Slow Cooker Sticky Caramel Pumpkin Cake

4.72 from 77 votes

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Pumpkin Cake is a crock-pot dessert recipe that came to me later in life but when it showed up, it did so in a big way. This pumpkin cake recipe was our first recipe to go viral, within our first year of starting Platter Talk back in 2013.

Featured in Country Living, Better Homes and Garden, House Beautiful, MSN Food, and in various other high-profile media outlets, it is one of our most popular cake recipes. Best of all, you can make this easy pumpkin cake recipe in just two hours at home.

A pice of cake with caramel
This easy homemade cake is one of our many easy pumpkin recipes!
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About this

Halloween is still a few weeks away, but suddenly, gourds and pumpkins are popping up all over the place.

Speaking of pumpkins, one of them ended up in the most unexpected places the other day – in my slow cooker. When it came out, it looked like this:

A pumpkin cake with a jar of caramel sauce.

Growing up on a big Mennonite family farm, I always had a special relationship with pumpkins. And cakes.

In fact, homemade cakes are my favorite recipes to make. I’m talking about such yummy desserts as Chocolate Cake made with Whiskey and Coffee, Traditional Swedish Almond Cake, and Upside-Down Rhubarb Cake.

They’re all so delicious! We even came across a Pumpkin Pie Dump Cake, which uses a carrot cake box mix. It is an incredibly delicious fall dessert!

Each year I would plant a row or two in my mom’s huge garden, and as I grew older, I would try to grow the biggest pumpkins possible.

I tried milk-feeding them as I read about in the Little House on the Prairie books, using fresh milk and cream from our cows via a bowl and a candle wick spliced into the pumpkin vines.

It wasn’t until the fall season when I first left for college that some of my pumpkins had tipped the scale at over 40 pounds!

As fate would have it, I was over 100 miles away and wasn’t even able to bask in the glory of my pumpkin pride.

Slice of pumpkin cake with careamel sauce topping.

And then, 35 years later, this pumpkin cake recipe showed up.

It was given to my recipe pimp and beautiful friend, Amy, who picked it up in the grocery store check-out isle.

I made this easy pumpkin dump cake for my new food and recipe blog, and all of a sudden, Platter Talk became real.

And so did this incredibly simple crock-pot dessert.

Slice of pumpkin cake with caramel sauce and a glass of milk.

Ingredients

Ingredients to make pumpkin cake as a crockpot dessert.
  • Packed pumpkin
  • Flour
  • Sugar
  • Butter
  • Eggs
  • Baking Powder
  • Baking Soda
  • Pumpkin Spice
  • Salt
  • Caramel Sauce (optional topping)
Pumpkin cake topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce

Recipe highlights

  • This pumpkin dessert recipe is inexpensive or downright cheap at less than $10 for the whole thing.
  • Make this crock-pot dessert in just two hours.
  • You don’t need to be a baker to make this pumpkin dump cake, anyone can put it together!
  • Most importantly, the taste of this pumpkin cake recipe is nothing short of a miracle, IMHO.
Serving of crockpot cake with caramel.

In conclusion, this pumpkin cake recipe pretty much has it all.

It’s affordable, it’s extremely easy to prepare, and it is scary delicious.

This is the perfect crock-pot dessert recipe to make for guests or family for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or any holiday.

Speaking of holiday treats, if you haven’t tried our homemade chocolate peanut butter truffles yet, you must make this no-bake treat now!

If you were like me and thought that crock pots were just for making dinner and meals for the family while you are spending your entire day doing something else, I say, “Think again.”

Speaking of the different ways to make a cake, check out this incredible air fryer cake! If you’re a fan of easy air fryer recipes, you’re going to love this one!

Wedge of slow cooker pumpkin cake dessert with caramels sauce oozing off it.

Oven Method

If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can make this slow cooker cake in an oven. Here is how to do that:

  • Bake at 350° F.
  • The type of pan you have will determine how long to bake.
  • A loaf pan will require 45 minutes, a sheet cake or double layer cake will take about 30 minutes.
  • It is recommended that you not use a glass baking pan for this cake as metal and ceramic pans seem to help keep the batter from falling.

To avoid using processed (granulated white sugar), you can use 1/3 cup of maple syrup and 1/3 cup of honey.

If you don’t want to use butter, readers have used 2/3 cup of sunflower oil with great success.

Finally, some people have added a little extra pumpkin spice to the batter and a cap-full of vanilla.

Try this recipe and let us know how you make it!

More of our Favorite Dessert Recipes:

Some of our Most Popular Holiday Recipes

If you love caramel, you have to have a taste of our homemade caramel popcorn. One handful is all it takes to get you hooked!

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Slow Cooker Sticky Caramel Pumpkin Cake

4.72 from 77 votes
A delicious pumpkin cake from your slow cooker that goes together quickly and takes just a couple of hours to cook/bake!
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 2 hours
Total: 2 hours 10 minutes
Yield: 12 people

Ingredients 

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice or ground cinnamon
  • 1 1/3 cups sugar
  • 1 cup butter, softened
  • 4 eggs, at room temperature
  • 15 oz solid packed pumpkin, 1 can
  • 16 oz caramel sauce, 1 jar

Instructions 

  • Coat 4 1/2 quart slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray, turn to “high.”
  • Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice in mixing bowl.
  • Beat sugar and butter in large bowl with electric mixer for about 3 minutes, until light.
  • Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each one.
  • Add packed pumpkin, blend until well mixed.
  • Gradually add flour mixture and beat at low speed for a minute or so until smooth.
  • Spread evenly in slow cooker and cover.
  • Cook on high setting 2 hours or until center-inserted tooth pick comes out clean.
  • Let cake stand, uncovered 10 minutes.
  • Invert onto wire rack, invert again onto serving plate.
  • Drizzle half of caramel sauce over cake. Serve warm with additional sauce.

Video

Notes

For Best Results:
 
  • Be sure to apply a generous coating of non-stick spray to your slow cooker before adding the ingredients for this pumpkin cake recipe.
 

Nutrition

Calories: 426kcal, Carbohydrates: 66g, Protein: 5g, Fat: 17g, Saturated Fat: 10g, Cholesterol: 95mg, Sodium: 478mg, Potassium: 219mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 23g, Vitamin A: 6100IU, Vitamin C: 1.6mg, Calcium: 74mg, Iron: 1.9mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: crock-pot, Slow Cooker
Tried this recipe?Mention @plattertalk or tag #plattertalk!
Updated from the original post of September 19, 2014

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Meet the Platter Talk Guys

Dan & Scott split their time between Wisconsin and Southwest Florida and are dads to six boys. Good food runs through their veins, and they love showing others how to cook easy recipes.

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4.72 from 77 votes (28 ratings without comment)

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244 Comments

  1. 5 stars
    This recipe is right up my alley. I hate baking with my oven – it really needs to be recalibrated and nothing ever turns out right. Now, my slow cooker skills are money and this cake looks delicious. I’d definitely go with the caramel topping ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. 5 stars
    I have still never tried using my slow cooker to make a cake. I really need to give it a go and this looks like the perfect place to start.

  3. THis is similar to a British treacle pudding (with pumpkin being the main difference). I’d have a slice with a huge dollop of fresh whipped cream (with no sugar)! Yum!

    1. Whipped cream sounds like the perfect crown for this jewel of a dessert! Thanks so much for stopping by Platter Talk!

  4. Oh my goodness, I think I can feel my teeth dissolving just looking at this. Anything with “sticky caramel” in the title must be delicious!

  5. Dan, you got me on this one! Any dessert that is called sticky and I can put it in a slow cooker, definitely gets my vote and attention. Thanks for sharing a cool idea!

  6. It’s the perfect fall dessert. And I adore that it’s made in the slow cooker. I can’t wait to try it! Thanks!