Easy Pumpkin Dessert

One of the best smells is something baked with vanilla. Really, whether it’s cookies, cakes or scones, it doesn’t matter. It is a smell that tantalizes your sniffer and can literally put you in motion to locate the source of the heavenly aroma. I have such a recipe and it is one of the easiest desserts I make.

Easy Pumpkin Dessert has a delicious pumpkin pie base, topped with a lovely, vanilla cake and then drizzled with melted butter and sprinkled with crunchy walnuts.

This recipe for Easy Pumpkin Dessert is one I have been making since 1989. I still have the same, stained index card all these yeas later, proving it has been used often. One of the things I like about this recipe, besides the fact that it is so easy to make, is that it really smells amazing! Really, REALLY, amazing!!

This is a rich recipe, so a little goes a long way. I often make Easy Pumpkin Dessert in place of traditional pumpkin pie because it doesn’t require me to make a pie crust and assembly for this goody takes less than 10 minutes. I love pie, in fact, it is my all time favorite dessert. However, there are often so many dishes to be made at the holidays, not having to make a pumpkin pie crust is one less thing I have to worry about.

Easy Pumpkin Dessert is a favorite of my family and once you taste this, you too will add it to your must have list.

I have implied this is a quick and easy recipe to make, so I just want to reiterate, this is no joke! This is an easy recipe to pull together!! You start off by basically making the filling for a pumpkin pie. You will want to use plain canned pumpkin, which requires you to add your own pumpkin pie spices. Often canned pumpkin with the spices already in it, can be a bit bland. Once you have made this pumpkin mixture, instead of pouring it into a pie shell, you will pour it into a 9 x 13 baking dish.

After filling the baking dish with pumpkin pie filling, you will be sprinkling a yellow cake mix over the top of the pumpkin. This means, open the cake mix box, snip the corner off of the dry cake mix and sprinkle the dry cake mix over the pie filling. I know what you are thinking, but that is correct. Sprinkle dry cake mix over wet pumpkin mixture. It will be okay. Trust me! After you have sprinkled the entire cake mix over all of the exposed pumpkin, you are going to add chopped nuts and sprinkle those around evenly over the top of dry cake mix.

You then melt the butter and drizzle that over the entire surface of the cake mix. Do the best you can to drizzle evenly, but rest assured, there will still be dry patches and that is okay. It manages to magically come together while it bakes in the oven. Then, just pop it in a preheated oven to bake for an hour. You can do all of this in 10 minutes or less. Making Easy Pumpkin Dessert, really is that easy!

As this Easy Pumpkin Dessert bakes, it will be smelling up the house something awesome! The top gets golden brown and crunchy and the bottom sets up just like a regular pumpkin pie. I like to serve this with a scoop of vanilla ice cream while it is still warm or even a dollop of freshly, whipped cream. It is excellent leftover, so you can eat it all week if it lasts that long. It’s also a perfect dish to take to a potluck and I always get asked for the recipe. I hope you give this a try and enjoy it as much as we do! Enjoy friends!

Easy Pumpkin Dessert is one of our family traditions at Thanksgiving. Besides pie, which pumpkin recipe does your family like to serve to keep with your traditions?