Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

Posted by - Laura Loves Cakes

I was quite intrigued by a cake with pumpkin puree in as I've never baked with pumpkin before so I thought I'd give it a go.

The recipe for this cake also includes nutmeg, cinnamon, buttermilk and soft dark brown sugar, so overall along with the pumpkin the resulting cake was really moist. It also wasn't overly chocolately and the nutmeg and cinnamon gave it a nice warm flavour. It was slightly reminiscent of a ginger cake.

I used tinned pumpkin puree which you can get from Waitrose or even Amazon if you can't find it in the supermarket. If you've got the time or inclination you can also make your own pumpkin puree using a recipe such as this one.

Inbetween the cake layers is a tasty orange cream cheese frosting, you can find the recipe here. I really like the frosting and would certainly consider using it with other cakes. To make sure my cake wasn't wonky I also levelled the two bottom layers using a cake leveller which you can see above.

To finish off the cake I made some chocolate leaves which you can see in the second picture. They provided nice decoration and also added to the autumnal feel of the cake. The recipe for the cake and frosting can be found on the Country Living website.

This Chocolate Pumpkin Cake is my entry into this month's Calendar Cakes...and no surprises for guessing that the theme is Halloween!If you're making a Halloween bake in the next couple of days then we'd love for you to enter it into our Calendar Cakes challenge. Calendar Cakes is hosted jointly here at Laura Loves Cakes and also by Rachel over at Dolly Bakes. Rachel is hosting this month so check out the details here.

Frightfully Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes

Posted by - Michelle Sturges

• I have not participated in the Have the Cake Challenge in a few months, but when I saw it was pumpkin themed, I had to do it!  I love this time of year with the pumpkin recipes and Halloween themed goodies!

I found this recipe on the Very Best Baking website.  They have such yummy looking stuff.

My granddaughter, Samantha had spent the night after the whole family watched the original "Halloween"movie.  The next morning, I asked if she wanted to help make cupcakes and she yelled "YES!"  I think she was excited!  She loves to bake with Grammy.  My daughter and the rest of  her family came over later.  She and her son, Austin helped to decorate the cupcakes.  I think for the decorating, I put orange food coloring in the icing and helped spread on.  The two of them did the rest.

The recipe was easy to do.  The chocolate and pumpkin blended great together and it was not too much a pumpkin flavor, just enough.

Frightfully Delicious Chocolate Cupcakes

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate morsels

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 12/ cups sugar
1 cup canned pumpkin (libby's 100% pure pumpkin)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk
3 large eggs
1-16 oz container prepared white frosting
Halloween decorations
 Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Paper-line 20 muffin cups

Microwave 1 cup morsels in small, uncovered, microwave-safe bowl on HIGH for 1 minute; stir.  If necessary, microwave additional 10-15 second intervals just until morsels are melted.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl.  Beat sugar, pumpkin, oil, milk and eggs in larger mixer bowl until smooth.  Beat in melted chocolate.  Stir in flour mixture.  Spoon into prepared muffin cups, filling 2/3 full.

Bake for 22-27 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in centers comes out clean.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes; removed to racks to cool completely.  Frost cupcakes and decorate.

My daughter, Kelly, decorated these.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Posted by - bakingaddict

It's October which means Halloween! On my recent trip to America, I bought a can of pumpkin puree and assorted Halloween goodies. Yes I know you can buy this in London but it's quite expensive here. Anyway, I was quite excited to bake with it as I've never used it before and I remember seeing this recipe on our recent Secret Recipe Club reveal which I'm also a member of.  It was on So Tasty, So Yummy's blog who in turn got it from Loving Life.

What can I say? Everyone loved it! It was delicious and moist, almost like a carrot cake with the spices but with a different texture. My kitchen smelled amazing when I baked this! I have to make this again even if I have to buy expensive pumpkin puree. Or perhaps they'll go on sale after Halloween? :) 

 My well travelled slightly squashed can of pumpkin puree 

 gorgeous colour! 

 ready to go in the oven 

 fresh from the oven 

Recipe adapted from So Tasty, So Yummy (I reduced the sugar amount and chocolate chips and it turned out beautifully) 

250g plain flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

225g butter

225g sugar

1 eff

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

300g chocolate chips 

• Preheat oven to 180C. 
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg and salt. Set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy.  
• Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. 
• Add pumpkin puree. 
• The mixture will appear curdled - don't worry! 
• Reduce speed to low and add in dry ingredients. 
• Finally, stir in chocolate chips.
• Spread batter evenly in  a baking tray.
• Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before slicing into squares.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Blondies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cherries.

Posted by - Meg from Sweet Twist of Blogging

I just love how bloggers get obsessed with pumpkin in the fall. There are so many different uses and they all just look so delicious!   I can't get enough so I am super excited to see what else gets posted on Have the Cake this month.

Gluten Free Pumpkin Blondies with White Chocolate Chips and Dried Cherries. 

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup brown rice flour
• 2 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup chopped dried cherries

Icing:

• 1/4 cup butter, room temp.
• 1/2 cup cream cheese, room temp
• 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 cup sifted confectioners sugar (give or take)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  Butter a 8 inch square pan. 

2) In a medium bowl, add flour, cornstarch, baking powder/soda, cinnamon and salt. 

3) Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl or mixer bowl and beat until creamed together.
4) Add pumpkin, eggs and vanilla and beat until combined. 

5) Add flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix on low until almost combined.

6) Fold in chocolate chips and dried cherries.

7) Pour batter into prepared pan.  Bake for 30 minutes,  outside will be starting to brown on edges and tooth pick will come out clean. 

8) Let cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.  Cut into squares and serve.
9) Make the icing : In a large bowl or mixer bowl beat together butter and cream cheese.  Add sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and beat together until just combined.  Adding more sugar if you want a stiffer icing.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted by - Dorrie

I am always trying to hide vegetables in my kids' food - they are pretty picky and not willing to eat more than about 5 vegetables.  I often slip pureed cauliflower in with their pasta and have been known to throw pureed butternut squash in their quesadillas. 
As such, one of my favorite cookie recipes, not just for the sleight of hand but also for the cakey texture, is a Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe I found years ago.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies:  (makes about 4 dozen cookies)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Mix together:
1 15 oz can pureed pumpkin
2 cups of sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs

Then add:
4 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz chocolate chips

Put on greased cookie sheet - spaced 2 inches apart and bake for 12-13 minutes.

I began mixing the recipe while the kids were taking their nap so that by the time my daughter came down to help, she had no idea that she was happily making chocolate chip cookies with pumpkin in them:

My gooey helper

After the cookies are baked they produce a lovely, cake-like cookie (with no pumpkin taste) that will easily fool anyone into eating more than a few!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

October Challenge: PUMPKIN

Posted by - Rena

It's October! It's only fitting to make pumpkin our flavor of the month. The challenge is to make a dessert that includes pumpkin. One of my favorite cakes is a "fake cake" which mixes a box of vanilla cake mix with a can of pumpkin puree. I know it's cheating but it's so very delicious!

Have fun with your pumpkin challenge! I can't wait to see what you come up with.

October Roundup

Well, who knew! Such delicious goodies this month! Thanks so much Colleen for your amazing challenge and thank to everyone that participated.

Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Hi, I'm Kyleen and I'm the sixteen-year old girl behind sixteenbeans. This month, I made Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

 *          *          *

I’m a peanut-butterist. I’m that kind of girl who dips a spoon into the peanut butter jar and scrapes the sides of the jar in an attempt to get as much peanut butter on the spoon. It’s actually kind of strange that I’m not allergic to peanut butter, seeing as I’m allergic to walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts (I wish I could try Nutella...), and basically every other kind of nut. Maybe I’ve outgrown my allergies and I just don’t know because I haven’t tried any of those nuts in such a long time.

Either way, I count my blessings that I’m not allergic to peanuts. Otherwise I wouldn’t be able to enjoy Boiled Peanuts with Chinese Five Spice or these scrumptious Chocolate Carbonation Peanut Butter Cup Surprise Cupcakes (oh no, I just gave the surprise away) with Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

I made these for the Have the Cake November challenge, which was to make a carbonation cake. After some research, I deduced that any box mix could be made into cake using pop instead of butter and eggs. I decided to use my chocolate cake recipe and just replace the liquid ingredients with soda water (who needs all that extra sugar from soda). Although I was skeptical, I have to admit that these cupcakes don’t taste half-bad, considering that they were made with just soda water and one egg. Butter is butter and it can’t be replaced, but these low-fat cupcakes were passable.

If you’re not into the whole no-butter or oil low-fat cupcake, then make these cupcakes and hide peanut butter cups in them. Of course, I think almost anything with peanut butter tastes good, so I’d give these cupcakes two sticky, peanut-buttery thumbs up.

Click below for the recipe.

Chocolate Framboise Bundt Cake

Posted by - Dorrie

A few years ago my homebrewing husband introduced me to a style of beer called "Lambic", which is a Belgian beer traditionally made with fruit added during the secondary fermentation. Lindeman's Framboise is such a Belgian lambic, which has been fermented with raspberries thus producing a rose-pink colored beer, with a slightly sour raspberry taste. After giving the baking challenge a little thought I decided to make a chocolate cake with Framboise since I love the combination of chocolate and raspberry.

Using a recipe that I found on Smitten Kitchen for a Chocolate Stout Cake that she turned into a bundt cake, I replaced the stout with Framboise and made the necessary adjustments for my above 6,000 foot altitude.

Chocolate Framboise Bundt Cake:

1 cup Framboise

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (reduced 1 1/2 sticks - 3/4 cups for high altitude)

3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 cups all purpose flour (increased to 2 1/4 cups for high altitude)

2 cups sugar (reduced to 1 1/2 cups for high altitude)

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter or spray a bundt pan.

Bring 1 cup Framboise and butter to simmer in a heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Remove from the heat and add the cocoa powder, whisking until it is smooth. Set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to blend. Beat eggs and sour cream with hand-mixer or stand mixer to blend. Add the beer-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat to combine. Add the flour mixture and mix briefly on a low speed until blended and then fold the batter with a spatula until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared bundt pan.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean - about 45 minutes at high altitude and less for sea level - about 35 minutes. Allow cake to cool completely in the pan and then turn it out onto cake plate or rack. I drizzled mine with chocolate Ganache and finished it with fresh raspberries.

The chocolate cake with Framboise produced a wonderful cake with a raspberry taste that is not overpowering but seems to bring out the chocolateness of the cake. A real winner in our house!

Root Beer Chocolate Cake Cupcakes

Posted by - Vivian

I made some root beer cupcakes from the Prepared Pantry .  I don't know what went wrong but they rose beautifully and then flattened out making it impossible for me to remove them from the pan! I ended up cutting them out of the pan by removing the flat tops.  Ended up looking ugly but still edible! I topped with butter cream frosting and pop rocks.


Root Beer Chocolate Cake Recipe

3/4 cup shortening

1 3/4 cups granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 tablespoon root beer flavor (or vanilla but will not have as deep of root beer flavor to the cake)

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup buttermilk

1 12-ounce can root beer, not sugar-free

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

 Cream the shortening and sugar together. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat for five or six minutes so that the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the extract.

In another bowl, mix the flour, cocoa, salt, and soda together.

In three or four additions, alternately add the dry ingredients and the liquids to the creamed mixture starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix only until smooth.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake a 9x13 inch pan for 35 to 40 minutes, cupcakes for 15 minutes, or until the cake tests done with a toothpick. Cool completely before frosting with the frosting of your choice.

Baker’s Note: When making a cake such as this, you are mixing oil (shortening) and water (soda pop and buttermilk)—which don’t mix. The egg yolks act as an emulsifier, a bonding agent between the oil and water molecules and the flour absorbs much of the water. That is why you start with the flour addition—so that the water doesn’t overload the fat mixture before the flour is there to start absorbing water. It’s also why you add the liquids in stages between the flour additions.

October - Dr. Pepper Chocolate Cake

Posted by - Jessica

Since the soda of choice in my house is Dr. Pepper I decided to see if I could find a recipe. I found a few different ones but settled on this one because it included Dr. Pepper in the cake and frosting. I would totally make the cake portion again but found the frosting a little a short on taste. The cake is super moist and delicious but I can't say I could tell there was Dr. Pepper in it.

Chocolate Stout Cake with Bailey's Irish Cream Frosting

Posted by - Angela from Soap Mom's Kitchen

I was thrilled when Colleen posted her beer cake for the October Challenge on Have the Cake. I actually had found this recipe on a blog called, Closet Cooking that I love and had copied it down in the hopes of trying it out one day. The stout beer sounded so intriguing!  This recipe however, is very similar to the one Colleen posted, but I had to give it a try.  Well, here it is and I must say that the beer does add a little something different. I really think the Irish Cream Frosting really compliments this cake very well. I would definitely recommend this cake with a traditional Irish meal.

Chocolate Stout Cake (as posted on Closet Cooking)
(makes 1 cake, 6+ servings)
Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Directions:
1. Melt the butter in a sauce pan, remove from heat and let cool a bit.
2. Mix in the stout and cocoa powder.
3. Mix the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
4. Mix the eggs and sour cream in another large bowl.
5. Mix the stout mixture into the egg mixture.
6. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
7. Pour the batter into one or two greased and parchment lined circular cake pan(s).
8. Bake in a preheated 350F oven until a toothpick pushed into the center comes out clean. If you bake it in a single pan then it should take about 40-50 minutes. If you bake it in two cake pans then it should take about 20-30 minutes. I baked my cake in a 8" pan and it took 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Bailey's Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients:
4 ounces cream cheese (room temperature)
1 cup confectioners sugar
3 tablespoons of Bailey’s Irish cream

Directions:
1. Cream the cream cheese.
2. Slowly mix in the confectioners sugar.
3. Slowly mix in the Irish cream.

October Inspiration: Carbonation

Posted by -colleen

I have been looking for an excuse to make this Chocolate Guinness Beer Cake for a long, long time. Every review and variation on it seems to draw rave reviews. It's a super-moist but not too sweet chocolate cake balanced with the dark, stout beer and then a whipped up, frothy, foam-like frosting which should resemble the head on a glass of beer.
Then one day, a friend made a Chocolate Dr. Pepper Malt Cake for my birthday (a recipe she got from the amazing and personally highly recommended Dinosaur BBQ cookbook. This was the best chocolate cake I have ever tasted. EVER. So apparently, the richness, the moistness, the not-so-over the top chocolate goodness is greatly helped by carbonated beverage.
So, that is my challenge to all the bakers this month: bake yourself up some yummy goodness using some form of carbonated beverage. It can be a cake, cupcakes, I even saw a bunch of recipes for breads. There are a TON of recipes out there using Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and the
previously mentioned beer and Dr. Pepper.
Can't wait to see what everyone does!
Enjoy!

October Roundup

Happy Halloween!
Thanks to everyone that participated in our October challenge. Thanks to Raquel for the pick. They all look delicious.

Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake

Posted by - piecesofme
originally posted here Let them Have Cake

Taken from Baking Bites

Pumpkin and Chocolate Layer Cake

Pumpkin Cake Layer
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Cake Layer
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or olive oil
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2-oz dark or bittersweet chocolate, melted

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides of both.
Set up two large mixing bowls so that the batter for both cakes can be prepared at the same time.

For the pumpkin cake:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.
In a large measuring cup, or a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla extract until all ingredients are well combined.
Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients and stir until no streaks of flour remain visible. Pour into a prepared pan.

For the chocolate cake:
In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt. Sift in cocoa powder and whisk to combine.
In a large measuring cup, or a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, melted butter, pumpkin puree, milk and vanilla extract until all ingredients are well combined. Whisk in melted chocolate.
Pour pumpkin mixture into dry ingredients and stir until no streaks of flour remain visible. Pour into a prepared pan.

Bake the cakes for 30-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean and the cake springs back when lightly pressed. The baking time is the same for one cake as it is for two cakes in the oven at the same time.

Turn cakes out of their pan and onto wire racks to cool completely before frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting
2 8-oz packages cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
3-4 cups confectioners’ sugar

Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and beat at high speed until smooth, gradually adding the confectioners’ sugar until a thick and spreadable consistency is reached. Additional confectioners sugar may need to be added to thicken frosting, especially if humidity is high in your area.

To assemble the cake, slice both the pumpkin cake and the chocolate cake in half horizontally. Place a chocolate round on a cake stand or serving platter, spread with a thin layer of cream cheese icing, and place a pumpkin layer on top. Make sure to spread the frosting all the way to the edges of the cake rounds. Spread the pumpkin layer with frosting and repeat with remaining chocolate and pumpkin layers.
Use remaining frosting to cover the top and sides of the cake.

Serves 12-16

I am late as usual in posting and not to mention, I did drop one layer on the floor, but in the end it turned out great, total hit!

Coconut Layer Cake

Posted by - Nancy

I know what your thinking, this was already a challenge on Have the Cake. And you would be correct, however, I was not a member yet when that challenge was issued so I never made the coconut cake. When I told my husband what this month's challenge was, we had just watched an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made Coconut cake, and he casually mentioned how coconut cake was a layer cake. And let's just say that I know the way to my mans heart is with a slice of coconut cake.

So I printed the recipe from the website and I was intrigued since they suggest using coconut cream (Coco Lopez) to add a real coco-nutty flavor. Of course, I procrastinated and realized I had better bake my cake tonight in order to finish on time. So this afternoon I set out to bake up my cakes.



The recipe went together easy enough. I was a bit surprised to see that basically you make a biscuit dough by beating the butter into the dry ingredients, then add the wet works. But it all came together and baked up. One thing I was not counting on though was that the oven in our still fairly new apartment is not level, so my cakes baked up a bit crooked. I was nervous about leveling them since I tried to do that before and it didn't turn out so well. However, I took a deep breath, went slow and came out with mostly level cakes. I was also a bit nervous about splitting my cakes, but watching Alton Brown do it many, many times and seeing them score them first on America's Test Kitchen paid off, and I had two beautifully split cakes, for four layers total.



Now it was time to frost. My husband requested a simple cream cheese frosting, so after a trip to the grocery store for some cream cheese, I threw together a basic frosting and was ready to frost. I was a bit worried about not having enough frosting, so I went thin on the inner layers. I had plenty though and after a coating of toasted coconut, I had a layer cake.



So how is it?



Delicious!