One of my unofficial New Year’s resolutions each year is to try to use up the random ingredients hiding in my pantry.
In this case, one of the culprits was a large can of pumpkin pie filling that I bought by mistake, thinking I found a great deal on plain canned pumpkin.
It’s been staring at me, mocking me, for months, but I’m happy to report that the can is officially off the shelf and into this week’s recipe, which was a tasty and super easy dessert to make. If you don’t consider yourself much of a baker, stow this one away for the future, because this one take absolutely zero skill to create.
This comes from the blog “The Country Cook” by Brandie Skibinski. You can find the original post at https://www.thecountrycook.net/pumpkin-pie-cake/. I added cinnamon and swapped out salted butter in my version.
Pumpkin Pie Cake
Ingredients
- 30 ounces pumpkin pie filling
- 4 eggs
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 cup butter melted
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 container frosting I used cream cheese
- cinnamon for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a nine-by-13-inch baking pan by spraying it with cooking spray, and set it aside.
- Beat the pie filling and eggs until the mixture is smooth. Add in the cake mix, butter and salt, and beat until everything is well combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly.
- Bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until the center is completely set.
- Let it cool completely before icing it, and then sprinkling it lightly with cinnamon. Store in an airtight container.
As you can see, this really is a super easy recipe, mostly because it’s made with all pre-made ingredients. But the combination really elevates all of it. The pumpkin pie filling gives the cake just a little bit of a pie texture, which was really nice.
And I received the added benefit of getting that huge can of pumpkin pie filling out of my pantry, along with a long-forgotten cake mix and the container of frosting. Win-win-win.
Hopefully, as I continue to dig through my shelves over the next couple of months, I will be able to find more treasures that work out just as well. And hopefully I’ll read labels a little better in 2025 so I don’t find myself in this same mess next January.
This piece first appeared in print Jan. 23, 2025.
Spice Up Your Life is a weekly newspaper column written by Lindsey Young in south central Kansas. If you are interested in sponsoring this column, please contact us through the “Contact Lindsey” link at the top of the page.
