Every autumn, I can’t help but bake this pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe on repeat. It’s been a thing for the better part of a decade now, and there’s something about spiced pumpkin and chocolate together that just does it for me. Since I’m constantly inspired to make cake versions of other sweets I love, I thought I’d give a pumpkin chocolate chip cake a go. I’ve already got a beloved pumpkin layer cake recipe, so I tossed in some mini chocolate chips to see what would happen. The result is a keeper – essentially my deliciously moist, beautifully spiced pumpkin cake with mini chocolate chips perfectly suspended throughout!
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Like I mentioned previously, this recipe begins with my favorite pumpkin layer cake recipe. It’s an easy recipe to whip up, getting its flavor from canned pumpkin purèe and lots of warm spices. Between the pumpkin and the buttermilk in the recipe, the cake ends up being super moist and decadent with the perfect spiced pumpkin flavor.
The only alteration with this recipe is the ½ Cup of mini chocolate chips that you’ll fold in at the end. It’s important to use mini chocolate chips because they’re nice and lightweight, meaning they won’t sink to the bottom of the cake pans in the baking process. I like to coat my mini chocolate chips in a little bit of flour for extra assurance that they won’t sink. That extra flour + the fact that this cake batter is super thick keeps the chocolate chips suspended while the layers bake.
For frosting and decorating, I decided to spike my favorite cream cheese buttercream recipe with a little cinnamon to make it spiced. It turned out so delicious and pairs so well with this pumpkin chocolate chip cake! I decorated with a chocolate ganache drip, which I topped with a buttercream rope border with Wilton Tip 1M and more mini chocolate chips. Simple yet so pretty.
Tips for Decorating with Cream Cheese Buttercream
Cream cheese buttercream is notoriously soft and therefore, a little more difficult to work with than your average buttercream frosting. That said, if you’ve had a hard time with it in the past, don’t panic. I have some helpful tips that will make decorating with cream cheese buttercream easier than ever.
- Use full-fat brick-style cream cheese. Other types of cream cheese, meaning low fat or the spreadable kind that’s sold in tubs, contain a lot more water. This makes the resulting buttercream really soupy and there’s really no way to fix it other than dump in a lot more powdered sugar, which ruins the flavor. If you don’t have access to brick-style cream cheese locally, I recommend subbing this frosting with cinnamon-vanilla buttercream or chocolate buttercream instead.
- Refrigerate the frosting. If your kitchen environment is extra warm or your cream cheese frosting is otherwise just a bit too soft to work with, try popping it in the refrigerator for 10-20 minutes, then remixing on low speed with your stand mixer to bring it back to smooth frosting consistency. The refrigeration will begin to solidify the butter content in the frosting, just enough to thicken the consistency and make it more stable.
- Work quickly. When filling, stacking, and crumb coating the cake, try to work quickly so that you can get the crumb coated cake in the refrigerator asap. Refrigerating the cake for about 30 minutes after crumb coating will help lock in the entire shape of the cake and make it more solid for that final layer of frosting. It’s so much easier to frost a solid cake than one with shifting layers.
- Thicken with cornstarch, if necessary. One method that I’ve found for thickening cream cheese frosting is to add a little cornstarch. This will help thicken the consistency without adding tons of powdered sugar and oversweetening. I wrote a blog post that explains how to thicken cream cheese frosting with cornstarch here.
Other Frosting Recommendations
If you don’t have access to brick-style cream cheese or simply don’t like cream cheese buttercream, here are my recommendations for pairing with this cake. You’ll want to make 1.5x the recipes here (unless otherwise noted) if you’re planning on adding a rope border to the top of the cake:
- Cinnamon-Vanilla Buttercream (no need to scale this recipe up)
- Chocolate Buttercream
- Brown Butter Frosting
- Vanilla Buttercream
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
Ingredients
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
- 2 3/4 Cups (290g) sifted cake flour* DIY recipe in notes
- 21/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground allspice
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 Cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 Cup (140g) packed brown sugar
- 1 Cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 Cups (340g) canned pumpkin purèe
- 1 Cup (240ml) full-fat buttermilk, room temperature** DIY recipe in notes
- 1/2 Cup (93g) mini chocolate chips, coated in 2 tsp flour
Spiced Cream Cheese Buttercream
- 6 Cups (720g) powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 3/4 Cup (170g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 Cup (12oz) full-fat brick-style cream cheese NOT the spread
- 1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- pinch of salt, or to taste
Chocolate Ganache Drip
- 1/2 Cup (93g) semi-sweet chocolate chips I used the mini size from the cake recipe
- 1/2 Cup (120ml) heavy whipping cream
Garnish
- 2 Tbsp mini chocolate chips
Instructions
Make the Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF/177ºC and prepare three 6-inch or two 8 or 9-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with cooking spray and placing a wax or parchment paper circle into the bottom of each one. Measure the cake flour by spooning into your measuring cup and leveling it. Place it into a medium sized bowl and add the baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and ground ginger. Whisk together and set aside.
- In the bowl of your stand mixer (a handheld mixer works fine too!), cream the butter on high for two minutes until it's light and fluffy. Add in white and brown sugars and continue to mix on high for another two minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add pumpkin puree and vanilla and mix for one minute on medium-high, scraping down the bowl and paddle once more.
- With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Add the buttermilk in a steady stream and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and give it a few stirs to make sure there are no lumps.
- Coat the mini chocolate chips in 2 tsp of flour (all purpose or cake flour) and gently fold them into the pumpkin cake batter. Then, pour the batter evenly between the cake pans (fill them no more than ⅔ full) and bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for ten minutes before removing and continuing to cool on a wire rack or flat surface.
Make the Spiced Cream Cheese Buttercream
- In a medium bowl, add the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Whisk to combine and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and cream cheese on high until light, fluffy, and uniform (no lumps), about five minutes. Turn the mixer to low and add the cinnamon-powdered sugar mixture a few cups at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition. Add the vanilla and salt, then mix on low until smooth and combined, about 30 seconds.
Make the Chocolate Ganache Drip
- Place chocolate chips into a heat resistant bowl (glass or metal).
- In a saucepan over medium-high heat, warm heavy whipping cream until it just starts to simmer. I always look for small bubbles forming around the edge and a soft simmer starting in the middle. When it's reached this point, pour the cream into your bowl of chocolate and let sit for about 30 seconds.
- Whisk until the ganache is uniform in consistency and there are no bits of chocolate left on your whisk. Cool ganache at room temperature for 10-20 minutes, or until the ganache itself is room temperature or slightly above, before dripping the cake.
Assembly
- Once the pumpkin chocolate chip cakes are completely cooled, level them to your desired height. Add a swipe of buttercream onto a cardboard cake circle and place the first cake layer on top. Fill and stack the cake with spiced cream cheese buttercream. Crumb coat the cake with spiced cream cheese buttercream, then place it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to let the buttercream set firm.
- To create the design pictured, frost a smooth buttercream finish onto the cake with spiced cream cheese buttercream and place it back into the refrigerator for an additional 20 minutes to chill the buttercream while you heat the chocolate ganache to perfect drip consistency. Drip the cake with the chocolate ganache and place it back into the refrigerator for 5 minutes to let it set.
- Add the remaining spiced cream cheese buttercream into a piping bag fitted with Wilton Tip 1M, then use it to pipe a rope border around the top edge of the cake. You'll basically pipe continuous, counter-clockwise rosettes at a 45 degree angle until you've gone all the way around the cake. Top with mini chocolate chips as a finishing touch.
Notes
- The pumpkin chocolate chip cake layers can be made ahead and stored, wrapped in plastic wrap, at room temperature for up to two days. Alternatively, you can store the wrapped cake layers in the freezer for up to 2 months before thawing and frosting.
- The cream cheese buttercream can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it, bring it back to room temperature and re-whip in your stand mixer to bring back to smooth buttercream consistency.
- The chocolate ganache can be made ahead and stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to two weeks. When you’re ready to use it as a drip, microwave it in 10 second increments, stirring after every interval until your ganache is room temperature and uniform in consistency.
My chocolate ganache drips are always a failure! Usually too runny (I think?). Any tips/tricks?
Hi Meg! If you struggle with runny ganache drips, the ganache is either too warm when you’re dripping it or your ganache has too much liquid content. I have a guide on how to make the perfect ganache consistency for drip cakes here: https://sugarandsparrow.com/ganache-drip-cake-tips/ hope that helps!