Chocolate and pumpkin…almost as yummy as chocolate and peanut butter

07. February 2011 · 2 comments · Categories: Baking, Cake · Tags: , , ,

So I know it’s winter now, but like I said I need to backtrack a bit to catch you up on the cooking/baking I’ve done. This also fills the voids of the weeks I don’t always bake, since my bf is the only one eating it and the boy can only eat so much! Let’s go back to my favorite time of year…autumn!

Central Park in the Fall...my favorite time of year!

When fall hits, I have the urge to bake all things apple, pumpkin and cinnamon. Not only does it make my apartment smell like autumnal heaven, but it’s *almost guaranteed to taste amazing.

Me and a big ole pumpkin

Fall is about when I started discovering the world of food blogs, so most of my recipes around this time came from them. I stumbled across this recipe for Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze and knew I had to test it out. When I make new recipes in the future, I’ll document the whole process in photos, but since these next few postrecipes were all made before my blog, I’ll mainly only show the finished product…sorry :(

fresh outta the oven

The cake was a bit of a pain to make because I decided to double it so I could bring one to work. It wouldn’t have been such a big deal in a bigger kitchen, but there was so much batter and so little counter space that I did the patented dump-half-the-batter-on-the-floor Amy move. Ok, maybe it wasn’t totally half, but it was a good amount. After cursing under my breath I got back to work and finished up. Glazing was the most fun part.

Yummers

I used the recipe as it was on the site, but if I were to redo it, I think I would replace some of the butter with oil since it came out a tad bit dry…but overall, a tasty combo.

pardon my crappo lighting

Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

taken from BacktotheCuttingBoard.com which was adapted from Myrecipes.com

Ingredients

Cake:

  • 1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
  • 1 cup butter, softened*
  • 5 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 2 3/4 cups cake flour, divided
  • 3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 tsp. baking powder, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, divided
  • 1 tsp. salt, divided
  • 3/4 cup Dutch-processed unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 1/3 cup regular or low-fat buttermilk, divided

*You can increase this if you don’t mind the extra calories for a moister cake, and as I said, I’d probably replace some of the butter with oil the next time around. Maybe 50/50

Cream Cheese Glaze:

  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 4 oz. (1/2 cup) regular or low-fat cream cheese
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla
  • 3-4 tbsp. milk (or more if you want a thinner glaze)

Process

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Rub a 10 inch tube pan or 12-cup bundt pan with butter (or spritz with cooking spray) and dust with 1 tbsp. flour until the interior is covered. Tap lightly to shake loose extra flour. Set aside.

2. Spread pumpkin puree over two layers of paper towels and press two more layers on top. Let sit for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a large mixer bowl cream butter until light. Add both sugars in a steady stream and mix on medium for about 5 minutes.

4. Add eggs, one at time, mixing well after each. Add in vanilla.

5. Transfer half of the mixture into another large bowl (another mixer bowl would be helpful, but any large bowl will work). Set aside.

6. Scape the pumpkin off of the paper towel and add it to the first bowl. Mix well.

7. In a smaller bowl combine 1 3/4 cup flour, pumpkin pie spice, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.

8. Add half of the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Mix in 1/3 cup buttermilk. Then add the remaining flour and mix until combined. Set aside.

9. In the smaller bowl combine 1 cup flour, 3/4 cup cocoa, 1/2 tsp. baking soda, 1/4 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.

10. Add half of the flour/cocoa mixture to the other large bowl and mix well with a whisk or your mixer. Mix in 1 cup of buttermilk. Then add the remaining flour and mix until combined.

11. Spoon 1/3 of the pumpkin batter into your prepared pan. Drop heaping spoonfuls of the chocolate batter around the pan (not completely covering all the pumpkin). Spoon in the remaining pumpkin and chocolate batters. Gently swirl a knife around the pan several times.

12. Bake for 45-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few moist crumbs (make sure you’re checking in both the pumpkin and chocolate parts, I noticed large chocolate sections needed a few additional minutes). Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and cool for another 10 minutes on a rack.

13. Meanwhile, to make the glaze, mix powdered sugar and cream cheese until well blended. Beat in vanilla and milk, 1 tbsp. at time. Drizzle on the warm cake. Let cake cool completely.

12-16 servings

We Freak for Fall!