Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Butter Rum Sauce – a moist and flavorful pumpkin cake with a butter sauce flavored with rum extract.
As soon as fall arrives, it’s time to embrace all things cozy—warm spices, pumpkin-flavored everything, and, of course, baking! One of the best ways to capture the essence of the season is by making a Pumpkin Bundt Cake. This cake is a showstopper: its beautiful shape, rich flavors, and moist texture make it perfect for any autumn gathering or simply enjoying with a cup of coffee at home. Plus, Bundt cakes are deceptively simple to make, requiring minimal effort but delivering maximum wow-factor.
In this blog post, I’ll guide you through making the best pumpkin Bundt cake with tips for achieving the perfect texture, flavor, and presentation. Whether you’re a pumpkin spice aficionado or just looking for a comforting dessert to warm up your kitchen, this cake is sure to hit the spot.
Pumpkin Bundt Cake
Pumpkin adds a natural sweetness and incredible moisture to baked goods, making it an ideal ingredient for cakes. In this Bundt cake, it creates a rich and tender crumb while pairing beautifully with fall spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The Bundt shape also provides a stunning presentation with minimal effort—simply pour the batter into the pan, bake, and you’re left with an elegant, cake that’s ready to impress.
Other Pumpkin Cake Recipes You’ll Love
The pumpkin cake is my tried and true pumpkin cake recipe from several recipes you’ll find on my site, including:
- Pumpkin Gingersnap Cake
- Pumpkin Pie Cake
- Pumpkin Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Buttercream
- Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Clearly, I love this cake!
Two Tips for Removing the Cake
- TIME: Allow your cake to cool completely, about an hour, before flipping the cake onto your cake stand. If you try to take your cake out of the pan too early, it’s likely to stick to the sides of the pan and break.
- PAN: Make sure you have a good quality pan. I like THIS bundt pan and haven’t had a single issue getting my cake to fall from the pan after I’ve let it cool completely.
Butter Rum Sauce
For the sauce, I made my mom’s Butter Rum Sauce. It’s a recipe she’s had in her kitchen for years and it was the perfect match to this pumpkin cake. The recipe only calls for one teaspoon of rum extract, but if you love that flavor, add some more!
You’ll simply heat the sauce ingredients over the stove and then let it cool just a bit before pouring it over your cake. This sauce doesn’t sit on the cake. Instead, it will run down the cake and create a pool of buttery goodness for your cake to soak in. Just make sure to scoop some extra sauce onto each slice as you serve.
Butter Rum Sauce Alternatives
If you don’t love a butter rum sauce, you can have the cake plain (i.e. like pumpkin bread), or try some of these options:
- Chocolate ganache
- Cream cheese buttercream
- Caramel drizzle
Enjoy!
Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Butter Rum Sauce
Ingredients
FOR THE CAKE
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (165 g) light brown sugar packed
- 5 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup (218 g) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (6.3 g) vanilla
- 2 cups (450 g) pumpkin purée
- 3 cups (360 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (18 g) baking powder
- 3 teaspoons (7.8 g) ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (3.9 g) ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon (2.64 g) nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon (5.6 g)salt
FOR THE SAUCE
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 12 oz evaporated milk
- 2 tsp (8.4 g) pure vanilla extract
- 1 tsp (4 g) rum extract
Instructions
FOR THE CAKE
- Preheat 325 degrees F. Spray your bundt pan with non-stick spray, toss some flour around the edges and set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the sugar and eggs together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the oil and vanilla and beat on medium until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the pumpkin filling and mix until combined, about another 30 seconds.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ground ginger, nutmeg, and salt, and with the mixer on the lowest speed, gradually add to the pumpkin/egg mixture.
- Pour the batter into your bundt pan and bake until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs on it, about 50 to 55 minutes.
- Let the cake cool completely before turning it on to a cake plate.
FOR THE SAUCE
- Combine ingredients in a medium saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool slightly before pouring over your bundt cake.
Can you use another type of pan if you don’t have a Bundt pan?
You can use a 9×13 pan.
Hi this Looks so good! Can you use rum liquor instead of rum extract? What would the ratio be?
Start with the same amount and add more if you want a stronger flavor.
Is this supposed to be 1 1/2 TEASPOONS or tablespoons of baking powder? The weight measurement of 6 grams is closer to teaspoons than tablespoons?
Fixed it! Its 1 1/2 tbsp so about 18g.
I LOVE your recipes and cannot wait to make this for thanksgiving. I will be traveling. I plan to make the cake in advance and pour the sauce over when it’s time to serve dessert. Can I make the sauce in advance and just warm it up a little in the microwave to pour over before serving?
Yes of course!
I made this cake last weekend. It was delicious & really easy. I love making big, fancy layer cakes for special occasions, but on a chilly, dreary Saturday it was wonderful to whip up this pumpkin bundt cake for the family. I think I’m going to try your apple cider bundt next!
Love it! You will love the apple cider one too!
This cake was delicious!
I tweaked a little….Before I turned it out of the pan, I poked holes and infused the sauce from the bottom. Then I made a simple glaze icing (with powdered sugar, milk, rum and vanilla extract) to dress it up a little. It was incredibly moist and a big hit. Thank you Courtney!
Delicious!!
I can’t wait to try this recipe!! Does this cake freeze well? I’m assuming not to add the sauce until the cake is thawed and ready to serve, right? I thought I would ask before trying it and it was a cake you shouldn’t freeze.
Thanks in advance for your help!
****I guess I should have also asked what kind of cakes don’t freeze well? How long can they stay frozen so they don’t freezer-burn?
You can keep it frozen for awhile! Just wrap it in saran wrap!
Blessings to you and your family. I watched you on the Home Hallmark Show.
I bake all types of pound cakes.
I recently tried to make a sweet potato pond cake. It did not turn out well.
People love my pound cakes, so I always do test runs on my family.
The recipe (my own ) I tried did not turn out as expected.
But I have hope with this one. I will try this and promise to give you the Wonderful results…as I am confident that these ingredients will birth a the perfect pumpkin bundt cake.
Thank you for sharing….
Sincere appreciation,
Faiths Fantastic Delights??
Great flavor and sauce is exceptional but way to thin and too much to pour over cake.
Amazing flavor, amazingly moist, so so so good! It was a bit of a last minute bake for my book club, and I realized too late I didn’t have the rum extract for the sauce. So I made a snap decision and threw some mini chocolate chips in so it wouldn’t be just plain pumpkin bread (though that would have been delicious, too!). I did have to bake it for an extra 20 minutes so it would cook through. I will definitely be baking this again!
If I were to give this as a gift, would it be best to give the sauce to them in a jar to pour over before serving? I would like to give it in a disposable cake box, if possible, so I know the sauce would not be able to pool at the bottom. Thank you for your insight!
Hi,
wondering if this would work in mini bundt pans…Any thoughts about oven temp or baking times?
thanks
Totally! do 350
I made the cake 3 days ago and added 1/4 t. cloves coz I like the taste in pumpkin cakes. I also find that it takes a few days for the spices to take effect so I wait 2-3 days before I try it. I tried a small slice w/out the butter rum sauce because I was going to give some to the little kids. I wasn’t thrilled. But I did make the sauce but cut the recipe in 1/2 just in case that I didn’t like it. The 1/2 recipe still made ALOT of sauce. I left it on the cake overnight and I just tried a small slice and heated it gently in the microwave – 20 secs. Delish! It’s a keeper but I will make a few adjustments to the original recipe.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Did you measure the flour (6 cups) or weight the flour (360 grams)? 360 grams of flour is only 3 cups. I’m supposed to make this tonight and now I’m totally stuck!
When you have the recipe on my standard measurements, the recipe shows 3 cups (360 grams) of flour.