Wow, what a yummy, yummy cake. I did substitue 1/2 C applesauce for 1/2 C oil. But then, I added back the calories saved (and then some, I'm afraid) by icing with cream cheese frosting--oh, my, this was to die for! I added more nuts than suggested, too, and used pecans, about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of nuts. I imagine raisins would be good. The icing was great, but not necessary. I think another reviewer said they made this with just applesauce, and no pumpkin, and I bet that would be just as good. A very moist, spicy, dense cake, ideal for a cold winter morning! I have frozen one to take out for my family on Thanksgiving morning. Very easy to make, and I highly reccommend you try it.

This was a delicious recipt. I am not a big fan of pumpkin pie, but I loved this cake. And so did my son's grade five class.

This was fabulous! The only change I would make is to add 1 1/2 tsp. salt instead of 1/4 tsp. (Most homemade cakes like this call for 1 1/2 tsp. salt.) I made 2 of these for Halloween. I think I should have followed other reviewers and used 1/2 cup applesauce + 1/2 cup oil. 1 cup of oil is a lot of oil! I frosted the first cake with a homemade buttercream frosting, but it sure made the cake sweet. For the second cake, I used a powdered sugar drizzle (1 cup powdered sugar + 1 Tbl. milk), tinted orange, with green sugar sprinkles on the top of the cake, then I decorated it with some plastic spiders. Festive! I would definitely used the powdered sugar glaze again. Thanks for the recipe!

This was an excellent recipe. I did use 1/2 cup of oil and 1/2 cup of applesauce. Very moist. I made it look like a pumpkin and used cream cheese icing. My kids loved it.

I adjusted the recipe as well, used 1 cup white sugar, 2/3 c brown, 1/2cup oil, 2/3 cup apple sauce and added 1 tea baking powder. I made these into cupcakes and they rose beautifully. I left in the cloves because we like a spice cake with a bit of a bite, and I think for those who left it out, this is what is missing for you, clove add a very nice level of depth and flavor to a pumpkin recipe. Once the recipe is adjusted, it makes for awesome cupcakes/cakes. Definitely loved the cream cheese frosting, you might try adding just a touch of cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice to the frosting (just a bit, don't let it overpower... very easy recipe, shorten the time of course... I give 4 stars because i had to adjust so much, but for mine --- 5 stars!!! Happy Halloween!!!

If you don't have any marzipan on hand for the stem you could always use an ice cream cone cup cake. They're very easy to make. Just take some cake batter and fill the cone 3/4 full and bake. Then just flip it upside down after it's been baked into the hole and frost with chocolate frosting. Voila! there's a stem that you can eat!

WOW! I thought the cloves might be overpowering but no way. This cake was AWESOME! I used 2 teaspoons of Allspice since I didn't have nutmeg. Worked great!

I gave this cake a try and am so glad I did. I did a little altering; used 3T. pumpkin pie spice instead of the seperate spices and it turned out fantastic!!! It tasted like pumpkin pie! Mmmmmm. :) I iced the cake with cream cheese. This cake is a MUST for anyone looking for a great dessert!!!

I made this with the Whipped Cream Frosting from this site for my daughter's first birthday. I was looking for something that I would feel alright about allowing her a bite of, and this gave me that pleasure. I made a few changes: I used 1/2 of oil, 1/4 cup apple/sweet potato baby food (didn't have applesauce on hand) and 1/4+ cup of apple cider. I baked in two 9" pans for about 40 minutes. The cake was wonderful and the frosting was the perfect complement. Rave reviews!

I used all the other reviewers' suggestion plus made some minor changes of my own. Instead of sugar, I used 1 cup of Splenda and 2/3 cup Brn. Sugar Splenda. I didn't have allsprice or cloves so I substituted pumpkin pie spice and I threw in some chocolate chips. The end result was a wonderfully moist, flavorful cake that was low in sugar. I will definitely make this cake again and share the recipe with family and friends.

I made this cake for my son's first birthday, which was actually Thanksgiving day this year. He has red hair so we call him pumpkin-head. Decorated to look like a pumpkin, this cake not only looked great but tasted great too. I've never made pumpkin cake before, so I have nothing to compare it too - but it was very easy to make. I will definitely use this recipe again and again.

My family LOVED this recipe, even though I ran out of eggs and used only two. I also cut the oil down to 3/4 since I was using fewer eggs. The result was a thicker batter, so I poured it into a loaf pan and it came out a more of a pumpkin bread. It is super moist, wonderful texture (don't omit the nuts!), and not too sweet. I rated this four stars only because I didn't follow the recipe exactly. I will use this recipe (albeit altered) the next time I want to make pumpkin bread! It was a deliciously happy accident!

Recipe ingredient amount for oil calls for 1 cup - this is WAY TOO MUCH OIL and it was a waste of my time and money to use this recipe. Not edible.

I made this cake for thanksgiving this year and my teenaged grandchildren ate the whole thing, I didn't even get a chance to taste it. They said it was awesome!

This is a good fall cake. It's also an old recipe, which is why it has so much oil and sugar. For the sugar, I only used 1 cup of brown sugar and a half cup of oil. I added all the spices listed, plus ginger and 1 teaspoon of baking powder, then baked it in a 9x13 pan. For those of you who say you skipped the cloves and think the cake is too bland, the cake needs the cloves. We had it with whipped cream. I baked it a bit too long, but it was still good.

This is so good! Moist, sweet, not overly pumpkin-y. And it's easy! The hardest part was waiting for it to come out of the oven. This would be so good with vanilla ice cream!

This was so moist and awesome! My husband hates pumpkin anything and he LOVED this! I took previous advice and cut the white sugar to 1 cup, added 2/3 cup brown sugar and added 1 tsp. baking powder in addition to the baking soda. Next time I will add an additional 1/2 tsp. baking powder. I also do not care for cloves so I omitted them and added 1/2 tsp. ground ginger and cut the nutmeg to 1/2 tsp. as well. It was so yummy covered with cream cheese icing. Also, I baked it in a 9 x 13 pan so you will need to cut the baking time down to about 40-45 min. Definitely do not want to overbake this one.

I made large, what they call "Texas muffins" out of this. I personally love the taste of pumpkin all by itself so much I cut the spices in half but I expect most people would want to leave them in. It really tastes just like a pumpkin pie in cake form. The cake is moist by itself but if you wrap it or put it in a plastic baggy nearly straight out of the oven it retains a great deal more moisture.YUM!