Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

If you love pumpkin cake recipes, this layered Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake is for you! Moist pumpkin cake layers are flavored with spices, brown sugar, pumpkin, and mini chocolate chips!

Keep this recipe in mind for your fall birthday cakes, Thanksgiving dessert, and other fall celebrations!

A Look at our Ingredients

You can find the full recipe at the bottom of this post. Here's a look at the ingredients for the pumpkin chocolate chip cake layers!

• unsalted butter (we use unsalted because we add salt separately)
• white sugar and brown sugar
• eggs
• Pumpkin Puree (We used canned pumpkin, Libby's brand) *Not Pumpkin Pie Filling.
• vanilla extract 
• vegetable oil (we use Canola oil)
• milk
• all purpose flour
• baking powder, baking soda, and salt
• cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger
• mini chocolate chips (we use mini as they are lightweight and less likely to sink)

How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

You can find the full, printable cake recipe at the bottom of this post. Here is a quick look at our steps!

• Preheat the oven to 350℉
• Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round cake pans (we like to also line the pans with parchment circles.)
• Dry Ingredients: In a medium size bowl add the all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.

• Wet Ingredients: In another bowl, add the pumpkin, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and milk. Stir to blend and set aside.

• In the bowl of your mixer, mix the softened butter until smooth. Add the white and light brown sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the pumpkin/milk mixture alternately. Begin and end with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). After the last addition of dry ingredients, mix just until combined.
• Gently stir in the mini chocolate chips. Divide the batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans.

• Bake at 350℉ for 25 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Allow the cake layers to cool in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning them out.

Frosting

We love to pair pumpkin cakes and spice cakes with cream cheese frosting. Today's cream cheese frosting recipe is based on our classic cream cheese frosting recipe, but with a bit more butter and powdered sugar so that we had plenty for piping.

This delicious frosting is a combination of softened cream cheese butter, vanilla extract, powdered sugar, and a pinch of salt.

Decorating the Cake

After applying the second layer of frosting to the crumb coated cake, I added a bit of texture to the frosting with a small offset spatula (adding wavy vertical lines working from bottom to top).

We piped pumpkins on top using an 8B piping tip and added chocolate sprinkles (jimmies) for stems.

Recipe FAQs

More Fall Cakes

We've made so many fall cake recipes over the years! Some of our favorites are Maple Pound Cake, Pumpkin Spice Cake, Sweet Potato Pound Cake, and Gingerbread Cake but there are so many more!

Make sure to check out our collection of fall cakes!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

BY Melissa and Bebe

This moist and flavorful Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake has wonderful flavor from pumpkin, warm spices, brown sugar, and chocolate chips! Keep this cake in mind for your fall celebrations!

Prep Time: 20 minutes mins

Cook Time: 28 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Servings: 15

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Ingredients

For the Cake Batter

• ▢ 1 ½ sticks unsalted butter, softened (170g)
• ▢ 1¾ cups white sugar (350g)
• ▢ ¼ cup light brown sugar (50g)
• ▢ ¼ cup vegetable oil ( I use Canola oil) (54g)
• ▢ 4 eggs, room temperature (If in a hurry, place eggs in a bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4g)
• ▢ 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour (plain in the UK) (360g)
• ▢ 1 Tablespoon baking powder (15g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda (5g)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons cinnamon (6g)
• ▢ 1 teaspoon nutmeg (2g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ginger (1g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (3g)
• ▢ 1 15oz Can of Pumpkin Puree (425g) (This is not pumpkin pie filling)- We use Libby's
• ▢ ⅔ cup milk (160g) (We use 2% or whole milk)
• ▢ 1 cup mini chocolate chips (we used semi-sweet)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• ▢ 3 sticks unsalted butter, softened (339g total)
• ▢ 16 oz cream cheese, softened (We use two 8 oz packages, full fat.)
• ▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (8g)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt (2g)
• ▢ 6 ½ cups powdered sugar (747g-805g)

Instructions

For the Cake Layers

• Preheat the oven to 350℉
• Grease and flour three 8 x 2 inch round cake pans - Cut a waxed paper or parchment paper circle and place in the bottom of each pan.
• In a medium size bowl add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Whisk at least 30 seconds to blend. Set aside.
• In another bowl, add the pumpkin, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and milk. Stir to blend and set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer, beat the softened butter until smooth. Add the white and brown sugar and mix on medium speed 3 to 5 minutes or until light and fluffy.
• Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each until the yolk is blended.
• With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the pumpkin/milk mixture alternately. Begin and end with the dry ingredients (3 additions of dry and 2 of wet). After the last addition of dry ingredients, mix just until combined.
• Gently stir in the mini chocolate chips. Divide the batter between the three prepared 8 inch cake pans.
• Bake at 350℉ for 25 to 28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached.
• Allow the cake layers to cool in their pans on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning them out. Don't forget to peel off your parchment or wax paper if your pans were lined! (Easy to forget, especially with wax paper as it is more transparent)

For the Cream Cheese Frosting

• Cut the butter into slices and add to the bowl of your mixer. Beat on low to medium speed until the butter is softened and smooth.
• Cut the softened cream cheese into pieces and add to the butter, beating at low to medium speed until incorporated.
• Add the vanilla. Gradually add the powdered sugar, mixing on low to medium speed until blended.
• If it becomes too soft, just refrigerate a short while to firm it up a bit.
• This frosting will pipe best if used while still chilled. You can make it in advance, refrigerate and when ready to use let it soften slightly (do not microwave) and remix.

Cake Assembly and Decoration

• Place the first cake layer on the pedestal, spread with frosting, and repeat for the next two cake layers.
• I applied a crumb coat (thin coat) of frosting to the cake, chilled in the freezer for 10-15 minutes (or longer in the refrigerator) to firm things up before applying the final coat of frosting. If your frosting ever becomes too soft while decorating the cake, just chill it to firm it back up again.
• Decorate however you like! I used an small offset spatula to create the vertical wavy lines around the sides, and then used an 8B piping tip for the pumpkins on top.
• This cake should be stored in an airtight container, a sealed bakery box, or under a cake dome in the refrigerator. However, for the best texture, remove the cake from the refrigerator 2-3 hours before serving. This will allow time for the cake to warm and soften.

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