This gooey molten Pumpkin Caramel Lava Cake recipe is spiced to perfection and filled with smooth rich caramel. One of the most unique and best fall desserts ever! If you want more unique pumpkin dessert recipes, try this Pumpkin Spice Turtle Cake, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Cider Doughnuts, Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookie Bites and Perfect Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Glaze!!
The BEST Pumpkin Caramel Lava Cake Recipe EVER!
The holidays will be here before we know it, and my home is about to turn into dessert central. From cakes to pies to cookies galore, I am a baking machine. I always make the traditional suspects for Thanksgiving each year (Sweet Potato Pie, Caramel Cake, Caramel Apple Cheesecake and Sweet Potato Pound Cake) but wanted to punch it up a bit with individual desserts that are delicious and classy. If you want to impress all your Thanksgiving Day dinner guests, you must bake my caramel pumpkin lava cake recipe.
What Is Lava Cake?
Lava cake is normally made with chocolate. It got its name from the warm center (usually containing chocolate) that oozes out like lava from a volcano.
I absolutely love lava cake. Just thinking about my fork diving into its gooey center makes me moan with delight! This delightful Pumpkin Caramel Lava Cake recipe has a fall twist, and boy oh boy is it the bomb dot com.
Pumpkin Caramel Lava Cake Recipe Ingredients
I added pumpkin puree and fall spices like pumpkin pie spice to this mini masterpiece, along with white chocolate which really brought out a wonderful essence to this recipe.
The eggs are crucial to this recipe. They create the structure for the outside of the molten cake but also provides great richness to the recipe.
The inside is what makes this recipe even better. The chocolate pumpkin mix is warm and gooey, and when it mixes with soft caramel with a bit of sea salt, it is insane!!!!
You could eat this as it is or top it with a scoop of ice cream (like I did), and it is absolutely sensational.
How To Make A Lava Cake
So here are a few tips for making the very best lava cake recipe ever! This will apply for other recipes as well.
Tip 1: Mix Cake batter until it is combined.
No need to over mix cakes. This batter has all purpose flour which creates a bit more gluten when over mixed. We want this cake to have a soft silky texture, not a tough one.
Tip 2: Don’t Over bake!
A lava cake has to have a molten liquidy center. If it is overbaked, the center will solidify getting rid of the texture difference. You want the inside of your cake to ooze. You just need the outside of the cake to set up enough to hold its shape. Once that happens and the structure is sound, you can stop baking!
Tip 3: Serve right away!
I believe in serving my lava cake recipe after it is flipped on the plate. It is fresh and the center doesn’t have any time to set up and solidify. Caramel gets hard as it sets and the more this cake cools down, the more it changes the texture in the center.
More Delicious Pumpkin Desserts
Pumpkin is such an essential flavor for the fall season. I personally work it into as many recipes as possible including this caramel pumpkin lava cake recipe. If you like it, you’ll love my other pumpkin desserts:
- PUMPKIN CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES
- PUMPKIN POUND CAKE
- BROWN BUTTER PUMPKIN CORNBREAD
- PUMPKIN CINNAMON ROLL CUPCAKES
- PUMPKIN CIDER DOUGHNUTS
Caramel Pumpkin Lava Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 ounces white chocolate
- 6 tablespoons salted butter
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¾ cup confectioner's sugar
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1/3 cup canned pumpkin
- 1½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 prepackaged caramel candies unwrapped (make sure they are the soft packaged type)
- sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F.
- Add white chocolate and butter to a microwave-safe, medium-sized bowl and heat in intervals of 20 seconds; stirring after each heating until completely melted and smooth.
- Whisk in flour, sugar, and pumpkin pie spice until batter is smooth.
- Whisk in eggs, egg yolk, pumpkin, and vanilla extract until the batter is well blended.
- Using 3 (6 ounce) ramekins that have been sprayed with non-stick spray, fill each ramekin half way with cake batter. Add two caramels into each ramekin and sprinkle with sea salt (about 1/8-1/4 teaspoon per cake depending on how much salty flavor you want). Spoon remaining cake batter over each cake.
- Bake cakes for 14-17 minutes and remove from oven. The cakes should be set on the outsides but still jiggly in the center.
- Let cool for 2 minutes; take a knife and run along the inside of each ramekin to help release the cake.
- Invert the cakes on individual plates. Dust with sea salt or powdered sugar and serve warm.
This sounds great, as all your recipes do. But 3 servings? That’s a bit odd for a recipe. At least 4 would be more practical.
These are yummy! I don’t know what ounce ramekins I have but I made four desserts easily. Made them as part of my Thanksgiving dessert “tasting” so four were all I needed for my family. Thank you for the recipe!
I put caramels and white chocolate on my list to makes these. Hubby loves caramel and pumpkin, so as far as I am concerned you hit the Trifecta on this one. I adore your recipes and am constantly posting them in my Facebook group, hope you don’t mind.
Thanks again for another winner!
Haven’t made yet but looks fabulous. We live at 6000ft altitude. So is there any adjustments for altitude? Added gluten or flour????
I am sorry, I forgot to ask this, can I make this recipe in a cupcake pan?