bringing autumn back: spicy pumpkin & chocolate chip cake


I’m once again trying to empty out the contents of my freezer. It’s amazing the things you find once you dig deep enough. Just when I thought I was over with blackberries, I found another container full! I’ve also found some raspberries I didn’t know existed and also 2 containers of pureed pumpkin. Well, it just means that there is a lot of baking and fruity breakfasts ahead!

This weekend I decided to break into the pumpkin puree and bring a bit of autumn back into the kitchen as I’m getting fed up with March already! On Friday I had my friend over for a little bit. She was coming right over from working with some screaming children at the daycare centre where she works and I had pretty much spent the day up to my neck in boxes. We needed some treats and we needed them pronto. I looked over to the ppk for some vegan inspiration and decided to make a pumpkin cake based on a very yummy sounding pumpkin muffin recipe. I had already packed up all of my muffin tins, so I made this in a rectangular cake pan and it turned out really well. Super moist and delicious and so easy to put together! Besides adding in a few more spices and cutting back on some of the sugar, I decided to up the decadence factor and threw in some semi-sweet chocolate chips and pecans which greatly added to the treat factor. Delicious!

7 comments to “bringing autumn back: spicy pumpkin & chocolate chip cake”

  1. 1
    Joanne   March 18, 2007 at 8:37 pm

    Pumpkin is great any time of year!
    This cakes look so gooey and spicy. Heck, I can envision what it would smell like way over here.
    My olfactory organ (smell) is very sensitive. My husband insists that I should become a wine tester or sommelier, except I don’t drink much alcohol 😀

  2. 2
    lara   March 19, 2007 at 8:17 am

    that sounds very yummy! i think i have some cans of pumpkin leftover from my fall inspirations…this recipe is on my to-do list

  3. 3
    kickpleat   March 19, 2007 at 11:00 am

    joanne, the cake did smell pretty delicious while it was baking. and surprisingly enough, this cake just gets better with age!

    lara, it’s such an easy cake and it’s time to grab those fall inspirations by the horns and get going before summer 😉

    i have to agree, kenny! chocolate chips and pecans were an excellent addition! and i definitely agree that it’s pretty comforting to a bowl of online comfort food.

  4. 4
    Kenny Mah   March 19, 2007 at 9:20 am

    I love how you added some semi-sweet chocolate chips and pecans — it’s all these little extras that make all the difference!

    Some nights I come back from a long day at work with crappy meals throughout, so it’s always nice to curl up with a hot bowl of something delicious while reading your blog.

    It isn’t food porn the way some of the other food blogs are (which is not a bad thing), but a very comfortable place to settle in. A food sanctuary? An online version of comfort food?

    Whatever it is, thanks for sharing and please keep going! 🙂

  5. 5
    Lisa Andreasen   March 19, 2007 at 9:25 pm

    sounds great. I love pumpkin. I have a question…Is there something I’m missing about chocolate chips being vegan? I checked my package of semi-sweet and they have milk in them. I’m not a vegetarian but have friends that are and want to know if I’ve missed a secret somewhere.

  6. 6
    kickpleat   March 20, 2007 at 9:57 am

    lisa, i don’t say you need to buy vegan chocolate chips because i figure that vegans already know which brands to buy. i use fair-trade cocoa camino brand which are vegan. but you are correct that many brands like chipits do contain dairy.

  7. 7
    Robert F   January 14, 2012 at 10:34 pm

    This was a big hit with my guests, who all asked for second helpings. I under baked it (23 minutes) so the center fell down and those central slices were too dense. But still yummy!

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