The pumpkin cake with chocolate and spices is an aromatic, delicious, soft, sweet, and perfectly moist cake, very easy, very refined, perfect for accompanying important moments. It’s a cake that can be prepared for any occasion, from breakfast, to snack, to tea or coffee break, or given as a gift. The original recipe of this spiced delight is by Cinthia Barcomi. I customized the original recipe based on what I already had at home and our tastes. Besides being truly exquisite, we can make the pumpkin cake with chocolate and spices extremely decorative, decorating it according to our imagination. I recommend making the cake a day in advance because it becomes even better.
- Difficulty: Very Easy
- Cost: Medium
- Rest time: 3 Hours
- Preparation time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 6/8 people
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Pumpkin
- 3.5 oz Dark chocolate
- 3.5 oz Dried figs
- 5 Cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon Grated ginger
- 1 packet Vanillin (or vanilla paste)
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
- 1.75 oz Raisins or blueberries
- 2.6 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 packet Baking powder
- 1 pinch Fine salt
- 4.4 oz Brown sugar
- 1/2 cup Vegetable oil
- 2 Medium whole eggs
- 3/4 cup Milk
- as needed Butter and flour for the pan
Tools
- 1 9/10 in. Pan
Preparation
All ingredients should be at room temperature.
Let’s start with the pumpkin. Peel the pumpkin, remove the seeds and fibers, and cut it into pieces.
Put the pumpkin pulp in a large pot and add water to just cover the pumpkin without exceeding it. Cover and cook on medium heat for 25 minutes or until it starts to soften. The pumpkin should not be fully cooked and mashed, but simply softened.
Drain the softened pumpkin and mash it very well with a fork. Then, place it in a fine sieve for at least 3 hours (I leave it overnight) to remove the excess water.
After 3 hours, take 250 grams of pumpkin puree and set it aside.
In the meantime, prepare the other ingredients. Coarsely chop the dark chocolate and dried figs with a knife and grind the cloves to a powder.
In a small bowl, grate the fresh ginger and nutmeg; add the half teaspoon of cinnamon, the vanillin, and the ground cloves.
Sift the flour and baking powder together.
Preheat the oven to 340°F.
In the stand mixer bowl, mix the sugar, oil, and eggs at low speed until smooth (this will take less than a minute).
Then add the milk, spices, and pumpkin puree. Continue mixing at low speed.
At this point, add the remaining ingredients, namely the flour and baking powder mix, the pinch of salt, the figs, raisins, and chocolate. Mix well until a homogeneous mixture is obtained.
Butter and flour a cake pan and pour the mixture in, level it, and bake it on the lowest rack for about 60 minutes.
To ensure that the cake is cooked, pierce it with a skewer which should come out clean, but remember not to confuse the melted chocolate inside the cake, which could dirty the skewer, with potentially still raw batter.
As soon as the cake is baked, take it out of the oven and let it rest for a few minutes before removing it from the pan. Once cooled, you can decorate it with powdered sugar or with a powdered sugar and water glaze or melted white chocolate.
We can also prepare this cake in single-serving size, using very convenient muffin molds. In this case, the baking time will be shorter, about 25 minutes.
You can use a fluted circular mold with or without a hole in the center, or the classic cake pan.
