Pumpkin Cake Cheesecake

Today’s recipe was inspired by my favorite pumpkin cheesecake muffins. What a way to start the day! Craving the combination for dessert, I decided to combine pumpkin cake and cheesecake together in a springform pan. I coin this dessert duo “double trouble.” 😉

Sadly, the first try was pretty disappointing. There’s so much moisture in the main ingredients that I had to spend a few extra days testing my recipe idea (and my patience!). I was so determined for this to work. Thankfully the pumpkin cake cheesecake finally came together and I’m thrilled to share the recipe success with you today!

So this weekend was quite the adventure. We went to register for the babies and my goodness there’s SO MUCH STUFF! I knew there’d be a lot, but it’s seriously so much. About 10 minutes into things the hubs looked at me with wide eyes and said, “Do you have any idea what’s going on right now?” Ha!

While I knew more about baby stuff than he did, there was still no way to know the difference between things without help. And even though we’ve “registered”, I still feel like there needs to be some fine tuning. For example, I added a diaper bag primarily to remind me to look at diaper bags. 🙂 I had NO idea what features I wanted and I started running low on energy.

I think my next step is to ask friends some more specific questions about the things I still don’t know what to do about. Before looking at things this weekend, I didn’t even know what to ask. Now I have a little more of an idea. Not to mention, like, what things do I actually need two of for the twins and what things can I get away with one of? It’s so nutty all the stuff. I have no idea what I’m doing. 🙂

Ingredients
FOR THE PUMPKIN CAKE LAYERS:

•  1 can (15oz) pure pumpkin puree
•  1 cup granulated sugar
•  1 cup brown sugar
•  3/4 cup apple sauce
•  4 eggs
•  2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
•  2 tsp baking powder
•  2 tsp baking soda
•  1 tsp kosher salt
•  1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
•  1/2 tsp ground cloves
•  1 tsp ground ginger
•  1 tsp ground nutmeg

FOR THE CHEESECAKE LAYER:

•  2 pkg (8oz each) cream cheese, softened
•  2/3 cup granulated sugar
•  pinch of salt
•  2 eggs
•  1/3 cup sour cream
•  1/3 cup heavy cream
•  1 tsp vanilla extract

FOR THE FROSTING:

•  1/2 cup butter, softened
•  8 oz cream cheese, softened
•  1 tsp vanilla extract
•  4 cup powdered sugar
•  3 Tbsp heavy cream
•  3 Tbsp walnuts, chopped
•  1 Tbsp caramel sauce (Hershey's caramel ice cream topping)

Instructions
FOR THE CHEESECAKE LAYER:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using a large roasting pan on the lower 2/3 of the oven, preheat the pan too!
2. Prepare springform pan by wrapping bottom of pan (outside) with double layer of foil. Spray pan with nonstick baking spray and line bottom (inside) with a circle of parchment paper.
3. Meanwhile, boil a kettle of water to use later.
4. Beat cream cheese with granulated sugar for 2-3 minutes until creamy. Add in salt and eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in sour cream, heavy cream and vanilla.
5. Pour into prepared 9inch springform pan. Place pan in center of preheated roasting pan in the oven. Pour boiling water slowly into the roasting pan, until there is about an inch of water coming up the sides of the springform pan.
6. Bake cheesecake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let cheesecake sit in oven for an additional 30 minutes. Remove and cool completely on counter.
7. When cooled, transfer entire springform pan into the freezer for several hours or overnight. I put it in the freezer for about 2 hours. **If using within 24 hours, feel free to just refrigerate cheesecake!

FOR THE CAKE LAYERS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare two 9inch round cake pans by spraying generously with baking spray. Line bottom of each pan with a circle of parchment paper. Set aside.
2. Beat pumpkin, sugars, applesauce and eggs until fully blended. Add in flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and seasonings. Pour batter into prepared pans.
3. Bake cakes for 30-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pans 15 minutes. Flip onto wire rack and cool completely. When cooled, wrap each layer in saran wrap and freeze for two hours, or overnight. **If using within 24 hours, just wrap cake in saran wrap and keep on counter.

FOR THE FROSTING:

1. Beat butter and cream cheese for 3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Beat in vanilla, powdered sugar and heavy cream.
2. To assemble cake, lay one layer of pumpkin cake on cake plate. Top with cheesecake and second layer of pumpkin cake. Frost sides and top with a thin layer of frosting to apply a crumb coat. Refrigerate 30 minutes to an hour. Remove from refrigerator and frost remaining cake, decorating using a tip if desired. Sprinkle walnuts on top of cake and drizzle with caramel sauce. I keep the cake covered in the refrigerator until ready to eat. Remove and allow to sit about 15 minutes before slicing. ENJOY!

Share this post