My latest addition to my Chritsmas recipe lineup is a pumpkin spice Bundt cake. Vegan of course and also sugar-free. 

This is sort of a new, original take on the traditional pumpkin pie. I love a good (vegan) pumpkin pie as much as the next person but to be honest it can be a bit overdone. Not so much in the southern hemisphere, but I think definitely in the northern hemisphere in places such as the United States and Canada where pumpkin spice and therefore pumpkin pie is really popular right from the end of October through until Christmas. 

So I thought I’d change it up and make a cake! It’s still got the familiar pumpkin spice flavours with pumpkin, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg. But you don’t need to muck around trying to also make a pastry. I chose to do this cake in a bundt tin as again, it’s kind of just a little bit different and makes it a bit more special than a regular cake. You could probably use a normal tin too but may need to increase the cook time. I’ve topped the cake off with a delicious brandy cream cheese glaze. I used Angel Food Cream cheese which is a New Zealand brand which I find tastes a lot like traditional cream cheese but you can use any brand you like. I added brandy to make it more Christmassey and give it something extra.

This cake batter is a lot thicker than what you’re probably used to, but trust me it works really well and the result is a really nice moist cake. 

This is ideal or a tasty Christmas or Thanksgiving dessert, or even just as a little afternoon treat with a cup of tea or coffee.

Store this cake in an airtight container, it can go in the fridge but it doesn’t need to. It’s best eaten sooner rather than later but should be good for around 5 days. 

If you’re after more vegan Christmas ideas, check out my stuffed pumpkin or gingerbread frappe, and make sure you’re subscribed to my newsletter as there’ll be more Christmas recipes on the way!

What kitchen tools will I need to make a pumpkin spice bundt cake?

The most important is bundt cake tin, about 20cm in diameter. You can use any style you like, I just used a plain straight sided one but the ones with the grooves look pretty cool.

You will also need:

2 mixing bowls and a mixing spoon, my preference is wooden spoon.

Measuring cups and measuring spoons.

Electric beaters for the brandy cream cheese glaze. 

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What ingredients are in a pumpkin spice bundt cake?

Of course the most important ingredient is pumpkin puree. I find it easiest to use canned pumpkin puree, that way all the work and prep is of the pumpkin puree is already done for you. It needs to be pure pumpkin, with no other ingredients. I used Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin puree. It’s an American brand but here in New Zealand a lot of Countdown supermarkets stock it. I actually couldn’t find it at Countdown this year, I’m guessing due to difficulties with importing because of covid-19. But I did find it an American store in Auckland – Martha’s Backyard and I made sure to stock up! If you’re in America you probably have a lot more options anyway.

You can also make your own pumpkin puree by cooking pumpkin then blending it up to a puree. But as I said this is more work and you also actually need quite a lot of pumpkin.

As well as pumpkin you need the spice part of pumpkin spice. This means cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg as well as some vanilla. 

Then it needs a bit of sweetness, so wanting to skip the sugar I used Natvia sweetener. It’s my go to for pretty much all my sugar-free baking.

I used dairy-free coconut yoghurt which makes the cake really nice and moist. You could use any dairy-free yoghurt but coconut is what I had in my fridge already and I love coconut yoghurt, for this recipe I used Cathedral Cove Naturals natural coconut yoghurt.

Now for the “eggs”. This recipe needs some kind of binding ingredient like an egg, but of course eggs are not vegan. You can use my Flaxseed egg replacer recipe. It’s really easy and cheap to make. If you do use this, make it up at the beginning of the recipe before you do anything else so it can sit and thicken before you need it. Just times the recipe by 4.

Alternatively I have also had a lot of baking success using Organ No Egg Egg Replacer.

There’s quite a lot of oil in this case – 1 cup. It replaces what would normally be butter or margarine and helps keep the cake spongey and moist.

Other than that I’ve used a combination of normal flour and coconut flour. This is because using part coconut flour helps lower the carb content slightly. But if you were to use solely coconut flour the cake wouldn’t have enough structure. 

Then there’s baking powder to give the cake some rise.

What is in a brandy cream cheese glaze?

As the name suggests both brandy and cream cheese! Make sure you find a vegan cream cheese. My favourite is Angel Food, but you can use any brand. If it’s a firm cream cheese (like the Angel Food one) leave it out of the fridge for a bit to soften before you use it. My recipe also includes a mix of boiling water and milk to make the glaze runnier and a pourable consistency. You only need to use the boiling water if you have a firm cream cheese as it helps to get rid of lumps. However if you have a softer cream cheese such as Sheese, you will probably be fine to just use plant milk and skip the boiling water.

You’ll need about 1 tablespoon of brandy. I chose to add brandy as it elevates the glaze and makes it a bit more special and more Christmassey. You could swap the brandy for another liqueur like rum or whisky. Or you could swap the alcohol out for fresh orange juice or vanilla essence. 

Other than the obvious brandy and cream cheese, I’ve also used pretty standard cream cheese icing ingredients such as dairy free margarine (dairy free butter would be fine too, but soften it first) and a bit of plant milk. In the interest of making this both sugar-free and also runnier than a traditional icing I used a liquid sweetener – Sugromax. It’s concentrated so just one teaspoon was enough.

Also heads up – my recipe makes more glaze than you will need. So you could either halve the recipe, use the excess to dollop more on for serving, or use it for another dessert or baked good.