While we are grappling with insane heat and humidity through the day, have you noticed there is actually a soft cool breeze early morning and that crunch of dried leaves under your feet? Signs of change I say. Time for fall recipes, peppered with warm spice and everything nice. Time to bring out that adored pumpkin and turn it into a scrumptious cake… Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cake w/ Orange Cream Cheese Frosting!
This flavor combination has been haunting me forever. And how fabulously well did it all come together!! I mean, what not to like? Moist chocolate cake swirling between gloriously spiced pumpkin cake, and finally bringing both of these together – tangy cream cheese frosting bursting with fresh orange flavor. I love how this unassuming vegetable transforms into something spectacular in any recipe. EVERYTIME.
I have to confess, I did have a series of disasters with this cake. I think I was trying too many permutations and combinations. Oh well! But somehow, that’s what I enjoy about baking and cooking. I love tweaking, playing around with ingredients. As with everything in life, sometimes it’s a hit and the other times a total miss. The whole point is to keep trying and you will end up with a platter full of deliciousness, I promise!
I’d love to hear about your cake baking experience, good and bad!!
I hope this Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Cake makes it to your Fall table and you enjoy it as much as we do. Every year!
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| Servings | Prep Time |
| 10-12 persons | 30 -35 minutes |
| Cook Time | Passive Time |
| 45-50 minutes | 15-20 minutes |
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Moist chocolate cake swirling between gloriously spiced pumpkin cake, and finally bringing both of these together – tangy cream cheese frosting bursting with fresh orange flavour.
Adapted from Joy the Baker
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- 240 grams whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 170 grams sugar
- 125 ml oil
- 125 ml buttermilk Stir 1.5tsp white vinegar in 250ml milk, let stand 5 mins
- 250 grams pumpkin puree
- 90 grams dark chocolate melted
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tsp orange zest
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 120 grams cream cheese softened
- 2-4 tbsp orange juice
- 60 grams icing sugar
- Pre heat oven to 180 C. Grease and flour an 8" baking pan.
- Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin spice together in a large bowl. Gently stir in the orange zest.
- In another large bowl or your mixer, beat the eggs and sugar very well. Slowly drizzle in the oil, buttermilk and vanilla extract. Stir in the pumpkin puree.
- Fold in the sifted dry ingredients. Divide the batter in half. Add the melted chocolate and cocoa powder to half of the mixture.
- Add the two batters to the prepared pan, alternating between pumpkin and chocolate. Swirl through the batter using a skewer or knife. Be careful not to overmix.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 45 - 50 mins or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 - 20 minutes before turning it out on a cooling rack.
- In the meanwhile, prepare the frosting : Whisk together the cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth. Taste and adjust for sweetness. Thin with fresh orange juice, 1 Tbsp at a time until it has the consistency of soft whipped cream.
- Spread the orange cream cheese frosting over the completely cooled cake. Sprinkle some orange zest on top and enjoy!
- I made my own pumpkin pie spice by simply combining 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger powder and 1/4 tsp nutmeg.
- Pumpkin puree is also super easy to make at home. Peel and dice 500 gms of pumpkin. This would yield 250 gms of puree. Steam in a saucepan with a tightly covered lid, for about 20 minutes. I just mashed the steamed pumpkin with a fork for this recipe. You could of course, use a blender to get a smooth puree.
Looks and sounds yummy. 2 questions – where can I get pumpkin spice and could you recommend a substitute for the eggs?
Thank you Smita!
The recipe for pumpkin pie spice in on the blog itself. I haven’t made it eggless, so I’m not sure. But you could try 1 Tbsp of ground flax seeds mixed with 2 Tbsp of water per egg. I’ve heard this works quite well.
Please share if you do try this, I’m sure it will be very useful to a lot of readers!:)
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[…] Note: You can find the recipe for pumpkin pie spice and pumpkin puree HERE. […]