This chocolate pumpkin cake is rich and packed with flavor. Chocolate cake batter is swirled throughout the pumpkin cake batter. It’s frosted with fluffy and light cream cheese chocolate frosting.
I love baking with pumpkin. The desserts always turn out so moist! This chocolate pumpkin cake is no different. It’s rich, decadent and so moist. The light and fluffy chocolate cream cheese frosting compliments the pumpkin chocolate cake so perfectly. You’ll love how simple this cake is, and delicious it turns out.
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Ingredients needed for the pumpkin chocolate cake
- Flour
- Baking powder and baking soda
- Spices: cinnamon and nutmeg are used.
- Eggs
- Sugar: Brown sugar and granulated sugar will be used.
- Vegetable oil
- Pure Pumpkin puree
- Cream cheese
- Heavy whipping cream
- Powdered sugar
- Cocoa powder
Making the pumpkin chocolate cake
- Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium size bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
- Whisk wet ingredients: In a large bowl whisk the eggs, oil, sugars and pumpkin puree until combined.
- Combine both mixture: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Make the chocolate pumpkin batter: Take about 1 cup of the pumpkin batter out. Transfer it to a small bowl. Then add cocoa powder and stir until combined. This will be the chocolate pumpkin batter.
- Add batters to baking pans: Pour ⅓ of the batter into the first cake pan. Add dollops of chocolate pumpkin batter. The swirl with a knife. Repeat on on the next two cake pans. Bake until the cake is golden brown and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.
Making the chocolate cream cheese frosting
- Beat heavy cream: In a mixer bowl beat heavy whipping until stiff peaks form. About 2 minutes. Place whipped heavy whipping in a separate bowl in set aside.
- Beat all the rest of ingredients: In the same mixer bowl, add the cream cheese and granulated sugar. Beat until sugar is dissolved and the cream cheese is light and fluffy. Add the cocoa powder and beat until combined.
- At this point, taste the cream cheese frosting. If you’d like the cream cheese frosting more chocolaty, add the rest of the cocoa powder. If you’d like a sweeter cream cheese frosting add the rest of the sugar. Then mix until everything is incorporated.
- Add the heavy whipping cream: Add the heavy whipping cream, and beat for 15-30 seconds then fold by hand until everything is incorporated.
Tips for success
- Feel free to adjust the amount of cocoa powder. The pumpkin cake itself is really rich. After recipe testing the cake many times, I decided to significantly decrease the amount of cocoa powder in the frosting. This balanced out the richness of the cake. If you’d like the frosting to be chocolaty add up to ½ cup of cocoa powder.
- If you decide to add more cocoa powder increase the amount of sugar to 1 cup.
- Do not adjust the recipe once you add the whipping cream to the cream cheese. If you start mixing it again, you may overmix the the heavy whipping cream. This can cause the heavy whipping to separate and the frosting can become grainy.
- You can also use pumpkin pie spice instead of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. You will need about 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and ¼ teaspoon of additional ground cinnamon.
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Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
This chocolate pumpkin cake is rich and packed with flavor. Chocolate cake batter is swirled throughout the pumpkin cake batter. It’s frosted with fluffy and light cream cheese chocolate frosting.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 slices 1x
- Category: dessert
Ingredients
Scale
For the cake
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon*
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg*
- pinch of salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 15 oz. pure pumpkin puree
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 2 (8oz.) cream cheese, room temp.
- ¾ –1 cup cup granulated sugar *
- ¼ – ⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder*
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F. Line three 8inch baking pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a medium bowl whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl whisk eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, vanilla extract and pumpkin puree until combined.
- Add the flour mixture and whisk until combined.
- Take about 1 cup of pumpkin batter out and place it in a small bowl. To that add the cocoa powder. Stir until combined. This will be the chocolate pumpkin batter.
- Divide the pumpkin batter among the three 8 inch cake pans. Add dollops of chocolate pumpkin batter. Then swirl with a butter knife.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely.
- To make the cream cheese frosting:
- In a stand mixer beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. About 2 minutes. Place in a small bowl and set aside.
- To the mixer bowl add cream cheese and granulated sugar. Beat until smooth, fluffy and sugar is dissolved into cream cheese.
- Add the cocoa powder and beat until combined. ( at this point, test the frosting. Add more cocoa powder if desired, add more sugar if needed) Don’t adjust the recipe after adding heavy whipping cream. This can cause the heavy whipping cream to get overmixed and grainy.
- Add the heavy whipping cream and mix on low speed for 15 seconds. The fold until combined.
- Place one cake layer on cake stand. Add the chocolate cream cheese frosting. Repeat until all layers are gone. Then frost the top and sides with remaining frosting.
Notes
- Feel free to adjust the amount of cocoa powder. The pumpkin cake itself is really rich. After recipe testing the cake many times, I decided to significantly decrease the amount of cocoa powder in the frosting. This balanced out the richness of the cake. If you’d like the frosting to be chocolaty add up to ½ cup of cocoa powder.
- If you decide to add more cocoa powder increase the amount of sugar to 1 cup.
- Do not adjust the recipe once you add the whipping cream to the cream cheese. If you start mixing it again, you may overmix the the heavy whipping cream. This can cause the heavy whipping to separate and the frosting can become grainy.
- You can also use pumpkin pie spice instead of ground cinnamon and nutmeg. You will need about 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice and ¼ teaspoon of additional ground cinnamon.
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