The pumpkin cake with chocolate and spices is an aromatic, delicious, soft, sweet, and perfectly moist cake, very easy to make, very refined, perfect for accompanying important moments. It’s a cake that can be prepared for any occasion, from breakfast, to snack time, to tea or coffee break, or even as a gift. The original recipe for this spiced delight is by Cinthia Barcomi. I personalized the original recipe based on what I already had at home and our tastes. In addition to 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
- 24.5 oz 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
- 1 pinch Nutmeg
- 1.75 oz Raisins or blueberries
- 11.5 oz All-purpose flour
- 1 packet Baking powder
- 1 pinch Fine salt
- 4.5 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-inch diameter baking 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.
Place the pumpkin flesh in a large pot and add water to just cover the pumpkin. Cover and cook over medium heat for 25 minutes or until it starts to soften. The pumpkin should not cook completely and fall apart but just soften.
Drain the softened pumpkin and mash it well with a fork. Then put it in a fine sieve for at least 3 hours (I leave it overnight) to remove excess water.
After 3 hours, take 250 grams of pumpkin puree and set it aside.
Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients. Coarsely chop the dark chocolate and dried figs with a knife and grind the cloves into powder.
Grate the fresh ginger and nutmeg in a small bowl; add the half teaspoon of cinnamon, the vanillin, and the ground cloves.
Sift together the flour and baking powder.
Preheat the oven to 340°F.
In the mixer bowl, mix the sugar, oil, and eggs at low speed until smooth (it 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: the flour and baking powder mix, a pinch of salt, figs, raisins, and chocolate. Mix well until homogeneous.
Butter and flour a cake mold, pour in the mixture, level it, and bake it on the lowest rack for about 60 minutes.
To ensure the cake is cooked, pierce it with a skewer that should come out clean, remembering not to confuse melted chocolate inside the cake, which may dirty the skewer, with potentially still raw batter.
Once the cake is cooked, remove it from the oven and let it rest for a few minutes before removing it from the mold. Once cool, you can decorate it with powdered sugar or a glaze made of powdered sugar and water or melted white chocolate.
You can also make this cake in single-serving portions using convenient molds. In this case, the cooking time will be shorter, around 25 minutes.
You can use a round pan with or without a hole in the center, or the classic cake mold.
