The only thing better than a chai is a pumpkin chai, and this cake perfectly captures the beauty of this flavor combination! It’s layers of soft and moist pumpkin cake infused with chai tea, filled and frosted with spiced chai buttercream. This recipe uses a homemade chai spice blend and real chai tea to create the ideal warm spiced flavor in both the cake layers and the frosting. It’s the ultimate Fall cake that I can’t wait to make all season long! And it’s not just me – I sent this cake to my husband’s work to get feedback and it was unanimous. This one is a mega-hit!
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There are a few different ways I added chai flavor to this pumpkin cake. First, I infused the milk in the recipe by simmering it and pouring it over a chai tea bag to let it steep in some flavor. Then, I mixed together a homemade chai spice blend and added it in with the dry ingredients. This helped marry together the beautiful pumpkin flavor and warm chai spices in the cake portion of the recipe.
To take the chai flavor beyond, I added more of that homemade chai spice mix into the buttercream, which I used to fill and frost the cake. It tastes like a chai latte in frosting form and I could literally eat it by the spoonful! Plus, the little flecks of spice are so cozy and pretty to look at. The chai buttercream together with the chai-infused pumpkin cake is *chef’s kiss* for any Fall flavor lover.
To decorate, I frosted a smooth buttercream finish with the chai buttercream, then created a cascading pumpkin design on the top and side of the cake. To do this, I divided the remaining buttercream between a few different bowls. I kept some of the buttercream uncolored, but used some burnt orange food coloring to create two different intensities of orange for the pumpkins, and used some dark brown food coloring for the pumpkin stems.
Once I got the buttercream colored, I added the buttercream into five different piping bags fitted with a few different piping tips:
- Most of the uncolored buttercream with Wilton Tip 1M for rosettes
- The darker orange buttercream with Wilton Tip 4B for the larger pumpkins
- The lighter orange buttercream with Wilton Tip 32 for the smaller pumpkins
- The brown buttercream with Wilton Tip 2 for the pumpkin stems
- The remaining uncolored buttercream with Wilton Tip 16 for small star accents
Spiced Chai Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
Chai Spice Mix
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
Chai Pumpkin Cake
- 1 Cup (240ml) whole milk
- 1 chai tea bag
- 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 tsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
- 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 Cup (140g) packed light brown sugar
- 1 Cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Cups (340g) canned pumpkin purèe
Chai Buttercream
- 2 Cups (452g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 7 Cups (840g) powdered sugar
- 1 Tbsp chai spice mix (recipe above)
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tbsp whole milk, room temperature
- 1/4 tsp salt
Instructions
Make the Chai Spice Mix
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, allspice, and cloves and set aside.
Make the Chai Pumpkin Cake
- Place the chai tea bag into a mason jar. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, warm the whole milk, stirring constantly, until it begins to boil. Pour the boiling milk over the chai tea bag in the mason jar and let steep for 20 minutes before removing the tea bag. Allow the mixture to cool completely to room temperature before moving on.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF and prepare three 6-inch or two 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and placing a wax or parchment paper circle into the bottom of each one.
- Sift the cake flour and then measure by spooning into your measuring cup and leveling it or weighing with a food scale. Place it into a medium sized bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, and chai spice mix. Whisk together and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), beat the butter on high for two minutes until it's light and creamy. Add in white and brown sugars and continue to mix on high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla, turn the mixer to medium-high, and beat for one minute. It will look slightly curdled at this point but don't worry – it will come together as a smooth cake batter by the end of the recipe.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the (room temperature!) chai milk mixture in a steady stream and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps. The batter will be slightly thick.
- Pour the batter evenly between the cake pans (fill them no more than ⅔ full) and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for ten minutes before removing and continuing to cool on a wire rack or flat surface.
Make the Chai Buttercream
- With a hand mixer or paddle attachment on your stand mixer, cream the butter on medium-high until it’s creamy and light (almost white) in color, about 7 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk 1 Tbsp of the Chai Spice Mix into the measured powdered sugar.
- With the mixer on low, add the chai powdered sugar mixture a few cups at a time, scraping down after each addition and making sure each addition is fully incorporated before adding the next one.
- Add the vanilla, milk, and salt and mix on medium-low for another two minutes until fully incorporated.
Assembly
- Once the cake layers have cooled completely, level them to your desired height. Fill and stack the cake layers with chai buttercream, then crumb coat the cake with more chai buttercream. Refrigerate the crumb coated cake for 20-30 minutes to let the frosting firm up.
- To create the design pictured, use the chai buttercream to create a smooth finish on the cake. Refrigerate the cake for an additional 10-15 minutes to let the frosting firm up while you prepare the buttercream for decorating.
- Color the Buttercream: Divide the remaining chai buttercream between four separate bowls. In the first bowl, add several drops of burnt orange food color gel (or orange with a small drop of brown) to create a dark burnt orange color. In the second bowl, add some of the burnt orange colored buttercream to create a lighter burnt orange color. In the third bowl, add several drops of brown food color gel. Keep the fourth bowl uncolored.
- Pipe the Pumpkin Design: on the frosted cake, use the uncolored buttercream to pipe a few rosettes diagonally up the side and around the top edge of the cake using Wilton Tip 1M. Fill in some of the gaps in the cascading rosette design with pumpkin shapes piped with the dark burnt orange buttercream and Wilton Tip 4B. Fill in even more of the gaps with smaller piped pumpkins using Wilton Tip 32 and the lighter burnt orange buttercream. Use the brown buttercream and Wilton Tip 2 to pipe stems on all the orange pumpkins, then accent the cascading design with more open star shapes using Wilton Tip 16 and the remaining uncolored buttercream.
Notes
- The chai pumpkin cake layers can be made ahead and stored at room temperature, covered tightly in plastic wrap, for up to two days. Alternatively, you can cover with plastic wrap and store in the freezer for up to two months before thawing to room temperature.
- The chai buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-mix with your mixer on low speed until smooth and creamy.
However you decorate, if you love pumpkin and chai flavors, you’re in for a real treat with this cake. It’s the perfect cake for your Thanksgiving Dessert table, a Christmas gathering, or any ordinary Fall or Winter day. I hope you love it as much as I do!
Hi,
I made the recipe last year and it was wonderful. But I made it again last week and the cake is crumbly. I didn’t use the same pan, which pan do you use so I can adjust the baking time ? Do you have any idea why it is crumbly ? Thanks in advance, and sorry for my English—I am Swiss and don’t speak English.
Sonia
Hi Sonia! I’m sorry the results were different this time around. What pan did you use this time vs. last time? And do you have a fan-assisted oven or a conventional oven? I use light colored aluminum pans for all of my cake recipes, either three 6-inch cake pans or two 8-inch cake pans. A crumbly cake can happen when it’s overbaked, often when you use dark colored pans, a pan that is larger than the recipe is written for (which may need less time), or the oven is too hot (which happens with fan-assisted ovens when you’re baking a cake recipe written for conventional ovens like this one).
Hi Whitney,
Thank you for replying, I used a conventional oven and did use a dark colored pan both times. I did use a larger pan but I have to so if there anything I can do to make it work with a larger one ?
Thank you so much.
Sonia
Hi Sonia! Dark-colored pans will distribute more heat to your cake and cause it to overbake more easily, and with a larger dark-colored pan it’s even easier to overdo the bake because the shorter cake layer may need less time than the recipe specifies. I’d recommend investing in light colored anodized aluminum cake pans for the best heat distribution, but if you need to bake another layer in your current pan let me know what size it is and I can try to figure out the correct baking time and oven temp.
Hi Whitney! It’s so nice of you to help me, my pan is 8,66 inches (22cm) and I have only one ! Sorry
Hi Sonia! Next time I would try lowering the oven temp to 325F and starting to test for doneness around the 32-35 minute mark. Hope that helps!
Followed directions, worked great! Everyone loved it! Definitely recommend!
This cake recipe is delicious. The crumb is so moist and delicious and I love that the recipe calls for a normal amount of ingredients that I usually have in my pantry already. I made mine with Swiss meringue buttercream but still added the spices and everyone loved it, even my picky daughter who never eats any cake. This is the perfect fall recipe to make all season long.
I give it 5 stars since the website won’t let me select them above.
Yay, Nanita! I’m so happy to hear this recipe was such a hit, even with your daughter! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
Which chai tea do u recommend. There are so many like spiced vanilla etc
Hi Maricela! Any kind of chai will work. I’ve used Stash Double Spice Chai and Tazo Organic Chai in the past, but a spiced vanilla chai would be lovely!
Hi, I bought your recipe. Pumpkin spice latte cake on page 200 is missing how many eggs to include in the recipe. I assume is 3 like the cake above. Please confirm.
Lydia Ruiz
Hi Lydia! So happy that you have my book! I just checked and the eggs amount is there on page 200, right underneath the sugars in the ingredients list. You’ll need 3 large eggs at room temperature.