll make time and time again can be. Especially with Pinterest and how many ideas are out there you can find yourself with a flop time and time again.
Our Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake is the perfect recipe to gather with those you love and share in memories and fun together. I can’t wait to see all of your pictures of this recipe! Make sure you tag us!
More CAKE RECIPES You Have to Try:
- Apple Cake with Caramel Frosting
- Better Than Anything Cake
- Chocolate Sheet Cake
- Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
- Carrot Cake
- Banana Cake
- Strawberries and Cream Jello Cake
- Banana Pudding Bundt Cake
- Lemon Poppy Seed Cake
- Gingerbread Cake
- Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake
- Lemon Jello Cake
- All our Cake Recipes here!
Looking for another seasonal appropriate dessert, try this Apple Cobbler! Seriously so good!
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Pumpkin Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll Sheet Cake
Description
Ingredients
For the Filling
- 1 1/4 Cup Brown Sugar, loosely packed
- 6 Tablespoons Ground Cinnamon
- 12 Tablespoons Butter, melted
For the Cake
- 2 1/4 Cups Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 3/4 Teaspoon Salt
- 2 1/2 Teaspoons Ground Cinnamon
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Ginger
- 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cloves
- 1 Cup Sugar
- 3/4 Cup Light Brown Sugar
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
- 1/2 Cup Butter, melted
- 4 Large Eggs
- 1 3/4 Cups Canned Pumpkin
- 2 Tablespoons Milk
- 3 Tablespoons Sour Cream
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla
For the Icing
- 4 1/2 Tablespoons Salted Butter
- 3/4 Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream, plus 2 tablespoons
- 1 1/2 Teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- 4 1/2 Teaspoons Corn Syrup
- 4 ounces Cream Cheese
- 2-3 Cup Powdered Sugar, sifted
Instructions
For the Filling
- To make the cinnamon filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl.
- Add the melted butter and mix until combined. Set aside.
For the Cake
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Spray a rimmed 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, blend together granulated sugar and brown sugar until combined.
- Mix in melted butter and oil.
- Blend in eggs one at a time.
- Add in pumpkin, vanilla, milk and sour cream. Blend until combined.
- With mixer set on low speed slowly add in flour mixture and mix until combined.
- Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and fold batter several times with a spatula to ensure it's evenly incorporated as the pumpkin may sit at the bottom.
- Pour batter into prepared baking dish and spread into an even layer.
- Drizzle the cinnamon roll filling in clumps over the batter. Use a toothpick to swirl it all together.
- Bake in preheated oven until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 20 - 25 minutes. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack then frost with vanilla cream cheese icing.
For the Icing
- To make the icing, combine all the icing ingredients except for the powdered sugar and cream cheese in a small sauce pan.
- Heat on low heat until the sugar is melted, then turn heat to medium to bring to a boil.
- Boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally, then remove from heat and immediately pour into a heat-proof glass bowl.
- Using a hand mixer, beat in the cream cheese and the powdered sugar and allow to cool slightly and thicken.
- Pour the icing evenly over the cake.
G Burrows
I have NEVER commented on a recipe before, but This Pumpkin version caught my eye as I was reading the Cinnabon Cinnamon Roll sheet cake recipe as I have a number of pumpkin-lovers in my life. And this is a Winner. I’ve given it 4 stars because the icing never thickened like the photo (My bad) so I “poured” it off the cake as soon as I put it on, leaving it with a light glaze, which actually was perfect (for my crew) as the cake is so flavorful! This recipe will be going into my book & no doubt my delish contribution for parties! I’m not going to wait for the holidays To serve this baby!
Sweet Basil
Thank you so much for taking time to leave a comment! I’m glad the frosting worked out for you. If you want it thicker, just add more powdered sugar next time. Happy pumpkin dessert eating!
Jasmine
Is the butter for the filling and cake salted or unsalted? Thank you!
Sweet Basil
Both unsalted!
Rosalie Ann Holdaway
The receipes all look delicious. Cant wait to try them
Sweet Basil
Enjoy!! Thank you for the support!
Rubixsue
I too do not see all 19 comments. I see some comments but none that give advice or tweaks. I also don’t see how many stars each person left.
Kathy Clinebelle
I would love to read the reviews before I bake this. I learn so much on other sites with the reviews. Is there any way to access them?
Thanks so much.
Sweet Basil
Hi Kathy! All of the comments people have left are actually right below where you left this comment. Scroll down past the post and recipe card and right under the section where you leave a comment is all the previous comments and our responses. Up at the top where you see “15 reviews” is just where people have rated the recipe with the number of stars the recipe has. I hope that make sense!
Deb
We LOVE the non-pumpkin version of this cake!
However, the sheet recipe is way too much cake for just the five of us so we make the 9×13 version of it. Any chance you’ll create 9×13 version of this recipe or explain how to cut it down? I love everything we’ve tried from you!
Sweet Basil
It absolutely can be done in a 9×13 pan. Just half everything and it works perfectly! Or make the full recipe and then freeze half of it for later. It freezes really well! There are instruction for how to freeze it in the post. Enjoy!!
Deb
Thank you!
Sweet Basil
You’re very welcome! 🙂
Linda
This looks so good even without the frosting! Thank you for posting.
Sweet Basil
I think it is soooooo pretty before putting the frosting on! I hope you enjoy it as much as we do!