The Martha Stewart Cake I've Been Making Every Fall for the Last 20 Years

It’s easy—and full of cozy fall flavor.

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October is my favorite month of the year. In the Midwest, the sweater weather temperatures are perfect—slightly warm during the day and crisp in the morning and evening. Gold, orange, and red fall foliage blanket the ground. And perhaps best of all, baking with all the warm spices—cinnamon, cloves, and ginger—becomes the focus.

One recipe I've been making every fall for the last 20 years is Martha Stewart's Pumpkin Spice Cake with Honey Frosting. I first found the recipe in an issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, a mini magazine filled with some of the best recipes. It still remains one of my favorite publications; it ran for about a decade in the early 2000s and helped shape my cooking philosophy as a young aspiring chef.

Why I Love Martha Stewart’s Pumpkin Spice Cake

The cake itself is a classic spice cake, but what originally caught my attention was the frosting. Honey combined with the cream cheese tastes so good because it softens the tang.

Regular cream cheese frosting relies on powdered sugar for sweetness, which can sometimes be overly sweet. However, honey brings a natural complexity: floral notes, a touch of caramel warmth, and a smooth sweetness that melts into the cream cheese.

Honey also adds moisture, giving the frosting a silkier, more luscious texture. The result is a balanced frosting—it's sweet but not cloying, tangy but not sharp, with a depth of flavor that granulated sugar just can't deliver.

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Tips and Tricks for Making Martha's Pumpkin Spice Cake

The instructions for this recipe recommend using two bowls for the cake: one for the dry ingredients and one for the wet ingredients. However, as I've aged and become more efficient when it comes to dirty dishes, I make this cake with one bowl. I combine all the wet ingredients in a large bowl, sift in the dry ingredients, and then stir until everything is well combined.

One other minor change I make to the recipe is browning the butter. I have to use a small pan to melt the butter, so I figure I may as well brown it. Doing this adds a depth you don't usually get in a simple pumpkin cake.

Once browned, the golden milk solids develop a nutty, toasty flavor that pairs beautifully with the pumpkin and warm spices. Instead of just richness, browned butter brings subtle caramelized note that makes the cake taste more complex.

Simply Recipes / Haley Scarpino

The recipe calls for a square 9x9-inch baking pan, but I often make it in a round 9-inch pan. It also works in a loaf pan for easy slicing with coffee, and it can even be doubled to fit a 9-x13-inch pan if you're feeding a crowd. (Of course, you'll need to adjust the baking time if you change up the pan size.) But the batter is forgiving, so it bakes up moist and flavorful in just about any shape, making it an ideal recipe to adapt for different occasions.

The crumb is tender and moist, spiced just enough to warm without overwhelming, and the honey cream cheese frosting brings a tangy-sweet finish that ties everything together. It feels just right for a fall potluck, Thanksgiving dessert spread, or even a cozy weekend baking project.

And it's so distinctly Martha: simple to make and classic in flavor, yet elevated with thoughtful touches—it's the kind of cake that makes people ask for the recipe.

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Simply Recipes / Haley Scarpino

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