Gluten Free Pumpkin Pound Cake

With canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice, this gluten free pumpkin pound cake is moist and dense and the perfect flavors of fall.

Who doesn’t love pound cake? A great pound cake should be dense, but very moist and flavorful. You should be able to pick up a piece of it with your hands without it falling apart.

I’ve been making my gluten free cream cheese pound cake for years, which is a great go-to dessert that always wows everyone. I usually serve it with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, which is perfect for spring or summer.

But it’s fall now and I really wanted pound cake, so I decided to see how my recipe would fare by adding pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice. And I’m happy to say it was delicious and the perfect addition to my fall dessert repertoire!

Ingredients in Gluten Free Pumpkin Pound Cake

Like I said, I began with my gf cream cheese pound cake and added a few things:

• Butter–all good pound cakes begin with butter
• Cream cheese–for this pound cake, I reduced the amount of cream cheese to make up for other additions
• Granulated sugar–I reduced the amount of granulated sugar
• Brown sugar–the original recipe doesn’t call for brown sugar, but I felt adding a little would be perfect with the pumpkin
• Eggs–lots of eggs, 6 to be exact, go into this cake
• Kim’s gluten free flour blend
• Pumpkin puree–make sure to buy real pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling
• Pumpkin pie spice
• Salt–just a dash
• Vanilla extract

You may notice there is no chemical leavening in the form of baking soda or baking powder in this cake. That’s why so many eggs are required, and the eggs are beaten for an extended time. They take on the job of leavening in this cake all by themselves so they need as much air as possible to help that along.

Mix the Batter and Bake the Cake

First, beat the butter, cream cheese, and pumpkin puree on medium high until very light and fluffy, 5 minutes. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition. I know this sounds like a lot, but don’t cut corners here because the eggs and the air incorporated into them is what makes the cake rise.

Add the dry ingredients on low just until combined. Turn the mixer off and finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand (with a spatula). Scoop the batter into a well-greased bundt or tube pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 1 hour and 40 minutes (the cake is baked on a very low temperature, so it needs to be in the oven for this long).

Make the Maple Glaze

You could leave the maple glaze off the pound cake if you’d like. It doesn’t absolutely need it and is great on its own. In fact, you could serve this cake with a maple or pumpkin spice flavored softly whipped cream and it’d be delicious. However, the maple glaze and sprinkles add an extra touch that takes this gluten free pumpkin pound cake over the top. I found these cute fall sprinkles at Walmart and they are gluten free.

Whisk together the powdered sugar, maple syrup, and hot milk in a small bowl until smooth. You can also add a few drops of maple extract to boost the maple flavor if desired. I like the glaze on the thicker end of the spectrum, but feel free to add more milk to thin it out, a teaspoon at a time, until you reach your desired consistency.

This gluten free pumpkin pound cake with a sweet maple glaze is easy to make, but even easier to eat!