Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake

A couple months back, my sister-in-law had texted me a recipe from the New York Times for a Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake thinking it would be good for Thanksgiving.  I had pinned it and was excited to try it out last week.  Overall, I thought the cake turned out pretty good but if I make it again, I would make a small adjustment.  The cake itself was really good; it was moist and had plenty of flavor but I wasn't a fan of the frosting.  From the picture in the recipe, the frosting is dark so I thought it would be like a chocolate ganache; however, after reading the recipe and making it, it's really a buttercream frosting which I'm not a huge fan of.  I think next time I would try to make more of a chocolate ganache and skip the buttercream frosting.  

My inspiration

The ingredients

Lucy helping me with the cake batter; she's very good at dumping in chocolate chips

The batter all mixed up and ready to be poured into pans

Since it was a layer cake, it called to make 2 round cakes; our house smelled so good when these were baking

Chocolate frosting 

I called in the reinforcements to help with icing the outside of the cake

Finished product

A peek inside

It was perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side

Chocolate Pumpkin Layer Cake

Ingredients:

2 1/2 sticks of butter, unsalted & softened
2 cups flour, more for dusting
1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup chopped pecans
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
10 oz. semisweet chocolate, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Use a little butter to grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Line bottoms with parchment paper. Butter and flour the paper. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, baking soda, baking powder and salt together.

2. Using an electric mixer, cream 8 tablespoons butter and the granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in eggs one at a time. Stir in pumpkin purée. Mixture may look slightly curdled. Stir in flour mixture about half a cup at a time until smooth. Fold in chocolate chips and pecans.

3. Divide batter into pans and bake in middle of oven until springy to the touch and a tester inserted in center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool cakes in pans for 10 minutes, run a knife around edges, invert onto racks and peel off paper. Let cakes cool completely.

4. In a large bowl, blend remaining 12 tablespoons butter and confectioners' sugar together. Blend in chocolate and vanilla extract and beat until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add cream or milk by the tablespoon, blending well after each addition, until it reaches spreading consistency.

5. Place one cake layer, smooth side up, on a platter. Ice top. Place second layer, smooth side down, on top; ice top and sides of cake.

from New York Times