Pumpkin Praline Upside Down Cake
Pumpkin Praline Upside Down Cake is fall pumpkin spice flavor at it's BEST! Moist pumpkin spice cake served up between layers of crunchy pecan praline topping then finished off with homemade cinnamon cream cheese frosting makes this the perfect fall dessert!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Praline Cake
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup pecans, chopped
- 1 box Betty Crocker yellow cake mix
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 4 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon allspice
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2/3 cup butter, room temperature
- 8 ounces cream cheese
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
- 1-2 tablespoons milk or cream
- more pecans for garnishing
Instructions
- Start by preheating your oven to 325 degrees and spray two 9 inch cake pans with nonstick spray or line with parchment paper liners.
- In a small saucepan, melt together butter, cream and brown sugar over low heat, stirring occasionally. Pour evenly into your two prepared 9 inch cake pans and sprinkle both with equal amounts of the chopped pecans. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the yellow cake mix, pumpkin, oil, water, eggs and spices until combined. Beat on medium about 2 minutes. Spoon or pour the batter evenly over the pecan mixture in each of the pans, don't stir them together.. you want the pecans to remain on the bottom of the pan.Bake the cakes for 40-45 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
- Cool for 5 minutes. CAREFULLY use a knife to level out top of cake before turning cake pan upside down to remove cake from the pan and moving cake to rack to cool completely. Let cool completely for at least 1 hour or until no longer warm to the touch.
- Once cooled, make your cinnamon cream cheese frosting. In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer, beat butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Mix in 1-2 tablespoons of milk until you reach the desired consistency for your frosting. Add cinnamon, vanilla and salt to the mixture and then slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar in batches until all has been incorporated.
- Place one of the layer cakes, praline side up on your serving platter and spread half of the frosting over the top of it. Add on the second layer of cake, praline side up and spread the remaining half of icing over the top. You can choose to frost the sides of the cake or not but either way, when you are done frosting the cake, add some additional chopped pecans on top.
Notes
- Don't let your cakes cool too long in their baking pans or the praline mixture will stick to the pan.
- Parchment paper liners for your cake pans are your best friends in life! Grab some off Amazon or at your big box stores for removing cakes a breeze!!
- When you remove your pans from the oven, you will notice that the center of the cake rounds up, making a little hill in the middle of your cake. Take a knife and level that hill off while it is still in the pan. You will be turning the cakes out upside down so you won't be able to even that cake 'bottom' out any other time and if you do not even them out, your cake will slowly split apart when you frost it. I learned this the hard way... oops!
- Be sure to let your cake layers cool completely before frosting or your frosting will melt and you will be sad.
- Sift the powdered sugar before adding to your cream cheese when making your frosting. No one likes lumpy frosting.
- Refrigerate praline cake and keep the frosting cool. Cream cheese frosting can be a bit grouchy at times but if you keep it cool and even pop it in the refrigerator for a spell, it’s just fine.
- Learn from my mistakes, spend the $6.00 and buy yourself some circular pie pan parchment rounds to keep that praline from sticking to your pan. They are lifesavers and on Amazon.
