for those of you who know me personally, you may know that i love all things pumpkin. for those of you who are new here, hi, welcome, i love all things pumpkin.

now that we’re all up to speed, it won’t come as any surprise to hear that i am super excited to be participating in this years #virtualpumpkinparty. the what now? basically, it’s a big fun (virtual) potluck party where a whole bunch of talented food bloggers share a pumpkin-related recipe on their site on the same day. which is exciting because it means that you and i both now have over 100 new pumpkin recipes (links below!) that we can check out and enjoy. yuuuum! (huge thank you to sara from cake over steak for organizing all of this deliciousness!)

this pumpkin chocolate chip cake has been one of my absolute favorite recipes for over a decade. i first discovered the recipe in 2003 and enthusiastically baked up my first batch of pumpkin chocolate chip cake in my dorm oven, using a potato masher as a stand-in for an electric mixer (yes, it worked and no, i don’t know why a potato masher made its way onto the short list of essential kitchen utensils that i had in my dorm room…).

like i do, i started tinkering with the recipe, swapping in the skim milk that is *always* in my fridge for the whole milk that never is and replacing mini chocolate chips with regular sized ones (and bumping up the amount of chocolate while i was at it, because obviously).

recently, i went back to epicurious to find the original bon appétit recipe from 2000 since i was away from home and didn’t have access to my paper copy (we’ve talked about this before). as i was reading the comments (which appear in reverse chronological order), i was struck that in the past few years, several folks noted that the cake was too sweet and/or they reduced the sugar when they baked the cake. in contrast, back in 2003 one reviewer specifically noted that the cake was “not too sweet”. it’s interesting to see how our collective palates change over time…

curious how a slightly lower sugar version would taste, a few weeks ago i baked up a test batch (by which i mean, i couldn’t wait one more minute to bake this annual fall favorite) with less sugar. and it was just as good as i remember. for the sake of experimentation, i also spread the batter into a bundt pan instead of the glass pyrex that i always think of as “the pumpkin chocolate chip cake pan“, since that was one of the first (and certainly most memorable!) recipes i cooked in this holdover-from-college glass dish. the bundt pan cake was ok but had a darker bottom and was just a little bit drier so i recommend sticking with a glass square/rectangular pan.

and in case this pumpkin chocolate chip cake PLUS the 100+ pumpkin recipes listed below aren’t enough for you, i also have the following pumpkin recipes in my archives:

pumpkin bread pudding

pasta with easy pumpkin sauce

pumpkin ravioli sauce

AND, coming soon, pumpkin spice granola! it’s delicious and i’m excited to share it with you next week. if you don’t want to miss it, be sure to sign up for my email list so you’ll be notified once the recipe is posted.

and now if you’ll excuse me, i’ve got some delicious looking pumpkin recipes to try…

pumpkin chocolate chip cake

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Ingredients

210 g. (1 ¾ cups / 7 3/8 oz.) all-purpose flour, see notes
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick (113 g. / 1/2 cup / 4 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature
149 g. (3/4 cup / 5 ¼ oz.) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
269 g. (1 cup / 9 ½ oz.) canned pure pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/3 cup (76 g. / 80 ml) milk (skim works just fine)
170 g. (1 cup / 6 oz.) bittersweet chocolate chips, optional

Instructions

preheat oven to 350° F. butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 7 ¼” x 11” glass pan (ideally one that has an airtight lid, though this is not essential). set aside.
in a medium bowl, combine the flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. stir to combine.
in a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until smooth it’s smooth (i use speed setting 4 for 2 minutes with my kitchenaid). gradually beat in the sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowl and the beaters as necessary, if you don't have one of these brilliant beaters.
beat the eggs in one at a time, scraping the bowl and beaters as necessary. beat in the pumpkin and vanilla.
reduce the mixer speed to low. in alternating batches, beat the dry ingredients and milk into the pumpkin mixture. i usually add the flour in 3 batches and the milk in two. remove the mixer from the bowl and stir in the chocolate chips by hand. transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
bake the cake until a tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes (start checking the cake a few minutes before the time is up).
cool the cake in the pan completely before covering the pan. i’ve found that the leftover cake stays freshest when i cool the cake in the pan and leave it there (my glass dish has an airtight lid). if your glass dish doesn’t have an airtight lid, transfer the cake to an airtight container. store leftovers at room temperature.

Notes

i’ve tested this replacing 90 g. of the all-purpose flour with 90 g. of white whole wheat flour and it worked just fine. that’s about ¾ cup if you don’t have a scale.

adapted from pumpkin-chocolate chip loaf cake, found on epicurious and originally published in bon appétit in november of 2000.

Amount Per Serving:
Calories		277
% Daily Value*
Total Fat		0
	Saturated Fat	0
	Trans Fat
Cholesterol		0
Sodium		0
Total Carbohydrate		0
	Dietary Fiber	0
	Sugars
Protein

Vitamin A		Vitamin C
Calcium		Iron

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

tasty seasons

Category desserts fall vegetarian winter

Comments

Kelsey @ Appeasing a Food Geek says

October 24, 2016 at 7:26 pm

I love testing recipes over and over like you have with this one. I feel like they just get better and better every time. And that each year, a new memory is associated with them–almost like it’s brand new. Can’t wait to try this out! Happy #virtualpumpkinparty xoxo

- tasty seasons says
  
  October 24, 2016 at 9:20 pm
  
  hi kelsey,
  
  yes, i LOVE making changes to recipes and playing around with substitutions, etc. (as long as i don’t run into too many problems during my trials!). thanks for stopping by and commenting! happy #virtualpumpkinparty indeed! 🙂
  
Sarah | Well and Full says

October 25, 2016 at 2:22 pm

Pumpkin AND chocolate chips?! Say no more 😉 This cake looks so unbelievably delicious!! 😀

- tasty seasons says
  
  October 25, 2016 at 8:16 pm
  
  hi sarah,
  
  yesssss! pumpkin and chocolate chips are two of my favorites and the combination is just the best! thanks for stopping by! 🙂
  
sarah says

November 1, 2017 at 1:21 pm

perfect combination chocolate chip and pumpkin thanks for sharing recipe my kids would love it

- tasty seasons says
  
  November 3, 2017 at 12:57 pm
  
  yes, i bet this would be a total kid favorite! i hope your kids enjoy it. 🙂

pumpkin chocolate chip cake

pumpkin chocolate chip cake

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Nutrition Facts

pumpkin chocolate chip cake

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pumpkin chocolate chip cake

Ingredients

Instructions

Notes

Tags

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