Pumpkin chocolate loaf cake is more chocolate than pumpkin. The pumpkin listed in the title is a little deceiving (but there is pumpkin puree in this recipe!). This cake is more like a deep chocolate loaf cake with just a subtle hint of pumpkin. Chocolate loaf cake, topped with a crumb topping and glazed in melted chocolate and chocolate chips. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate with a tiny side of pumpkin 😉
There’s about to be a lot of pumpkin recipes flying out of this kitchen…just a heads up. The hubs and I were at Costco yesterday and Costco had a three-pack of (large) cans of pumpkin puree for cheap. It was a deal…what can I say? I can’t ever pass up a good deal!!
I couldn’t wait to use the pumpkin puree I got, so as soon as I got home from our Costco trip, I quickly whipped up this loaf cake. Tis the pumpkin season! I figured we might as well ease into it, with this yummy chocolate loaf cake.
Chocolate Pumpkin Loaf Cake
Print RecipeIngredients
- CAKE BATTER:
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 cup granulated white sugar
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1-1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dark cocoa powder (I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup milk, room temperature (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk)
- CRUMB TOPPING:
- 5 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar (or light)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- dash of nutmeg
- CHOCOLATE LAYER:
- 1 cup candy melts (I used black colored candy melts)
- sprinkle of mini chocolate chips
Instructions
CAKE: Preheat oven to 350-degrees. Prepare a 9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan by lining with foil and spraying with cooking spray.
In the bowl of your mixer, add your butter. Using the paddle attachment, cream butter until pale in color. Add sugar to the butter and cream until fluffy and light. Scrape down the sides of your bowl. Add eggs one at a time, completely mixing the first egg in before adding the second egg. Mix batter until creamy, and then mix in the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract to the mixture.
Slowly add the flour, the cocoa powders, baking soda, pumpkin spice, and ground cinnamon to the mixer. Mix slowly until ingredients are just incorporated. Slowly add the milk to the mixer. Once the ingredients are incorporated, turn mixer to medium speed and mix for 30-seconds, until batter is creamy and all ingredients are fully incorporated.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and set aside to prepare the crumb topping.
CRUMB TOPPING: In a small bowl, combine the cold butter, flour, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Use a pastry blender, or two forks, to cut the mixture until it resembles course crumbs. Sprinkle crumb topping onto unbaked loaf cake, gently pushing the crumb topping to the top of the cake to ensure that it adheres to the cake after it is done baking.
Bake loaf cake in oven for 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, without raw batter on it (a few crumbs are okay). I checked mine after 45-minutes and it was still raw in the middle. I checked back every few minutes after, and my cake was done at 53-minutes.
Remove cake from oven and let cool. Once cool, remove the cake from the pan.
CHOCOLATE LAYER: Placing candy melts in a microwave safe bowl, and melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30-second intervals until chocolate is melted. Spoon melted chocolate over the top of the loaf cake, covering it. Immediately sprinkle the chocolate layer with mini chocolate chips. Let chocolate layer set for approximately 30-minutes, before cutting into desired sized slices.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
The chocolate layer is completely optional. I tasted the cake with just the crumb topping and felt the cake needed a touch more sweetness, because the dark cocoa powder can have such an intense flavor. You can use candy melts or chocolate chips of your choice, melted, for the chocolate layer.
The melted chocolate on top is optional, but who can ever pass up more chocolate?!
Chocolate overload!!!!
Any pumpkin dessert recipes you want?! Let me know what’s on your mind! I love comments!
XOXO,
Kelly
PS- I linked this recipe up at Meal Plan Monday!
[optin-cat id=”528″]
2 Comments
James W
October 8, 2016 at 1:57 PMGreat post and even better treat! We all loved the cake. So much so that we didn’t even make it back to the station to dig in. And I can’t wait to see what else you come up with now that you have a Costco portion of purée 😁
Kelly
October 8, 2016 at 1:59 PMHahaha yeah I left out the secret picture you took of GT digging into them on the way back to the station!