This Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake takes no time to prepare and tastes like Pumpkin Spice Latte. Delicious, creamy, cozy, and easy! Made in electric pressure cooker in just 7 minutes.
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It’s the middle of August. It’s still hot and humid and sunny. Yet, I’ve been cooking with pumpkin for over a month now. Life of a food blogger.
You see, I’ve been developing delicious Pumpkin Recipes and I absolutely cannot wait to share them. There are some delicious Pumpkin Ricotta Cookies coming soon to the blog. And a totally amazing Pumpkin Cranberry Fudge that I can’t stop eating (I store it in the freezer for a very convenient dessert).
But today it’s all about Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake which I made five (yes, five!) times already while developing the recipe. The issue with this particular Pumpkin Pudding Cake wasn’t the actual recipe, which I feel I nailed!
The biggest issue was the technique of turning this Pumpkin Pudding Cake into an Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake. My original idea was to make a pumpkin lava cake and it actually worked, sort of. But I didn’t like it.
I tried different cooking times in my Instant Pot to make sure it’s properly “lava-ish” but every time the Pumpkin Cake got more solid is when I actually enjoyed eating it. The trials with the gooey centre looked really cool but weren’t my favourite.
So in the end, I decided to not force the cake and actually call it Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake since it turned out delicious and soft and creamy and cozy. It tastes like Pumpkin Spice Latte and cool sunny autumn day. It smells like fall and the new beginnings.
If you aren’t sure what Pumpkin Spice Latte is or if you love it and can’t wait for it to arrive at your local coffee shop every year or if you just love good food writing, I strongly urge you to read an amazing article OMFG! It’s the PSL! by Allecia Vermillion.
If you love pumpkin and can’t wait for more Pumpkin Recipes, then try these ones:
- Pumpkin Bread Pudding
- Pumpkin, Sweet Potato, Leek and Coconut Milk Soup
- Vegan Pumpkin Cake
- Pumpkin Pretzels
Don’t forget to purchase my new cookbook, The Ultimate One-Pan Oven Cookbook, it has two recipes that use pumpkin in very unusual way!!
How to make Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake
Making this Instant Pot Cake is really easy:
- Melt the white chocolate and butter
- Mix in the egg, pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and whole wheat flour
- Pour into well-oiled ramekins
- Cook in Instant Pot on high pressure
- Release pressure and enjoy
Easy-peasy!
How long to cook Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake
This is where all my trials and errors were happening. The timings! Also, foil! To cover the ramekins with foil or not to cover?
Interestingly enough, covering with foil meant that the texture of the Pumpkin Cake was gooey and it turned into the lava cake. Without foil – fully cooked.
I tried this Instant Pot Cake with regular flour and whole wheat flour. IMPORTANT: The Pumpkin Pudding Cake is firmer with the whole wheat flour in less time than with the regular flour.
So, I cook my Pumpkin Pudding Cake for 7 minutes without foil with whole-wheat flour!
If you cook for 7 minutes with foil, it’ll have a gooey centre. If you make this Pumpkin Cake with regular flour and cook for 7 minutes, it’ll most likely also be gooey.
All the testing was done with this Instant Pot so the timings might be different with other models.
Can you double the recipe?
Yep! You can double the recipe, just make sure that your ramekins fit into the pot.
You do not need to double the amount of water in the pot. You do not need to double the cooking time.
How long does it actually take to make Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake
Unlike some other recipes where electric pressure cooker takes a long time to come to pressure, it only takes 4 minutes in this particular recipe since I use boiling (or almost boiling) water.
Add to it 7 minutes cooking time, 1 minute pressure release, and about 10 minutes prep (and I am being very generous here, most likely it’ll be 5-8 minutes). And you get 22 minutes from start to finish!
I don’t have a microwave, so I melt my chocolate on the stove over a water-bath and that takes the most time. I then use the water from the pot and add it to my Instant Pot.
On the fence about getting an Instant Pot? Read the article I wrote about 7 Things You Need to Know About Instant Pot and why you might not even want to buy it!
Ingredients and variations for the Pumpkin Pudding Cake?
- Sugar
- It is not a mistake, there’s no sugar in the recipe. I started out with 2 tablespoons of brown sugar, then reduced to 1 tablespoon, then to 1 teaspoon. In the end, I felt that the Pumpkin Pudding Cake is sweet enough from the white chocolate and no sugar is needed.
- If you have a sweet tooth, feel free to add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- Flour
- I made this Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake with both regular (all-purpose) flour and whole-wheat flour. I strongly prefer whole wheat as it adds a nice nutty flavour.
- If you prefer to use all-purpose flour, you might need to increase the cooking time by 1-2 minutes, otherwise the cake will be gooey in the centre.
- Pumpkin Spice
- Feel free to omit, reduce, or increase the amount of pumpkin spice. I find that 1/2 teaspoon is just right for my taste.
- You can also use cinnamon instead of pumpkin spice.
Why white chocolate?
Many people on Facebook asked me about white chocolate and what to use instead of it.
As I wrote above, I originally developed this Pumpkin Pudding Cake as a lava/molten cake. Traditionally, molten cakes are made with chocolate, so that’s why I use white chocolate as one of the ingredients but bake the cake longer to get the creamy pudding texture.
I do not know if white chocolate can be omitted and sugar used instead, as all five times (that is 10 Pumpkin Pudding Cakes for those who are counting, by the way) I used white chocolate. If you try and it works, please let me know so that I can update the recipe!
How to serve Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake
This Pumpkin Pudding Cake is really better served warm than cold. So, if you have leftovers, I’d recommend heating them up.
I personally like this cake plane or maybe with a very fine sprinkling of extra cinnamon. For an extra indulgent treat, serve with vanilla ice cream and/or whipped cream!
DO YOU WANT MORE INSTANT POT RECIPES?
Join my Real Ingredients Instant Pot Recipes Facebook Group!!! It’s a fun and safe place to share your own Instant Pot recipes made with Real Ingredients.
Don’t forget to watch the video to see how easy this Instant Pot Cake comes together!
Instant Pot Pumpkin Pudding Cake
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup pumpkin purée
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin spice
- 3 tablespoons whole wheat flour
- Cooking oil spray
Instructions
- In a heat-proof small bowl, melt together the white chocolate and butter. Make sure that the chocolate doesn't seize.
- Mix in the pumpkin purée. It's important to add the pumpkin before the egg, as it cools the chocolate a bit so that the egg doesn't scramble.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
- Very generously spray two ramekins with the cooking oil.
- Divide the Pumpkin Pudding Cake batter between two ramekins.
- Add one cup boiling (or very very hot) water to the Instant Pot.
- Place a trivet to the Instant Pot and put two ramekins with the cake batter on the trivet.
- Close the lid and turn the valve to sealing.
- Press Manual or Pressure Cooker button (depending on your model) and use the arrows to select 7 minutes. It will take about 4 minutes for the Instant Pot to come to pressure.
- Once the 7 minutes of pressure cooking are up and your Instant Pot beeps that it's done do a manual quick release. I like putting a small kitchen towel on the pressure release valve to contain the steam a little bit. It takes about 1 minute to fully release the pressure.
- Very carefully remove the ramekins with the Pumpkin Pudding Cake. You might need to use gloves or a kitchen towel to do that.
- Invert the cake onto a plate and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
Video
Nutrition
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Elizabeth says
Hi. This looks like the best recipe for leftover pumpkin that I have seen. Mostly because it doesn’t use a lot of sugar. I have two questions, can I use dark chocolate instead of white chocolate? And also the ramekins I have are about half the size of the one you used. I can probably put four in the pot but I don’t know how much to adjust the time?
Julia says
Thank you! I haven’t tried it with dark chocolate – most likely yes it would work but I’m not sure. Also, my ramekins are big but I only fill them up half way so most likely you could fit everything into two smaller ramekins…
Tamar says
This looks delicious and I actually have all of the ingredients on hand! The only thing I’m missing are the ramekins. Would you recommend changing the time for a 6″ cake pan? Thanks!
Julia says
I’m going to take a wild guess that the time would be about 18-20 minutes but it’s just a guess. I haven’t tried it in a 6” pan unfortunately
Kim says
Can you tell me what size ramekin you used?
Julia says
They are 250ml each and only filled about 1/2 or 2/3
Sue Jackson says
Can I leave out the white chocolate and use the brown sugar? Thanks,
Julia says
Unfortunately I don’t know as I haven’t tried using sugar instead of white chocolate
Pat says
This sounds like a great way to make an easy fall dessert – can’t wait to try. I was wondering if there’s something to substitute for the white choc. chips – not a big fan and therefore never have on hand?!
Julia says
Unfortunately I don’t know as I haven’t tried using sugar instead of white chocolate
Tammy says
I’m on weight watchers if i use Sukrin brown sugar how much would you recommend?
Julia says
Unfortunately I don’t know as I haven’t tried using sugar instead of white chocolate