Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cake. An easy-to-make cakey treat that resembles Carrot Cake but with a greater depth of flavour and much easier to prepare (always a good thing, right?).
These cake squares take their flavour from canned pumpkin (available in most larger supermarkets these days) but you could boil up a sweet potato and use that in a pinch, or even, dare I say, use tinned, drained carrots. I love the flavour of pumpkin, and, dare I say, I'm happy to use it all year round, although I love the convenience of tinned. Fresh pumpkins are great and all that, but they are such a pain in the ass for prepping. I love to carve them for Hallowe'en, and really, that's the only time I would recommend going to the trouble.
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What Makes Gluten Free Vegan Pumpkin Squares so good?
This was one of the very first vegan recipes that I formulated myself, and I am (I think) justly proud of it. Despite being gluten free, the sponge has a delicious texture, not too crumbly, not too stodgy, and this comes from there being only half a cup of flour in the batter. Click here for my web story.
When I remade the recipe, I hadn't made the squares for a couple of years, but I needed to make a gluten free and vegan cake for a friend's birthday. I had to question whether I had written down the small quantity of flour down correctly, but when I stirred the wet ingredients into the flour, it mixed together into a beautiful cake batter.
Looking at the list of ingredients, it does seem like there is a lot there! However, it is mostly all store cupboard stuff, and if you have your own premixed pumpkin spice blend, please use this and omit my spice suggestions (I recommend using 1.5 teaspoons).
Do I Have to Use Gluten Free Flour?
No, not at all. Simply swap out the GF element for regular flour. You could also use a mix of self-raising flour with buckwheat, which gives a delicious nutty taste.
My favourite brand of Gluten Free flour has been Doves Farm, forever. It always performs perfectly, and behaves itself, like all good flour should!
Ingredients and Method
This brings me to the method. This is my non-patented blender method of making cakes or cupcakes. It makes baking cakes so simple and quick. Just sieve your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Blend up your wet ingredients (usually yogurt, milk, oil, and vanilla) and sugar in a smoothie maker (I don't have a large blender), and then pour this over your dry, fold in gently but thoroughly, and it's ready for the oven!
The dates and pecans are optional, but add a caramel sweetness and toasty crunch that rounds out the spices and pumpkin flavours nicely.
You could top with a cream cheeze icing to make this a really special treat, but I just dusted mine with icing sugar (badly). I used an icing stencil, and I'm not sure if I will ever come to grips with using icing sugar as a decoration, it always looks so rubbish when I do it!
(This is ONLY a list of ingredients for the recipe; please see recipe card below for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)
Try my other delicious Vegan Pumpkin Recipes
📋 Recipe
Gluten Free Pumpkin Spice Cake Squares
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup Gluten Free Flour self-raising
- ½ teaspoon Baking Powder
- ¼ teaspoon Bicarbonate of Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- 1 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon Ground Ginger
- ¼ teaspoon Nutmeg grated
- ½ cup Dates stoned, soaked in hot water
- ½ cup Pecans chopped, optional
- ¼ cup Coconut melted (or canola oil)
- ½ cup Brown Sugar
- ⅔ cup Pumpkin puree canned
- ½ cup Yogurt vegan, plain or vanilla
- ½ teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180c.
- Sift the flour, spices, salt, bicarb and baking powder together in a large bowl.
- In a smoothie maker or blender, whizz up the oil, yogurt, pumpkin, brown sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add this to the dry ingredients and fold in gently but thoroughly until you have no pockets of flour left.
- Fold in the chopped dates and pecans.
- Pour into your prepared cake tin, and smooth with a spatula
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
- Let cool for 15 minutes on a cooling rack before removing carefully from the tin and leaving to cool completely.
Ritu says
I love making something pumpkin-y this time of the year. Your recipe sounds stellar - can’t wait to make this! Thank you for sharing!
Megan Ellam says
These brownies look amazing. I absolutely want to give them a go.
Kristina says
I made these with the optional pecans and dates and the flavor was awesome! I also doubled the ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon because we are pumpkin spice crazy over here and can't get enough of it. Wonderful recipe!
Ashley says
Love that I can make these for my gf friends and family! Always looking for new recipes, thanks!
Marita says
Yum this pumpkin squares look so good. I will try to make them for our Halloween party this year. Thank you
Mihaela | https://theworldisanoyster.com/ says
You're right about the fresh pumpkin: a pain to carve/clean:)) This is why I only do it at Halloween, then grate and freeze it to use for the rest of the year! Great idea to combine the flavours in this cake with pecan - I must use them more!
Anaiah says
These pumpkin spice cake squares turned out perfect! It's a lot of ingredients but I had all of them on hand and it was pretty easy to make. The pecan was delicious in them and I think a MUST!
Megan Ellam says
These look soooo good! Thanks so much for sharing such a great recipe.
Kayla DiMaggio says
I am so digging these pumpkin spice squares! They are so delicious and easy to make! I will be eating these all season long!
Jessica says
Nom nom non. These were quick and easy to make and so incredibly good. I'm always worried that gluten-free desserts may turn out dry and these did not. Yay! Thanks for the recipe!
Kirby says
These were so moist and perfect!! I am always looking for new vegan and gluten free treats and these will definitely go into regular rotation.
Jere Cassidy says
Your recipes are always so easy and for this I love all the spices you added along with the dates for great flavor.
Joanna says
These look wonderful and healthful too. I love pumpkin spice flavored everything and these will be a nice addition Yo my list of recipes. Thank you!
Alexandra says
This is the perfect fall baking treat - we just love it!
Jeri says
These were so delicious! They were so easy to make too! I love your icing sugar stencil decoration on top!