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This pumpkin olive oil cake is a moist almond flour pumpkin cake that is made with olive oil and pumpkin spice. It is frosted with a delicious cream cheese frosting. It’s the perfect Autumn or Thanksgiving pumpkin snacking cake.
If you are looking for a healthy pumpkin cake that is full of flavor, then look no further! This cake has a wonderful pumpkin and pumpkin spice taste.
It is made with healthier ingredients like almond flour and olive oil (instead of white flour and butter). And it is made with less sugar than many other pumpkin cakes. The tangy delicious cream cheese frosting pairs so well with the cinnamon pumpkin flavor of the cake. This cake is naturally gluten-free and grain-free and can easily be made dairy-free!
If you love pumpkin recipes, try my pumpkin banana bread, pumpkin protein smoothie, or my pumpkin stuffed dates.
Table of contents
What makes this recipe great
- Olive oil is used to replace butter in this recipe. Baking with olive oil has amazing results, try my olive oil brownie recipe or my olive oil sugar cookie recipe if you want to try for yourself.
- The olive oil in this cake results in a moist rich cake that is naturally dairy-free. Olive oil cake is a classic Italian or Mediterranean dessert where olive oil is used as the fat content in a cake.
- Don’t worry, you can’t taste the olive oil.
- This recipe is gluten-free and grain-free. If you use dairy-free cream cheese, it can easily becomes dairy-free as well.
Recipe ingredients
- Almond flour– blanched almond flour is best in baking so that the cake can be light and spongy.
- Coconut flour– a good quality coconut flour works best.
- Baking powder and baking soda– these help make the cake rise.
- Ground cinnamon– I like the flavor of Ceylon cinnamon best.
- Pumpkin pie spice– I buy mine from Trader Joes, but you can also use a mixture of ground ginger, cloves, all spice and nutmeg to make your own pumpkin spice.
- Olive oil– I like to use extra virgin olive oil.
- Eggs– these help bind everything together.
- Brown sugar– you can also use coconut sugar if you prefer.
- Pumpkin puree– I used canned pumpkin puree here but you can use fresh.
- Vanilla extract– one with or without alcohol works.
- Cream cheese– I used regular cream cheese here, but you can use a non-dairy cream cheese like Kite Hill, if you want this recipe to be completely dairy-free.
- Powdered sugar– this is for the frosting.
- Lemon juice– this is for the frosting as well.
See recipe card below for a full list of ingredients and measurements.
Step by Step Instructions:
Step 1: Mix the the almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice in a bowl.
Step 2: In another bowl, mix the olive oil, eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract together.
Step 3: Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix.
Step 4: Pour the pumpkin cake batter into a lined cake tin.
Step 5: Bake! Then let the cake cool.
Step 6: Mix the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon juice in a food processor until smooth.
Step 7: Frost the cake with the cream cheese frosting.
Step 8: Serve!
Garnish ideas
- I used natural decorating sugar, but you can use any kind of sugar or sprinkles.
- Pumpkin seeds
- Cinnamon
- Pumpkin spice
- Roasted pepitas
Expert tips
- Let the batter of this cake sit: let the batter sit for a few minutes so that the coconut flour can absorb the way that it needs to.
- To make a double layer cake: double the recipe!
- To keep the cake from sticking to the pan: grease it with olive oil and then line it with parchment paper.
- To make the cake dairy-free: you can easily use dairy-free cream cheese to make a dairy-free frosting. I like Kite Hill. The rest of the pumpkin cake is naturally dairy-free.
How to store it
You can store this cake in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Recipe FAQs:
Yes, it is an almond flour pumpkin cake. But you could try sunflower seed flour or other nut flours.
The pumpkin olive oil cake itself is dairy-free but the cream cheese frosting has dairy in it. You can easily use dairy-free cream cheese to make a dairy-free frosting. I like Kite Hill.
No because baking powder, brown sugar, and powdered sugar are not Paleo.
Yes! This is a gluten-free pumpkin cake. Using almond flour and coconut flour instead of a flour containing wheat makes it naturally gluten-free.
You can make your own pumpkin spice using ground nutmeg, cloves, ginger and all spice.
It doesn’t taste like olive oil if that is what you are wondering! This olive oil pumpkin cake just tastes like a yummy pumpkin cake with Fall spices.
Other pumpkin recipes you’ll love:
Gluten-free Chocolate Pumpkin Brownies
Easy Paleo Pumpkin Muffins (Dairy-free, Gluten-free)
❤️ Don’t forget to check out my favorite Thanksgiving recipes here! ❤️
Did you try this recipe? Please leave me a ⭐ review below!
Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake
Ingredients
Pumpkin olive oil cake ingredients:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 Tablespoons coconut flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, (or 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ground cloves, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/4 tsp ground all spice)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Cream cheese frosting ingredients:
- 4 ounces cream cheese, softened to room temperature (dairy-free cream cheese can also be used)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Grease a 9 inch round pan, and line with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a large bowl, whisk the almond flour, coconut flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together. Set aside.
- In another bowl, whisk the olive oil, eggs, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract together until combined
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix until completely combined. Let the batter sit for a few minutes.
- Pour the batter into the round pan and bake for 25 minutes. The cake should be golden and a toothpick should come out clean.
- While the cake cools, make the cream cheese frosting. Add the cream cheese, powdered sugar, vanilla and lemon juice to a food processor and mix until smooth.
- Once the cake has cooled, frost with the cream cheese frosting and serve.
Notes
- Let the batter of this cake sit: let the batter sit for a few minutes so that the coconut flour can absorb the way that it needs to.
- To make a double layer cake: double the recipe!
- To keep the cake from sticking to the pan: grease it with olive oil and then line it with parchment paper.
- To make the cake dairy-free: you can easily use dairy-free cream cheese to make a dairy-free frosting. The rest of the pumpkin cake is naturally dairy-free.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This is over the top delicious, a flavor explosion paired with Minimalist Baker’s “Chocolate Avocado Frosting (Vegan, No Powdered Sugar!)”. I used coconut not brown sugar and added 2Tbsp Lily’s chocolate chips to the batter. With these changes it’s paleo (removed higher glycemic sugars.). Thank you, my husband and I loved this cake.
I love hearing the tweaks that you made. Sounds incredibly delicious!
hi could i use flax eggs instead of normal eggs?
I have never tried it! If you do try it and it works, let me know.
I’ve made this no less than 10 times and it’s become a weekend staple in our home! I made the frosting by creaming room temp cream cheese with butter and pure, organic maple syrup which turned out perfect. Thank you for this scrumptious recipe! 🤍
I’m so happy to hear it! It is a staple at my home as well. 🙂
I just made this. Subbed brown rice flour for the coconut. 1/4 c brown sugar truvia and 1/4 c coconut sugar for the regular brown sugar. Came out wonderful!! I’ll make this again!
Thanks for letting me know what subs worked, its always so helpful!
Will it work if I leave out the coconut flour and just use more almond flour? It looks delicious!
It should be ok to leave it out but I’m not totally sure about how it will affect the texture because coconut flour is very absorbent. If you do try it let me know how it works!
This is outstanding! Excellent texture light and moist and super flavorful – already made it twice.
I used only 3 TBLSP of pwdrd sugar for frosting, double lemon juice and vanilla and a bit of butter – plenty sweet for me. I used 1/3 cup of coconut sugar for cake – delicious!
Thank YOU!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it as much as me. 🙂
Hi! I’m excited to try this recipe but am wondering about the coconut flour. It’s listed in the ingredients but not in the directions. Do I use it with the almond flour?
It should be used with the almond flour! I just edited the instructions. Thanks for pointing that out!!
Is there a way to use all coconut flour?🙂
I’m not too sure. Coconut flour is a tricky flour to bake with because it is so absorbent. You would have to change the liquid and fat content to make it work. I haven’t tested it out this way. Sorry!