Make This Easy and Delicious Pumpkin Crunch Cake with Boxed Mix

Photo byLauren's Latest

This pumpkin crunch cake is crunchy on top, moist in the middle and packed with fall flavors. The bottom layer is rich with warm spices and has the texture of pumpkin pie. Boxed yellow cake mix, melted butter and pecans give the top layer its lovely, buttery crunch. I love to make this dessert for the holidays but it's also great as an everyday treat.

Aside from its delicious taste, the recipe is ridiculously easy to make. It calls for only a few simple ingredients: pumpkin puree, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, salt, butter, pecans and a box of yellow cake mix. Just combine the first six ingredients, pour the batter into a 9 x 13-inch pan then sprinkle the cake mix and pecans on top. Drizzle a cup of melted butter onto the surface and bake for about an hour. If you want to cut costs, you can substitute margarine for the butter (there's not a huge difference in taste, in my opinion).

Add a dollop of whipped cream to each slice, drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle a few pecans on top and you've got the perfect fall dessert. Or serve the cake warm with vanilla ice cream.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Ingredients

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin puree

1 (12-ounce) can evaporated milk

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

1 teaspoon salt

1 (15.25 ounce) yellow cake mix

1 cup chopped pecans (optional)

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

Whipped topping for serving (optional)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9x13-inch pan.

2. Combine the pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, and salt in a large bowl. Mix well. Pour the batter into the pan.

3. Sprinkle the dry cake mix over the pumpkin batter.

4. Sprinkle the chopped pecans evenly over the cake mix, then drizzle with the melted margarine or butter.

5. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the center of the cake is set, about 60 to 80 minutes.

5. Cool completely on a wire rack and serve with whipped cream.

Notes

The batter will be thin and kind of soupy, so you can pour it right into the pan. That's how it's supposed to look.

I use Duncan Hines Butter Golden cake mix but any yellow cake mix should work. I recommend using one that's at least 15.25 ounces. You can experiment with different cake mix flavors like spice cake mix or butter pecan cake mix.

You can substitute walnuts for the pecans or skip them altogether if you don't like nuts.

Be sure not to stir in the dry cake mix or the butter.

If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, use a teaspoon of cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ginger and half a teaspoon of nutmeg.

In my oven this cake takes exactly 60 minutes. If the top starts to brown too much, you can cover it with aluminum foil.

Store the cake in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. You can freeze it for up to three months.

Be sure to use pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling.