What’s better than chocolate and pumpkin for a fall cake? I’ve made this chocolate pumpkin swirl cake as both a bundt and a loaf. Both are easy options, and you’ll find a fun pumpkin themed loaf pan below!
I first made this Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake with my friend Andrew Zimmern.
I recently made a pumpkin pie and roasted several pumpkins and squash, so I have lots of great gourd puree on hand and this is one of my all-time favorite cakes, so I wanted to share it with you.
The chocolate pumpkin bundt cake I made with Andrew has a rather thin line of chocolate streusel and I went for a bolder chocolate layer when I put the recipe in my book, Zoë Bakes Cakes. That is reflected in the recipe and directions below. You can roast your own pumpkin or use canned, either is terrific for this easy and tasty cake.
Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf Cake
I also made half of this recipe in a fancy loaf pan and look at these results. I love how it turned out! Here is a similar pumpkin themed loaf pan. It just needs to be a 6-cup capacity for half the recipe. Here is the exact pan I used in the photos. If you have a little extra batter you can make an additional mini loaf!
Chocolate Pumpkin Cake Ingredients
- Roasted pumpkin puree (canned is fine, but I encourage you make your own!)
- Fall spices: All Spice, nutmeg, ginger, pumpkin pie spice
- Sour cream or whole milk creme fraiche
- Dark cocoa powder
Find the full list of ingredients in the recipe below!
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup (240ml) vegetable oil
- 1 cup (215g) sugar
- 1 cup (235g) brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 15 oz. (425g) canned or roasted pumpkin puree
- ¾ cup (185g) sour cream (whole milk yogurt or creme fraiche also work)
- 1½ tsp vanilla extract make homemade vanilla extract
- 2 ¼ cups (295g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ tsp all-spice
- ½ tsp ginger
Chocolate Layer
- 2 tbsp (20g) dark cocoa powder
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Topping
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 10-cup Bundt Pan (in the video). I used a Kugelhopf Bundt Pan in the photos in this post, because I like the shape, but it is slightly smaller and I trimmed the bottom before flipping it out of the pan.
- Prepare the cake batter in a large bowl, combining the oil, sugar, brown sugar, and eggs. Once they are well combined add the pumpkin puree, vanilla and sour cream. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and mix until it all comes together in a smooth batter.
- Pour 1/3 of the batter into a separate bowl and stir in the cocoa powder and cinnamon.
- Pour 1/3 of the pumpkin cake batter into the prepared pan. Pour in 1/3 of the chocolate batter over the pumpkin batter. This layer will be thin. Repeat this layering with remaining pumpkin and chocolate cake batters in 2 more additions.
- Bake for about 1 hour 10 minutes (If you use the kugelhopf pan, it may bake a bit faster, so check closer to 50 minutes) or until a tester comes out with moist crumb.
- Allow to cool in pan for about 15 minutes, then turn cake out onto a serving dish. Once the cake is cool combine confectioners’ sugar and pumpkin spice for the topping and sprinkle it over the top of the cake.
Any dairy free suggestions instead of sour cream or whole milk yogurt?
Almond milk or coconut yogurt?
If I bake this in a 9×5 loaf pan, how long should it bake for? and how long does it keep out at room temp or the fridge?
Great question! A 12-cup Bundt will hold more batter, so you may not be able to use all of it when switching to the loaf pan. Only fill it to a scant 3/4, so the batter doesn’t go over the top. It will take just slightly less time to bake because it doesn’t have the tube in the middle to provide heat. Be sure to test the very center of the pan for doneness.
If you have batter left over, you can bake it in muffin pans, which will obviously bake much faster, so keep an eye on them.
At room temperature it can last a few days, and then a few in the fridge.
Enjoy!
Do you need to add more flour or make any adjustments when omitting the chocolate?
Thank you! The cake is delicious and moist. Haven’t had anyone try it and not enjoy