Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

This vintage recipe is moist, fluffy, and packed with warm fall spices!

Jump to:

• 🗝️ Key takeaways
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 📖 Variations
• 🔪 Instructions
• How to convert baking pan sizes
• 🥫 Storage
• 💭 Things to know
• 🥣 How to make a homemade spice cake mix
• 👩‍🍳 FAQs
• 📚 Related recipes
• 🍽️ Serve with...
• 🫶 Restless Chipotle recommends
• 📞 The last word
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Comments

🗝️ Key takeaways

• Let's be real, boxed cakes are great but homemade is so much better.
• Serve this for fall birthdays, special occasions, or just because it's delicious.
• Use the pan conversion chart below to make cupcakes, loaf cake, or 13x 9-inch cake with this recipe.

Old-fashioned spice cake has a decadent cream cheese frosting that is full of warm fall flavors like cinnamon and cloves. If this doesn't make you feel warm and cozy I don't know what will.

🧾 Ingredients

📖 Variations

• Double up on the spices for more flavor.
• Mix the chopped pecans into the batter rather than using them to garnish the cake.
• Stir in a cup of grated zucchini, apple, or carrots.
• Try it with the lemon frosting found here.

Next time try this easy 3 ingredient pumpkin spice cake!

🔪 Instructions

Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the green recipe card below.

Spice Cake

1. Mix your dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
2. Cream the butter and sugars then at the eggs and vanilla extract.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients alternately with the buttermilk.
4. Pour batter in 2 pans and bake as directed in the recipe card below.

Best cream cheese frosting

What's the best frosting for spice cake? Tangy cream cheese frosting of course!!!

1. Cream the room-temperature butter and sugar together.
2. Add the vanilla extract and whip until fluffy.
3. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time.
4. Use to fill and frost the cooled cake.

Smoked pecans (optional)

1. Heat the bacon grease and sesame oil in a heavy skillet until very hot.
2. Add the chopped pecans and saute for a minute or two, watching carefully. Keep them moving around with your spatula!
3. Add the salt and toast for another minute stirring constantly.
4. Remove from pan. Drain on paper towels and cool completely before adding to cake.

How to convert baking pan sizes

IMPORTANT: Always test for doneness about 5 minutes before the recipe time. Allow extra time in case it takes a bit longer. Lots of factors can determine baking time.

Pan size/Yield	Oven temp	Oven time
(2) 8-inch rounds	350F	30-35 minutes
(2) 9-inch rounds	350 F	30-35 minutes
(2) 8 -inch squares	350F	30-35 minutes
(1) 9-inch square	350F	30-40 minutes
13x9-inch pan	350F	20-25 minutes
(24) Cupcakes	375F	15-20 minutes
(1) 8.5 x 4.5-inch loaf	325F	40 - 50 minutes

🥫 Storage

Store unfrosted cake layers wrapped tightly in plastic wrap at room temperature for a day or two - or freeze for up to three months.

Once frosted you can store the cake in a cake dome or in an airtight container for up to three days at room temperature.

You can also freeze the finished cake in an airtight container for up to three months. I like to slice it and put parchment paper between slices so I can easily remove exactly what I need.

I don't recommend refrigerating the cake - it tends to dry it out.

💭 Things to know

Expert Tip: Spice cakes tend to be better on the second day. Standing overnight gives the spices a chance to really come to life and blend so if you can make this cake a day ahead of time please do!

• Make sure all ingredients are at room temperature
• This cake will likely have a rounded top - especially if you don't use the cake strips. Just carefully slice off the top to make it even.
• Don't over mix or the cake will be tough.
• This cake freezes well frosted or unfrosted.
• I baked these in 8-inch cake pans with 3-inch sides. You may need to use 9-inch cake pans if you have shorter sides.

🥣 How to make a homemade spice cake mix

Here's another thing.

You DO know that you can create your own cake mixes right?

I mean if you need that time-saving factor (raises hand...) you can mix the dry ingredients for this cake and keep them in a tightly covered mason jar in your pantry for a couple of months.

Be sure to use cake flour and not all-purpose flour.

Some rainy weekend afternoon just call the kids in and make a bunch of cake mixes!

You can use dry milk if you like to make it where you only need to add water but I prefer just to leave the dry milk out and use real milk.

When you are ready to bake just cream the butter and eggs, add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and vanilla (or other flavoring) and ...Voila!

👩‍🍳 FAQs

📚 Related recipes

Apparently, my relatives liked cake because, besides Grandma's spice cake recipe, I have more than enough others to make a different cake every day of the year for a very long time.

• Banana Cake with Gooey Walnut Filling is pure comfort food, straight from grandma’s kitchen — that is if you had a grandma that baked. Tender layers of banana cake are filled with a walnut filling (similar to pecan pie), and frosting with a tangy-sweet whipped cream cheese frosting that’s so light it’s like biting into a cloud.
• Classic Yellow Layer Cake is moist and buttery with a thick bittersweet chocolate frosting – just like that droolworthy layer cake you remember. I’ve included tips and tricks to make sure that your homemade cake comes out perfectly every single time. 
• Try this Chocolate Spice Cake for a delicious combination of my two favorite kinds of cake!

🍽️ Serve with...

• Cinnamon gelato
• Salted caramel latte

Cozy sweaters and Hallmark movies!

🫶 Restless Chipotle recommends

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You'll need the following items to make this recipe successfully.

• electric mixer with a paddle attachment
• heavy skillet
• 8-inch round cake pans with high sides (3-inch)
• cake strips will help keep your cakes from doming up in the middle.
• wire rack

📞 The last word

Spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

Each bite melts in your mouth - it's so moist and delicious that no one can resist it!

This is one of my favorite cakes to pop into the oven when those first cool fall breezes hit - it's the perfect cake to welcome fall.

Of course in Texas THAT can be sometime in November so I have to fudge a little and use the cool breezes flowing from the air conditioning system for inspiration.

This old-fashioned spice cake recipe is a sweet, tender cake packed with warm fall flavors like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves then swathed in a whip of homemade cream cheese frosting that's tangy, rich, and sensuously creamy.

Sumptuous, smoky pecans add a salty contrast and crunch.

One bite and you'll know why this classic spice cake recipe is a favorite - it's simply the best.

You might also like this creamy pumpkin cheesecake with a gingersnap crust or old fashioned gingerbread.

If you click on the number of servings in the recipe card you can adjust the measurements up or down for the exact number of servings you need. Don't forget that you can click on "add to collection" to save it to your own, private recipe box!

If you love this recipe please give it 5 stars! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

📖 Recipe

First published December 21, 2010. Last updated September 19, 2023, to add the conversion table and editorial improvements.