I love cake. And bundt pans, I mean come on. You’ve all seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding right? Bunnnndddttt. A what? A Bunnnnddddtttt.
I love baking in my bundt pan. Mine is a stoneware bundt from Pampered Chef, but you can use any pan you like. This cake I doubled the cake recipe below by baking TWO bundt cakes. I baked one, while that one cooled I baked a second cake. I like the height of the cake, plus it kinda looks like a pumpkin!
I think there is something so grown up and sophisticated about bundt cakes. I’m not sure what it is though. Maybe the lines on the outside of the cake? The curves? I just love a slice of cake with my coffee.
And this pumpkin cake? It’s so rich and moist! Paired with the cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache, you just can’t go wrong. So go do something right and have a slice of cake!!! Enjoy!
Favorite Pumpkin Recipes: Pumpkin Crumb Cake | Cold Brew Coffee
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Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
For the cake: DOUBLE IF MAKING TWO BUNDTS
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- ½ cup applesauce
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
For the frosting:
- 4 oz cream cheese softened
- 2-3 cup powdered sugar
- 2 Tablespoon milk
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
For the ganache:
- 1 Tablespoon heavy cream
- 1 Tablespoon milk
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp corn syrup
- 1 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 1 oz semi sweet chocolate morsels
- 1 ¼ cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- In mixer, beat together pumpkin, sugars, applesauce and eggs. Blend in the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and seasonings.
- Pour batter into well greased and floured bundt pan.
- Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 38-45 minutes. Allow to cool in pan about 5 minutes before flipping onto a rack. Repeat by making a second cake if you want two layers.
- Cool completely before frosting. To make frosting, beat cream cheese until smooth. Beat in vanilla, milk and powdered sugar and mix for 2-3 minutes. Invert one cake so the flat part is facing upwards. Spread frosting evenly on cake and top with second cake. *If only using one bundt cake, carefully slice cake in half horizontally, lifting up the top layer. Spread frosting between layers, return top layer above the frosting.
- To make chocolate glaze, in a small saucepan on medium low heat, mix together the cream, milk, butter, vanilla and corn syrup. When butter is completely melted, turn heat to low and add in the chocolate. Remove from heat and whisk in the powdered sugar. When completely smooth, spoon over top of cake. Allow to set about 15 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
- The recipe as written will fill ONE bundt pan. Feel free to double it/make 2 cakes and “glue” them together with frosting to make it look like a pumpkin!
Very misleading, the instructions are NOT for the pretty cake that looks like a pumpkin. Also cooking time is off. Cake has good flavor but I wanted the centerpiece cake as shown.
I do suggest doubling the cake in the directions in order to make a pumpkin shaped cake. It is one bundt on bottom and one on top.
I just made this cake and followed the recipe precisely. Did anyone else have a cake that came out gummy? Super undercooked? I am making the second cake now and cooking for much longer than 45 minutes to see if there is an error with my oven and the timing.
Not sure what happened when I posted, but it didn’t pull my name. Anyhow, the cake came out great! A big hit with my coworkers.
This recipe is fabulous! I just did a trial run for an event I’m hosting this weekend and can’t seem to get the bundt cake to be full size.. likes its the height of a pie. the inside isn’t quite cooked and it cooked for an additional 20 minutes after the 45 once I realized that the inside was still so soft. I’m in high altitude but do not think that should affect the cake to this degree. any suggestions? I really want to serve this at my party but I have to get it right first! 🙂
On the recipe, the frosting calls for 2-3 cups of powdered sugar. How do I gauge how much to use?
It depends on how thick you like your frosting…some people prefer their frosting more on the thin/runny side.
I totally agree with the others above!!! Wish I could find the recipe to the image posted of the cute frosted orange pumpkin cake. That cake photo is what made me open the site 🙁 don’t want the chocolate ganache topping!
Hi ,
this sounds great. The photo on pinterest shows the cake covered in creme/frosting and looking like an actual pumpkin. do you just make a separate mini cake to fill the inside so you can still get the shape on the outside?
the cake is frosted orange. i don’t see the recipe on the page or am i just missing it.
I see this too on Pinterest but when I click it sends to me this recipe, which seems similar, just with a different end result (but I really want that pumpkin look). What I’m going to do is make the cake and filling, then just use my traditional chocolate icing and try to dye it orange, or maybe just make extra cream cheese filling and use that to make it look like the Pinterest picture. Not sure about the stump though yet – might use a real stump!
Ahhh this makes sense. So there must be a different image attached to my recipe???
As for a “stump”, could you use an ice cream cone (the cake cone style) and cover it in chocolate frosting, or vanilla frosting tinted green? Depending on the color you want?
If you want orange frosting, you could dye cream cheese frosting?
Hi, this looks amazing but I am confused with the last picture of the cake. It does show a stem and it’s also frosted entirely to make it look like a pumpkin. Can you tell me how you did it? The picture after that one just shows it with a sprinkling of powdered sugar.
Thanks!
Cathy
Hi Cathy, If you look above, I don’t have a stem on my cake. But I suppose you could use an ice cream cone and frost it green?
What did you use for the stem on the finished “pumpkin”?
I don’t have a stem on mine…but I suppose you could use a ice cream cone (the cake cone type).? Then frost it green?
What is the stem made of in the third picture
What size bundt pan is this? They come in different sizes. Mine is 9″ diameter and just poured the batter in and it looks like the recipe may not be enough to fill the pan when fully baked. The batter only fills less than half the pan. We’ll see how it turns out…
Because I use two bundt cakes for a big pumpkin, these make smaller individual cakes.
I am making this cake now and for some reason 1 cup of flour just doesn’t seem like enough. Has anyone else made this recipe and is the flour amount correct?
Thanks! Ellen
If you’re making just one bundt it’s correct. They are a bit smaller than a typical bundt because to make the “pumpkin look” you will need TWO of them.Hope this helps!
How did your cake turn out? One cup of flour seems a little off. I was going to double the amount .
It came out great! I followed the original recipe.
U said no butter but I see 1/4 cup butter in frosting??????
Can I use veg oil instead of apple sauce & if so, how much? Sooooo excited to try this! My husband is going to go nuts!
I’m impatiently waiting for this to cool 🙂 Can’t wait to taste it!
Is there any butter in the frosting or just cheese, milk, sugar, and vanilla?
no butter! Enjoy!
Hi! I was wondering if the recipe would still work if I left out the pumpkin (no substitute). I’m not a fan of pumpkin in general but would love to still make the cake. Thoughts? Thanks!
mary, i have some pumpkin (hokkaido pumpkin) in the oven right now; peel it before (though its skin is eatable), slice it and cook it on 400F for 30 mins, covered with aluminum foil so it doesnt brown. i live in germany and here we dont have canned pumpkin, plus i dont like processed food at all.
… and then let it cool and make a puree. you can put the excess puree in the freezer for another cake.
This is the first recipe I have seen of yours but if the rest of them are anything like this one I want ALL of them! This sounds absolutely out of this world to me and I can’t wait to make one. My cousin posted it for me. So I need to thank her for it because if she hadn’t put it out there for me to see I would never have known about it. Thanks Marie very much! Linda.
Thanks Linda! Enjoy the recipe 🙂
Making this TONIGHT!