It's the season for cozy fall flavors and all things spiced! This super moist spice cake is everything that you want in a cake- it is fluffy, tender, and has wonderful flavor!
We've filled and frosted this delicious spice cake with our orange spice cream cheese frosting.
The orange flavor in this recipe complements this spice cake perfectly, and we love to pair our spice cakes with cream cheese frostings!
Keep this homemade cake recipe in mind for your fall and winter celebrations, and anytime you're in the mood for cozy spiced goodness.
How to Make Spice Layer Cake
*You can find the full, printable spice cake recipe further down, but here is a quick rundown!

Freezing the Cake Layers
- No matter what cake we are making, we always wrap and freeze our cake layers whenever time allows- it makes for a cake that is even more moist!
- We wrap the freshly baked cake layers individually while they are still warm with a layer of plastic wrap and foil. (If you'd like, you can place each layer on a foil-wrapped cake board for more stability).
- Then, into the freezer they go for at least a few hours. (They can stay in the freezer for up to a few months and will still taste as fresh as the day they were baked).
- Remove from the freezer and allow to thaw while still wrapped until condensation forms on the outside. Then unwrap and bring to room temperature (or close to room temperature) before decorating.
Frosting the Spice Cake
For this homemade spice cake recipe, we went with an easy and delicious Orange Spice Cream Cheese Frosting. We used it as our filling too- the flavor is SO good and you can whip up a batch in no time!
What other frostings pair well with spice cake?
A simple cream cheese frosting is also a great choice, as well as our orange cream cheese frosting, whipped cream cheese frosting, classic buttercream frosting and more. You can hop over to our Frosting Recipes Section for even more ideas!
Decorating the Cake
To decorate, I used a star piping tip 21 to create the reverse shell borders around the top of the cake. Around the sides of the cake, I just gave the frosting a textured look with my offset spatula.
*Remember that cream cheese frostings like this Orange Spice frosting are softer than American Buttercream frostings.
If the frosting becomes too soft as you are working with it, you can pop it in the refrigerator for a few minutes to firm it back up again.
Love Fall Cake Recipes? Here are a few more of our Favorites!
We've made many popular fall cake recipes over the years! Here are a few more of our favorites:
If you love caramel cakes, spice cakes, pumpkin cakes and more, you've come to the right place. You can find more delicious, moist cake recipes for fall in our Collection of the BEST Fall Cake Recipes!
Enjoy the Recipe
We hope that you enjoy this recipe! If you give this spice cake a try, we would love for you leave a comment and photo below!
Spice Cake with Orange Spice Cream Cheese Frosting

This scratch Spice Cake with Orange Spice Cream Cheese Frosting is moist and fluffy and has wonderful flavor! We love this cake year-round but especially for fall and winter gatherings!
Ingredients
For the Spice Cake Layers
- 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, slightly softened
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup (200g) white sugar
- 1 cup (217g) light brown sugar (packed into measuring cup)
- 3 cups (342g) cake flour ( if you do not have cake flour, see Note below)
- 2 teaspoons (8g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoons (3g) baking soda
- 1 (6g) salt
- 2 teaspoons (6g) cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon (2g) nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon (1g) ginger
- 1 ¼ cups (296g) buttermilk
- ⅓ cup (64g) vegetable oil, we use canola oil
- 1 teaspoon (6g) vanilla extract
Orange Spice Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 ½ cups (3 sticks) (339g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 ½ packages (339 g) cream cheese (no need to soften to room temp)
- 2 teaspoons (4g) cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon (1g) nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger (2g) *sift if clumpy
- 1 teaspoon orange flavoring (4g)
- 1.5 Tablespoons Orange Zest (adjust to your liking)
- 6 to 6 ½ cups (690g - 748g) more if needed confectioners’ sugar, sifted
Instructions
For the Spice Cake Layers
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F, grease, flour and add a circle of parchment or waxed paper to three 8x2 inch round pans
- In a medium bowl, add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Whisk for 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
- In another bowl, add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Set aside.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the butter and ix at medium speed until smooth. Gradually add the sugars (white and brown).
- Continue to mix on medium speed for 3 to 5 minutes (a bit longer if using hand mixer) until lightened in color and fluffy.
- Add the room temperature eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
- With the mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of liquid ingredients). After last addition, mix just until combined.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 23 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Let cool in pans 5 to 10 minutes then turn out.
For the Orange Spice Cream Cheese Frosting
Using your mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until well blended.
Add the flavoring, zest, and spices. With the mixer on low speed gradually add the confectioners’ sugar and mix until it is a good piping consistency.
Notes
No Cake Flour? Here is a Substitution: If you do not have cake flour, measure out 3 cups of all purpose flour (plain flour in the UK). Remove 6 tablespoons ( 42g) and replace with 6 Tablespoons cornstarch (42g) (cornflour in the UK). Whisk to blend the flour and cornstarch.
Looks and sounds delish! :-)
If I make this cupcakes how long shall I bake them? The recipe looks amazing and I want to make for work
Hi Angela, For standard size cupcakes, bake at 350 degrees for 18 to 20 minutes. Hope you will enjoy the recipe.
For the ginger that is in the cake, is it ginger root or ground ginger?
It is ground ginger.
It literally sounds tempting! Definitely worth giving a try:)
I used this recipe to make cupcakes which turned out perfectly. About 20 cupcakes; this amount of frosting only covered 16 though using a large swirl tip. Topped them with a slice of candied orange peel. I got more rave reviews on this flavor combination. Everyone loved them. Fantastic recipe! Thank you
YUMMY!
I would love to bake this cake for my brother's birthday how many eggs do I use if I want to bake another ½?
Hi Jane, A large egg is usually 1/4 cup or just slightly less. Break an egg into a bowl. Whisk gently using a fork or whisk until the yolk and white are well combined. Measure out 2 Tablespoons and this is 1/2 of an egg. This recipe calls for 3 eggs, increasing the ingredients by 1/2 you will be using 4 whole eggs and 1/2 of an egg. I hope you brother will enjoy the cake.
I made this cake today for my dad’s birthday. The spice cake was a huge hit and everyone loved the orange cream cheese frosting.
Hi Nancy, I'm so happy you used the recipe and enjoyed the cake. Thanks for your review!