Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Frosting
If you are one pumpkin spice latte away from a total squash overdose, you may have read the words “Pumpkin Sheet Cake” and felt the twinge of an eye roll. If this is the case—if even the prospect of the fluffiest, most moist pumpkin spice cake you’ve ever tasted cannot tempt you—I still have a very compelling reason why you should bake this Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Frosting anyway.
Cream cheese frosting.
One of my less-polite habits is wiping all but the thinnest layer of frosting from my of slice cake, because I find most frosting recipes to be overly sweet or even greasy. I’ve even gone so far as demonstrate this behavior at weddings, which is usually the point in the evening when, if he didn’t already at the site of my attempted line dance to “Cotton Eyed Joe,” Ben pretends he doesn’t know me.
But this cream cheese frosting recipe? I could eat it on a slice of cardboard. THAT GOOD.
Seeing as we have an extra fluffy, super moist pumpkin sheet cake available as our frosting vehicle, however, let’s enjoy it that way instead, shall we?
About This Pumpkin Sheet Cake
As with last week’s healthy pumpkin bread, this pumpkin sheet cake is taking us back to the pumpkin fundamentals. It’s soft and springy, packed with warm spices, and only takes one bowl to make. While many pumpkin spice cakes are on the heavier side (a product of the density of the pumpkin puree itself), this pumpkin sheet cake is refreshingly light and delightfully tender.
To keep this pumpkin sheet cake on the healthier side, I swapped out a portion of sugar for honey and the vegetable oil for Greek yogurt. I employed the same trick for the frosting, substituting Greek yogurt for part of the butter and cream cheese. I love the extra bit of tang the yogurt adds to the frosting, and it makes it extra creamy and smooth too.
My other healthy twist was to replace half of the regular flour with white whole wheat flour. Its mild taste is completely undetectable, and you can go in for that extra slice with confidence, knowing you’re squeezing in a little extra fiber.
I chose to do this pumpkin spice cake as a sheet versus layer cake for maximum ease and portability. In addition to being faster and easier to make than their fussier layer cake cousins, sheet cakes travel well and are especially simple to slice and serve at parties and potlucks.
As I quickly discovered, sheet cakes are also ideal for trimming off little extra bites whenever you happen to be walking through the kitchen, a place that, when this pumpkin sheet cake is on the premises, you are likely to find yourself very frequently.
More Healthy Pumpkin Recipes
I have DOZENS of Healthy Pumpkin Recipes, but here are a few ideas:
- Almond Flour Pumpkin Muffins
- Vegan Pumpkin Pie
- Vegan Pumpkin Bread
- Pumpkin Pecan Pie
- Pumpkin Pecan Cobbler
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Brownies
Recommended Tools to Make Pumpkin Cake
- 9×13 inch baking pan (I love the carry-everywhere lid)
- Stand mixer (this hand mixer is excellent too)
Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Pumpkin Sheet Cake:
- 1/2 cup canola oil — or melted cooled coconut oil
- 1/2 cup non-fat plain Greek yogurt
- 2/3 cup brown sugar — light or dark
- 1/4 cup honey — plus 2 tablespoons
- 4 large eggs — at room temperature
- 1 cup pumpkin puree — NOT pumpkin pie filling
- 1 1/8 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder — I recommend aluminum free
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice — or substitute 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour
- 1 cup all purpose flour
For the Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 6 ounces 1/3 reduced-fat cream cheese — also called Neufchatel; do not use fat free
- 3 tablespoons non-fat plain Greek yogurt
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter — softened to room temperature
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9x13-inch baking pan with parchment paper, then lightly coat with baking spray.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or a large mixing bowl, beat together the oil, Greek yogurt, brown sugar, and honey until well blended and smooth. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, incorporating between each. Beat in the pumpkin puree.
- Sprinkle the baking soda, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin pie spice over the top. Mix to combine. Then, sprinkle in the whole wheat flour and all purpose flour. By hand with a wooden spatula or spoon, stir the batter, just until the flour disappears.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then with an offset spatula or spoon, smooth the top. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place the cake on a wire pan to cool completely.
- To make the frosting: In a medium bowl, beat together the cream cheese, Greek yogurt, butter, vanilla extract, and salt at medium speed for 2 minutes, until fluffy and well combined. Reduce the mixer speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar, increasing the speed to medium as you go. Beat for 1-2 minutes until well combined. Spread frosting evenly over top of cooled cake. Let the frosting set for 10 minutes (you can pop the cake into the refrigerator if you are in a hurry), then slice and serve.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition Information
Amount per serving (1 (of 20) with all frosting used) — Calories: 275, Fat: 10g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 48mg, Sodium: 166mg, Carbohydrates: 41g, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 31g, Protein: 4gDid you try this recipe? I want to see! Follow Well Plated on Instagram, snap a photo, and tag it #wellplated. I love to know what you are making!
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hey girl this looks amazing! yummy!
Thank you so much Shawnna! Have a great weekend :-)
I’ve been really loving honey lately, so I love you added it in here! And Greek yogurt is my everything- it looks scrumptious in this frosting :)
Lovely dish for Halloween, I love these kind of cakes because they are so simple to do.
I do too! Thank you!
This sounds great and I love the healthy changes too :)
Thank you so much!
Could I leave the butter out of the frosting, I bothers my acid reflux like crazy!!??? This sounds so YUMMY! THanks.
Hi Kristin! The butter adds both flavor and consistency. If you don’t mind not having the flavor, you can leave it out, I would substitute an extra 2 tablespoons of cream cheese to make sure it isn’t too runny. I hope you enjoy the recipe!
can you freeze this cake without the cream cheese frosting
Hi Nuala! Yes, I actually think it would freeze best this way. Simply freeze the cake tightly in plastic wrap and foil. When you are ready to serve, defrost overnight in the refrigerator, then top with cream cheese frosting prior to serving.
Hi,Erin I will be making this cake to take as my contribution to the Thanksgiving table it looks divine I was thinking of adding some roasted,chopped pecans or walnuts to the cake and maybe sprinkling some on top of frosting but,what do you think??
I think either would be delicious Kathleen! Feel free to add up to 1/2 cup to the batter, than another 1/2 to 1 cup to sprinkle on top, depending upon how “nutty” you’d like it. I also suggest toasting them first to bring out their flavor. I hope you all love it!
Hi Erin,
I would like to make this for an event in attending. Could I make it the night before the event and then just put it in the refrigerator until the next day? Thanks!
Definitely Macy! I hope you all love it.
Hi Erin! I love your beautiful blog!! Your Pumpkin Sheet Cake looks and sounds deee-licious! And I could definitely eat that Greek Yogurt Cream Cheese Frosting with a spoon! lol :) Perfect fall dessert recipe!
Thanks so much, Alia! The frosting is definitely tempting to eat straight out of the bowl. ;)
I made four of these last week for a large gathering and they were a huge hit! Perfect for a potluck and was easy to double if you are looking to feed a crowd. I did not have enough honey on hand and subbed some pure maple syrup – turned out great.
I am so so happy to hear that Celeste! Thanks so much for taking time to leave this lovely review. It really means a lot! Also, FOUR CAKES? You are a baking champion!
I just recently made a cheesecake using the greek yogurt (room temp and drained extra water off) since I was short on cream cheese. Was going to make a half a recipe but thought I’d give it a try. I just adapted the original recipe and made the whole recipe. So half the cream cheese as normal. I always cut the sugar at least some in any CC recipe. Find it’s better less sweet. It was most excellent and I can see making this in a similar fashion. Thanks for the ideas.
I’m so happy you enjoyed this recipe, Chris! Thank you for taking the time to share this kind review!
Hello, for your pumpkin sheet cake, it ask for 1/3 reduced-fat. Can you use regular cream cheese? Also, for the pumpkin pie spice. If I don’t have that, are you saying to mix all those spices together to substitute the pumpkin pie spice if you don’t have it.. Thanks!
Hi Stephanie! You can use regular cream cheese (the reduced fat version was just to help lighten it up). And, yes, you can mix all those spices together to create your own pumpkin pie spice. I hope you love the recipe!
These all sound good and delicious. It’s just my husband and myself so I don’t like to cook to much food we can never eat before it goes bad but I think these recipes can go a long way for our church group of put a lot in their tummies woman. Every one says they don’t eat much but can
Thank you for taking the time to leave this kind comment, Patricia! I hope you love the recipe if you give it a try!
My daughter made a trial healthy pumpkin cake for her 2 yr old’s birthday that was way too heavy. When I arrived the day before the party, I said “Let’s try Well Plated. Erin has a perfect mix of tasty and healthy.” Sure enough, it was a winner! I even changed it to high altitude for Denver and it was light and flavorful! Someone at the party asked for the recipe and I also told her about your cookbook coming up. She wants to buy one for a gift for her sister!
This recipe saved the birthday party! Thanks for another winning recipe. Can’t wait for the cookbook to come out!
Susan, this truly MADE my day! I’m so happy to hear that this was a hit! Thank you for taking the time to share this kind review!