Pumpkin Poke Cake — 🎃🧡🤤 Easy and the BEST PUMPKIN CAKE ever!! Two kinds of CARAMEL sauce, TOFFEE bits, CHOCOLATE CHIPS, whipped topping and more!! A total WINNER you must make!!
Table of Contents
Welcome to pumpkin season! I’ve got quite the showstopper of a pumpkin cake for all you pumpkin fiends.
It’s a ridiculously easy cake that starts with a boxed mix of spice cake, a can of pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice. If you need an easy pumpkin dessert, look no farther than this cake.
Poke cakes get their name because after baking, you poke holes over the surface of the cake and flood it with a sweet mixture. Here it’s a mixture of sweetened condensed milk and caramel sundae topping.
The pumpkin caramel poke cake is finished with whipped topping, toffee bits, mini chocolate chips, and salted caramel sauce. The salted caramel adds a salty-sweet element, the toffee bits and chocolate chips add texture and contrast to the fluffy whipped topping and uber soft, melt-in-your-mouth cake.
Ingredients for Pumpkin Poke Cake
To make this poke cake with sweetened condensed milk, you’ll need:
- Spice cake mix
- Pumpkin puree
- Egg
- Oil
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Sweetened condensed milk
- Caramel sundae topping
- Whipped topping
- Toffee bits
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Salted caramel sauce (homemade or store-bought)
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Pumpkin Caramel Poke Cake
- Mix together the cake mix, pumpkin puree, egg, oil, and pumpkin pie spice. Turn into a greased 9×13-inch baking dish and bake until done.
- Remove cake from the oven when it’s done and use the blunt end of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake.
- Whisk together the sweetened condensed milk and caramel sundae topping, then evenly pour over the cake.
- Refrigerate cake for about 15 minutes, then evenly spread the whipped topping over the surface, sprinkle with toffee bits, chocolate chips, and evenly drizzle with salted caramel sauce.
- Return to refrigerator for another 2 hours before serving.
Tips for Making a Poke Cake
- Note that this recipe calls for sweetened condensed milk and not evaporated milk. They’re two different products.
- When poking the cake with the end of a wooden spoon, be sure to evenly space out the holes and to poke the cake all over. You want the caramel sauce and sweetened condensed milk to seep into all parts of the cake.
- Because this cake needs to be refrigerated before slicing into it, it’s great for making the day before a party or family gathering.
- Please note that this is a heavier, denser, practically dripping wet cake. If you are looking for a light and airy cake or pumpkin dessert, this is not the one. It’s also pretty sweet.
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Pumpkin Caramel Poke Cake
Ingredients
- one 16.50-ounce box spice cake mix
- one 15-ounce can pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie mix
- 1 large egg
- ⅓ cup canola or vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- one 12-ounce can sweetened condensed milk
- one 12-ounce jar caramel sundae topping
- one 8-ounce container whipped topping, thawed (I used fat free)
- ½ cup toffee bits
- ½ cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ⅓ cup salted caramel sauce (storebought or homemade
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Line a 9×13-inch pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray; set aside.
- To a large bowl, add the cake mix, pumpkin puree, egg, oil, pumpkin pie spice, and beat with a handheld electric mixer on high until smooth and combined, about 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.
- Bake for about 27 to 30 minutes, or until cake is set in the center, springy to the touch, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs but no batter.
- While the cake bakes combine the sweetened condensed milk, caramel sundae topping, and whisk to combine; set aside.
- Remove cake from the oven when it’s done and use the blunt end of a wooden spoon to poke holes all over the cake. I didn’t count but I estimate I poked the cake in about 60 places, evenly spaced over the surface.
- Slowly pour the sweetened condensed milk and caramel mixture over the cake, taking your time to evenly distribute it.
- Place cake in the fridge for about 15 minutes to cool slightly before adding the whipped topping so it doesn’t melt.
- Remove cake from the fridge, evenly spread the whipped topping over the surface, evenly sprinkle with toffee bits, chocolate chips, and evenly drizzle with salted caramel sauce.
- Cover cake and refrigerate for at least 2 hours (overnight is best) before slicing and serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Pumpkin Desserts:
50+ Pumpkin Recipes on my blog including sweet, savory, breakfast, desserts and more!
Cooking With Pumpkin: Recipes That Go Beyond the Pie is my second cookbook and was released October, 2014. There’s over 50 pumpkin recipes including sweets, savory, drinks, and a photo for nearly every recipe. I’d be super grateful if you headed over to Amazon!
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Originally posted August 26, 2016 and reposted August 26, 2022 with updated text.
My daughter made then on my visit to her house this past week! DELICIOUS!!!!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Linda, and I’m glad that this was delicious for your family!
This cake is one of my new favorites! I stuck tightly to the recipe (just didn’t use the tinfoil in my pyrex dish). The flavor was wonderful! And it was incredibly moist! The homemade salted caramel sauce wasn’t difficult to make – a perfect addition to the other wonderful toppings! I took it to a church event, and it was a big hit! Will definitely make it again! Thx for sharing!
This cake is one of my new favorites! I stuck tightly to the recipe (just didn’t use the tinfoil in my pyrex dish). The flavor was wonderful! And it was incredibly moist! The homemade salted caramel sauce wasn’t difficult to make – a perfect addition to the other wonderful toppings! I took it to a church event, and it was a big hit! Will definitely make it again! Thx for sharing!
Thanks for the 5 star review and I am glad that it’s one of your new favorites! And that you made the homemade salted caramel sauce, too. That’s wonderful!
Thank U Averie I’m going to try the yellow cake mix and increase the pumpkin spice do u think that would work
You can’t just omit the canned pumpkin all together without replacing that with something. It’s a significant quantity so like I said, I suggest boiled sweet potatoes in lieu of the pumpkin.
made this – way to sweet – next time will only use the caramel sauce – will skip the sweetened condensed milk, the chocolate sauce, etc. I’d love to see the nutritional information for this – must be a lot of calories – sugar and fat
great
Hi Averie I want to try this recipe but I can’t use pumpkin what else can I use
Well since this is a pumpkin cake, and you can’t use pumpkin, that is going to be a problem.
You could possibly used boiled and mashed sweet potatoes, about 1 3/4 cups worth. Although I haven’t tried it.
Look over my hundreds of other non-pumpkin cakes too which may be easier https://www.averiecooks.com/category/dessert/cake/
Ive made this cake a few times and it is amazing!! I love how the pumpkin and caramel flavors combine. Its always a hit at work events and I never bring home leftovers!
Hello! Do you think there is anything I could do to replace the eggs in this recipe? Looks delicious but we have an egg intolerance in our house.
I would say do what you normally do when you make a cake mix cake. Do you use an egg replacer? If so, do that.
If you don’t make cake mix cakes, I don’t know what to suggest because I’ve never tried to go eggless when working with cake mix. So I can’t say what will happen other than try an egg replacer.
Ive made this cake a few times and it is amazing!! I love how the pumpkin and caramel flavors combine. Its always a hit at work events and I never bring home leftovers!
Thanks for the five star review and I’m glad you’ve made it a few times and that it’s always been a hit and you never have leftovers :)
This cake looks so YUMMY. This will definitely be a recipe that I will be making next weekend when my children will be here. Great Fall cake.
can you use yellow cake mix instead of spiced?
Yes, but it won’t have quite the depth of flavor, as long as you know that going in.
Any recommendations for making this with yellow cake mix? Increase pumpkin pie spice, maybe?
Sounds like a great start to me!
Do you think I could bake the cake a day ahead and then poke the holes, do the milk/sauce/cool whip the next day and refrigerate?
Yes you could BUT I would honestly just bake the cake and make it from start to finish on one day, and then refrigerate until the next day. I do this all the time with cakes for photo shoots. Bake/make at night, photos the next day midday. Works just fine with poke cakes, they still taste great!