This chocolate pumpkin bundt cake is the perfect way to combine chocolate and pumpkin, with a sweet pumpkin spiced cake, topped with a yummy pumpkin frosting!
This cake starts with a moist and tender chocolate and pumpkin cake base, that is topped with a sweet pumpkin icing drizzled over the top. This chocolate pumpkin cake is perfect for pumpkin lovers, and is a perfect dessert to make in the fall.
I love pumpkin and chocolate together. Though I usually think of pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips, this chocolate pumpkin bundt cake is my new favorite way to combine pumpkin and chocolate into one yummy dessert.
I adapted this recipe from Isabella at Crumb: A Food Blog.
This cake has a lot of ingredients, and a lot of steps, but I promise you the result is so worth it!
How to make a chocolate pumpkin bundt cake?
Preheat the oven. Grease your bundt cake with nonstick spray, then dust it lightly with flour all around.
In a large mixing bowl, mix together your buttermilk, pumpkin puree, and brown sugar. And mix till nice and smooth. Add in the eggs and mix again. Then add in the yogurt, corn syrup, and vanilla extract and mix again.
Add in the dry ingredients all at once, flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Fold the mixture into the wet ingredients until you have a nice batter. I used a spatula for this, not my hand mixer.
**If you don’t want to find all the different spices you can use 1 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice. The flavor may be a teeny bit different, but it should be close enough.
Pour the batter into the prepared bundt cake pan and gently tap on the counter to even out the batter. Bake in the preheated oven for one hour (or a little more) until an inserted toothpick comes out mostly clean. Place on a cooling rack upside down for 10 minutes, then remove from the pan. Let cool completely before topping with the frosting.
When you’re ready to make your frosting, melt your butter. You can brown it in a sauce pan for a little extra caramel flavor, or you can melt it in the microwave. Set it aside.
In a medium sized bowl, add your pumpkin puree, half and half, vanilla, and nutmeg and stir them together till nice and smooth. Add in the butter and mix well. Then add in your powdered sugar. Start with one cup, then add more another 1/4 cup at a time until you get the right consistency. You want the glaze thick enough that it won’t just run down the sides and off your cake, but not too thick. You want it to drip slowly a bit down the sides of the cake. Spoon it over the cooled cake and around the top. Let the icing set before slicing and serving.
How to make this cake ahead of time?
Prepare and bake the chocolate pumpkin cake up to 1 or 2 days ahead of time. Once it is cooled completely, wrap the cake up with plastic wrap. Top the cake with the pumpkin frosting when you’re almost ready to serve the cake.
If you do have any cake leftover, you can carefully wrap the cake up with plastic wrap, or cover with a lid for 2 to 3 days.
This chocolate pumpkin cake is amazing. I could probably have eaten half of it in one sitting, but thankfully it was the perfect thing to make to share with my family.
This chocolate pumpkin bundt cake is definitely going to be a new favorite for you, for the fall season!
Looking for more Pumpkin Recipes?
- Pumpkin Cake Mix Cake
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pancakes
- Pumpkin Roll
- Pumpkin Cobbler
- Pumpkin Poke Cake
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Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake
Ingredients
For the Chocolate Pumpkin Cake:
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 cups pumpkin puree (reserve 2 Tbs for icing)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1 egg white
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (can be substituted with sour cream, or oil)
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1 Tbs vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the Frosting:
- 2 Tbs butter (melted)
- 2 Tbs pumpkin puree (from your reserve)
- 1 TBS half and half (add more as needed)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 cups powdered sugar
Equipment
- Large Mixing Bowl
Instructions
For the Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Grease and flour a 10inch bundt pan. Spray it with nonstick spray, then add a little flour, and tap the sides to spread it around all over.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the buttermilk, pumpkin puree, brown sugar, and stir until smooth.
- Add in the eggs and stir again.
- Stir in the yogurt, corn syrup, and vanilla extract and mix again until smooth.
- Add the dry ingredients; flour, granulated sugar, cocoa powder, spices, and salt, all at once and fold the wet and dry ingredients together gently.
- Pour the batter evenly into your bundt cake pan and gently tap on the counter to even out the batter, and get the extra air bubbles out.
- Bake the cake in the oven for 55-70 minutes until you can enter a toothpick into the cake and it comes out mostly clean. A wet crumb or two is perfect. .
- Place the pan upside down on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then remove the pan and let the cake continue to cool completely on the cooling rack before frosting.
For the Frosting:
- In a medium bowl add the pumpkin puree, half and half, vanilla, and nutmeg. Stir together.
- Add the butter to the mix, and whisk until well blended.
- Add 1 cup of powdered sugar to the bowl, and whisk it in. Add more powdered sugar 1/4 cup at a time until you get the right consistency for the glaze. You want it a medium thickness so you can pour it on the cake and it will drip down slowly but it won't just run off the cake.
- Spoon the icing over thecooled cake, all around the top of your cake. Let it glide gently down the sides of your cake.
- Let the icing set for 30 minutes before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
This chocolate pumpkin bundt cake was first posted on October 11, 2012. The photos and text were updated on September 4, 2020.
Janet says
Does the 2 T. of reserved pumpkin puree (for the Icing) come from the 2 cups of pumpkin for the cake, or is it 2 T. from the can of pumpkin you’re using? Just wondered if the amount of pumpkin for the cake is 2 cups, or less the 2 T. to reserve for Icing? Thank you!
Ellen says
The 2 Tbs for the icing comes from the 2 cups for the cake. So you measure 2 cups for the cake and then remove 2 TBS from the 2 cups and set aside to use for the icing. I hope that clarifies that for you.
Donna Brogni says
The best cake I have tasted very moist and dense.
Ellen says
Thank you for letting us know.
Steven says
Delicious. The only “issue” I had was my glaze was very thick after just one cup of powdered sugar. So, I didn’t add anymore and had to add another few TBS of half and half. Still dark but pourable.
Ellen Garrett says
Sydney, I am so sorry your cake turned to mush. All I can suggest is you double check your ingredient amounts added and also the length of time cooked. Did you make sure that you did not remove it from cooking before the skewer came out basically clean? Also did you let it sit in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes before removing? Just a couple of thoughts and maybe you did do everything perfect. I did check with the orignial recipe and my ingredients written are correct. I wish I could fix your cake.
Diane Miller says
I would suggest checking the temperature of your oven. I had to have my thermostat replaced once because my oven was off by 65 degrees!
Sydney Pfleging says
Thank you! I ended up getting the syrup. However, I followed all the instructions, but my cake just turned to mush and I have no idea why…. The batter nonetheless tasted amazing.
Sydney Pfleging says
I really don’t like the idea of corn syrup..is there a healthy alternative I could use?
aimeeberrett says
Obviously you would need something else to act as a sweetener. You can make your own simple syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1/4 cup water and then heat till sugar dissolves for every 1 cup corn syrup.
otherwise I read online that you can use honey or agave, but I have never tried either of those so I don’t know how it would turn out.
Ellen Garrett says
I am still learning all about this blogger world. Aimee taught me that often when you link back to a recipe it shows up as a comment to that person. I am glad and thrilled that Isabelle liked that I shared her recipe.
Isabelle @ Crumb says
I’m so glad you liked this recipe! The frosting was my favourite part… I may or may not have scraped the bowl clean after I was done frosting the cake, just trying to eat every last bit of it. 🙂
I still have a couple of slices left over, actually, so I guess we know exactly how I plan on celebrating National Dessert Day!
Ellen Garrett says
Isabelle, I am delighted that you were so positive about my post of your delicious recipe. I hope you did not mind the slight changes I made; such as the Greek yogurt or allspice. I adore the frosting, I think if I make it again I would have to double it just to have extra for whatever I might enjoy it on. I was just wondering where you found our blog?