Easy Chocolate Pumpkin Cake (From Scratch)
Easy chocolate pumpkin cake recipe with pumpkin cream cheese frosting, homemade from scratch with simple ingredients. This sheet cake is soft and moist and full of chocolate chips. Decorate with seasonal Fall and Thanksgiving candies, pretzels, Oreo cookie crumbs and transform it into a pumpkin patch cake.
Servings: 15 Slices
Calories: 392kcal
Ingredients
- 2 Eggs Large, Room temperature
- ¼ cup Oil
- ½ cup Buttermilk
- 1 can Pumpkin puree Not pumpkin pie filling, 15 oz. can
- 1.5 cups All-purpose flour
- 1.5 cups Granulated sugar
- ¾ cups Cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon Pumpkin pie spice You can increase or decrease quantities based on your preference
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- 1.5 teaspoon Baking soda
- ¼ cup Mini chocolate chips Semisweet, Cannot replace with regular sized chocolate chips
Pumpkin cream cheese frosting
- ½ cup Butter Unsalted, Room temperature
- ¾ cup Cream cheese Full fat, Room temperature
- ⅓ cup Pumpking puree Not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 teaspoon Pumpkin pie spice You can increase or decrease quantities based on your preference
- 3 cups Powdered sugar
Decoration
- 1.5 cups Oreo cookie crumbs
- ½ cup Pumpkin candies
- ¼ cup Stone candies
- 2 tablespoon Edible grass candy
- 120-150 Mini pretzel sticks
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add eggs, oil, buttermilk, pumpkin puree and mix until smooth.
- Add flour, sugar, cocoa powder, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and mix until just combined. Don't over-mix!
- Stir in chocolate chips until evenly distributed.
- Pour batter in a greased and floured rectangle cake pan (Dimensions: 9x13). You can line with parchment paper, if you like. Use a spatula to spread batter evenly.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 30-40 minutes or until an inserted toothpick in the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and allow the cake to cool to room temperature.
- While the cake is baking and cooling, prepare the frosting.
- In a large mixing bowl, add butter, cream cheese, pumpkin puree, pumpkin pie spice and mix until smooth.
- Mix in powdered sugar gradually (½ cup at a time) until frosting is smooth and creamy without any lumps.
- Spread this frosting on top of your cooled cake with a spatula. You cake is ready to be enjoyed. However, you can take it a step further and decorate it to look like a pumpkin patch, if you like.
- Spread Oreo cookie crumbs on top of the iced cake as evenly as possible. This creates the illusion of dirt.
- Place some pumpkin candies, stone candies randomly on top. Also, push some edible grass candy randomly between the pumpkins and stones.
- Finally, create the illusion of a fence by pushing mini pretzel sticks along the 4 sides of the cake. Enjoy.
Video
Notes
- Make sure you are using fresh baking powder and baking soda. They do expire and lose their strength over time.
- All ingredients must be at room temperature.
- Use unsalted butter to prevent the cake from becoming too salty.
- Use full fat ingredients for maximum richness.
- Adjust amount of pumpkin pie spice in the cake batter and frosting, based on your preference.
- Homemade buttermilk substitute is really easy to make by mixing together 1 cup whole milk with 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice. Let it sit for 5 minutes until it curdles. Mix and then use the relevant quantity in this recipe.
- I wanted a thinner layer of frosting that wasn't too firm and thinned it out by mixing in some milk. This was just a personal preference for me. You can follow the recipe as is for a regular medium consistency of frosting.
- Read additional tips and variations above.
- Leftovers can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Calories: 392kcal | Carbohydrates: 62g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 16g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 5g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 51mg | Sodium: 216mg | Potassium: 188mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 47g | Vitamin A: 4803IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 51mg | Iron: 2mg