This Crazy Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake is naturally dairy free, no eggs, milk or butter necessary! It’s based on a Depression era type of cake known as Crazy Cake or Wacky Cake. It mixes up in a flash and is a moist, nicely spiced cake. Top it with Whipped Maple Cream Cheese Frosting for an easy and delicious fall dessert! (Or, keep it dairy free and top with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar or some dairy free whipped cream.)
What is “Crazy Cake”?
This cake is based on a Depression era cake that originated during wartime when there were rations on milk, butter and eggs. The original crazy cake was developed without using any of those dairy based ingredients and used a different mixing method.
In fact, the original crazy cake could be mixed up in one bowl, or even right in the baking pan!
The first crazy cake I made was chocolate and I decided to update it by substituting olive oil for the vegetable oil originally called for. That cake is my Crazy Chocolate Olive Oil Cake and it is as delicious as it is easy!
So, I decided to create a pumpkin version of that Crazy Chocolate Olive Oil Cake because I think it’s always good to have a quick cake recipe available when you need it.
Ingredients Needed for Crazy Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake
- Flour-I used all purpose flour. I haven’t tried alternative flours.
- Granulated sugar-You could experiment with substituting half or all of the sugar with brown sugar.
- Baking soda-This is the leavener that helps it rise.
- Salt-I used table salt. If you use a coarser salt like Kosher, add an extra 1/8 teaspoon
- Pumpkin pie spice-If you don’t have this in your pantry, you can make your own using 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
- Apple cider vinegar-I don’t usually substitute other vinegars for this but you could use white vinegar. White vinegar has a harsher flavor than apple cider vinegar. In any case, you need the vinegar, which is an acid, to react with the baking soda so that it can do its leavening job.
- Olive oil-I use a mild oil that’s not extra virgin, but feel free to experiment if you’d like a stronger flavor. You could use canola, vegetable, avocado or other favorite oil as a substitute. As a general rule these days, I pretty much use olive or avocado oil in most of my baking where oil is called for.
- Pumpkin puree-I always make sure to mention that this is not pumpkin pie filling, so check your can to make sure you have the right ingredient.
- Water-I used less than a typical Crazy Cake recipe to account for the additional moisture from the pumpkin puree.
Can you really mix it up in the baking pan?
Theoretically, yes. Yes you can. I’ve done it. And if you read my Crazy Chocolate Olive Oil Cake post, you’ll find out how literally I took the instructions I was given when I was the tender age of 12.
Today, I find it much easier to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately and then combine them.
I mean, bowls were made for mixing for a reason, right? And you can mix the whole thing up by hand, so it’s pretty easy, even if you do use two bowls.
How to Make Pumpkin Olive Oil Crazy Cake
As I mentioned above, I don’t take the traditional route and mix this in the baking pan. I prefer using two bowls and prepping my pan with baking spray and/or parchment paper.
The dry ingredients are whisked together in one bowl. The wet ingredients in another bowl.
Then, just add the wet to the dry and whisk until thoroughly combined.
That’s it! No mixer necessary. Just pour the batter right into your prepared pan.
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How to keep the cake from sticking to the pan?
For this cake, I use one of two options.
The first one is a non stick spray. Trust me that they are not all created equal. The one I use is Baklene ZT. I buy it at Williams Sonoma. I use this instead of a cooking spray. It releases better and doesn’t leave a lot of greasy residue behind.
I simply sprayed some into the pan and then used a silicone brush {aff. link} to spread it evenly into the corners and up the sides.
With just the spray, my cake released completely without issue. This is the confidence I get with that specific spray.
Alternatively, you could use non-stick spray on the pan, line the bottom with parchment paper {aff. link} and then lightly spray the parchment.
This is the process I use for all of my layer cakes. I didn’t find it necessary with this recipe, but If you were concerned about your cake sticking, this will give you extra insurance.
I also use this process if I’m using typical cooking spray.
How to Make Whipped Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
This frosting is a riff on my favorite Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting. It’s not as pipeable because of the added maple syrup, but it’s no less delicious. I wanted this to be very light and creamy instead of the sturdier and more pipeable original.
The important thing to remember about this type of frosting is that you want cold ingredients. Whenever you’re whipping cream, it needs to be cold.
So, we’ll start with a couple of tablespoons of butter and use an electric mixer to beat it until it’s softened. Then, add the cold cream cheese and whip that until combined.
Now it’s time to add the maple syrup and maple extract, {aff. link} if using. Drizzle it in slowly to give it a chance to mix into the butter and cream cheese. It’s probably going to look curdled until the mixture really comes together.
Seriously, I started to lose faith in my process as I continued to beat the chunky mixture hoping it would finally submit to the will of my electric mixer.
But keep the faith. Just keep mixing until it’s smooth. Once it’s smooth, you can slowly add the heavy whipping cream continuing to beat until stiff peaks form. This will take a couple of minutes.
When you see your beaters starting to leave very defined trail marks in the frosting, you know you’re there. Lift your beaters out of the mixture and you should get fairly sturdy peaks of frosting.
That’s it. Spread it all over the top of your cooled cake. There’s a generous amount of frosting. You could frost the sides as well, if you preferred.
Other Options to Top the Cake
(I don’t need the cake to be dairy free for my family, so most of my toppings are dairy based. You can experiment substituting dairy free alternatives for most of the options below using ingredients like vegan butter and vegan cream cheese)
- My Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting would be delicious on this cake if you want to skip the maple flavor. You’ll only need a half batch for this cake.
- I also love my Brown Sugar Cinnamon Whipped Cream Cream Cheese Frosting. it’s perfect for fall flavored cakes and would be a delicious choice for this cake.
- If you’re not fond of cream cheese, just plain whipped cream would be a perfect topping. (Or, use a non-dairy whipped topping.)
- A simple dusting of confectioner’s sugar is probably the easiest topping of all and keeps the whole cake dairy free.
- And now, for a completely different topping choice, you could drizzle on some warm 10 Minute Buttermilk Caramel Sauce. I know it will taste great on this cake because that stuff tastes great on EVERYTHING.
So there you have it. A pumpkin crazy cake that requires no eggs, milk or butter. I think it’s good to have these easy to mix cakes in your back pocket when you don’t want to fuss with a typical cake recipe or if you don’t want to break out the mixer.
Looking for a pumpkin cake that’s not so “crazy?”
The recipes below are more traditional cakes and each one is more delicious than the next!
Crazy Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake
Crazy Pumpkin Olive Oil Cake is naturally dairy free. No eggs or butter necessary! It's a very moist, nicely spiced cake that's quick and easy to make. Top with Whipped Maple Cream Cheese Frosting for a delicious fall dessert!
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1/3 cup olive oil (or your favorite liquid oil)
- 1 cup pureed pumpkin (not pie filling)
- 1/4 cup water
For the Whipped Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, slightly softened
- pinch of salt
- 4 ounces block cream cheese. cold
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
- 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream. cold
- 1/8 teaspoon maple extract (optional)
Instructions
Before you start:
- Spray an 8" square baking pan with non-stick spray. Set aside
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the cake:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice until thoroughly combined. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the vinegar, olive oil, pumpkin puree and water until all ingredients are well combined.
- Add the pumpkin mixture to the flour mixture and whisk until completely combined.
- Pour into prepared baking pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on a cooling rack if you want to remove the cake to a serving plate or allow to cool in pan if you want to serve right from the pan. (See notes for removing cake from pan.)
Make the frosting:
- When the cake is completely cool, make the frosting.
- In a medium bowl, beat the butter and pinch of salt with an electric mixer until softened. Add cream cheese and continue to beat until well combined.
- Add the maple syrup and extract (if using) and continue to beat until creamy. It will appear curdled and stubborn to blend. Just continue to beat for a couple of minutes until smooth. (See photo in post.)
- Once it's smooth, slowly add the cold heavy whipping cream and beat until stiff peaks form. This should take 1-2 minutes or so. Once you see the beaters leaving very defined trails in the frosting, you are done.
- Spread frosting on cooled cake. Store in refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
- If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, you can use 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger, 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.
- I used Baklene ZT baking spray and my cake released without issue. For extra insurance, you can spray the pan, line the bottom with parchment and lightly spray the parchment. Add your cake batter as directed in recipe and bake as usual. Cool for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edge to loosen any areas that might be sticking and then flip the cake out onto a paper towel lined plate. Then flip the cake onto a paper towel lined cooling rack so that it's right side up while it cools.
- For casual serving, allow cake to cool in pan. Frost and serve directly from pan.
- It's important to have cold cream cheese and whipping cream to achieve the stiff peaks needed. Warm ingredients will not whip up properly.
- Maple extract adds a ton of maple flavor, so I used sparingly. You can add more to taste for a more robust flavor. When I used double the amount, I thought it over powered the flavor of the cake, though others thought it was just fine.
- If you want to bake a round cake instead of a square, I would use a 9" round pan to accommodate the batter