Recipe from John Down
Adapted by Florence Fabricant
- Total Time
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- Rating
- 4(1,415)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This rich and decadent spiced pumpkin cake is just the thing to serve for an autumn celebration, Thanksgiving or otherwise. Chocolate chips and chopped pecans are added to the pumpkin batter for extra sweetness and a bit of welcome crunch. For those who like to plan ahead, it can be made and frozen – iced and all. Just put the entire finished cake on a plate or a baking sheet, unwrapped, and freeze it overnight until it is hard. Then it can be wrapped without damage to the frosting, and returned to the freezer. Layers can also be wrapped well and stored, to be iced later. —Florence Fabricant
Featured in: The Oven Is Booked. Dessert's in the Freezer.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 12 servings
- 20tablespoons (2½ sticks) soft unsalted butter, more for greasing
- 2cups flour, more for dusting
- 1teaspoon cinnamon
- ½teaspoon ground ginger
- ½teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼teaspoon allspice
- 1teaspoon baking soda
- ½teaspoon baking powder
- ½teaspoon salt
- 1½cups granulated sugar
- 3eggs
- 1½cup plain pumpkin purée, canned, frozen or fresh
- 1cup semisweet chocolate chips
- 1cup chopped pecans
- 2½cups confectioners' sugar
- 10ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 1teaspoon vanilla extract
- Milk or cream
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
856 calories; 46 grams fat; 24 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 16 grams monounsaturated fat; 4 grams polyunsaturated fat; 113 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams dietary fiber; 86 grams sugars; 8 grams protein; 290 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
Step
1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Use a little butter to grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Butter and flour the paper. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.
Step
2
Using an electric mixer, cream 8 tablespoons butter and the granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in pumpkin purée. Mixture may look slightly curdled. Stir in flour mixture about half a cup at a time until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.
Step
3
Divide batter into pans and bake in middle of oven until springy to the touch and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, run a knife around edges, invert onto racks and peel off paper. Let cakes cool completely.
Step
4
In a large bowl, blend remaining 12 tablespoons butter and confectioners' sugar together. Blend in chocolate and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add cream or milk by the tablespoon, blending well after each addition, until it reaches spreading consistency.
Step
5
Place one cake layer, smooth side up, on a platter. Ice top. Place second layer, smooth side down, on top; ice top and sides of cake.
Ratings
4
out of 5
1,415
user ratings
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Cooking Notes
SB
You know you're already on the internet and checking for conversions takes like 2 seconds. Get over it.
Margaux Laskey, Staff Editor
After reading some of your notes, we took a closer look at the recipe and made some edits: use semisweet or bittersweet instead of unsweetened, and add a bit of milk or cream if you find the frosting too stiff to spread. We hope that helps!
Antonia
I made this as a bundt cake today and wary of the icing - choose to use the Silver Palate's chocolate cake icing recipe instead: See below: This cake is SO SO GOOD and I am Definitely going to make this a staple fall dessert! DELICIOUS!
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
¾ cup semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
combine everything in a heavy skillet, melt to combine and drizzle, pour or spread while still warm!
Pamela
Very disappointed that this recipe does not also include metric measurements. 20 tablespoons or 2 1/2 sticks of butter?
I had to keep referring to a conversion table site. You know the rest of the world uses the Metric system and the NYT is a global website.
Lois
Definitely use bittersweet or semi sweet chocolate for the frosting. NOT unsweetened. This is a delicious cake, truly.
Baiba
I made this as cupcakes without the frosting and the cupcakes were a big hit.
Susan
Have made this cake twice now. The first time the flavor of the cake didn't have much character and was overwhelmed by the icing; the second time I doubled the spice quantities and the result was much tastier.
Christine
How long did you bake for the bundt? ThAnks
Wendy
The chocolate buttercream was AWFUL! Something must be wrong with the quantity of butter called for, or it is missing milk or some other liquid. I added cream by the tablespoon, and even added some corn syrup because it was also very bitter (pretty high ratio of unsweetened chocolate to powdered sugar!) So sorry I didn't just frost the cake with the Wilton recipe.
GRA
I really like to use King Arthur's Gluten Free flour. It's a 1 to 1 replacement.
Nancy
You can make just about any cake in a bundt pan. I'm sure this would work.
Deb
I'm so glad you said this, because using unsweetened looked all kinds of wrong to me. I'm definitely going to try bittersweet chocolate for this.
Betsy B
This cake was wonderful, but be wary - the instructions say to 'cream 8 tablespoons butter and the granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes,' but it doesn't get fluffy until you add in the eggs. Thought we had done something wrong and threw out a cup and a half of sugar! Also, you may want to add a bit of water to the icing, otherwise it's too thick and difficult to spread. The cake isn't too sweet, but is absolutely rich and delicious. Would definitely recommend!
Nancy
The best way to prevent sticking in a tube or bundt pan is to use baking spray. Cakes pop out beautifully, no matter how intricate the pan.
Lizzie
I made this in a tube cake pan for my daughters birthday celebration on October 31. I couldn't figure out how to line the pan with parchment so greased and floured the pan but still had some sticking - especially where chocolate was exposed in pan. Any ideas for this problem?
Instead of frosting I made chocolate ganache and drizzled it over the cake. Superb! I also used semi sweet chocolate bars chopped instead of chips in the cake. Might try more ginger and no allspice next time.
Deb
Made in Bundt pan and used chocolate glaze: melt together 2 tlbs butter, 3/4 semisweet chips, 1 cup sifted powdered sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 6 tlbs heavy cream.Weight of flour is 240 grams and of sugar 300 grams.
Mary
What's with the tablespoons? 8 tbsp = half a cup. The recipe should separate out the cake and frosting ingredients.It would also assist to have the weight measures
kristin
the icing is too sweet, I think a glaze would work better.
Nadine
The cake is good, but frosting just didn’t seem to go with the cake. Neighborhood kids liked it & ate 2/3 of it in a blink of an eye. I will make the cake again, but I think with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting.
jsinn
Made this for the first time and it was delicious. I found it to be a bit dense but I thought maybe it was because my butter was too soft and it didn’t become fluffy when I creamed it with the sugar. I would cut back the chocolate chips to maybe half next time. I used a different chocolate frosting recipe that’s not so sweet. Overall I’d make this again.
Laura
Be careful of butter amounts!!! I likely ruined my cake by referring to the ingredient list for the butter quantities. I am used to recipes that separate the frosting ingredients from the cake ingredients and this one glumps them all together! The frosting butter is included in the butter quantity listed so careful to only add the amount called for in the actual instructions. Perhaps an experienced chef would have realized the exorbitant amount of butter I was adding. But very annoying!!!!
Jean
Take note butter is divided between batter and icing.
Laura
I sure wish I had paid attention to this comment before making the cake referring to the ingredient list using nearly 3x the butter called for in the instructions below! I looked at comments but this one did not sink in.
A
Made this with GF flour and was delicious, baked 30 minutes. I felt the frosting was to sweet with just semi-sweet chips; so, I sub in 4 oz of unsweetened baking chocolate and it’s a nice sweet balance with the cake.
Kellie
This was a hit for a work celebration. I baked 3D pumpkin cakelets and added white chocolate flowers on the top with the chocolate frosting between the two layers. I added a skosh more ginger than the recipe called for and it was perfect! This is now my go-to autumn dessert for impressing people with flavor and comfort.
Kim
I halved it. Ended up with a very tender and delicious cake. Net time I might try a cream cheese frosting that's not to cream cheesy, maybe with some lemon or orange or ginger.
Marissa
Baked this for a housewarming party. After reading the reviews and adjustments from 4 years ago, I followed the recipe with the following adjustments: decreased sugar to 1 cup and doubled the spices. Baked in a Bundt pan for about 40 minutes and it’s delicious. Doesn’t even need icing; it’s sweet enough with the chocolate chips and sugar. Used approximately 2/3 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips.
Marta Erdosi
Reduce icing overall volume by 1/3, too much overall volume. Use bittersweet chocolate and 1/2 the amount of icing sugar.
lyndz
If you were to accidentally add 20 tablespoons of butter to the cake without realizing some of it was meant for the icing, do not fret. It still turns out great.
Easter Eve
Remember butter is divided!
Andrea
This cake was a huge hit! Everyone loves it! Don’t expect very thick layers. Do expect two delicious layers of tender cake. The second time (in two weeks) I traded out the chocolate icing for a luxurious cream cheese frosting. Next time I may add cocoa to this:9 T sweet butter, 8 ounces cream cheese, 2 1/2 cups powdered sugar, and a good pinch of cinnamon.
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