Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake — A Sunday Bake from Carol’s Box

Late April. Eighteen weeks pregnant. The OB appointment Wednesday was the routine check-in. The blood-pressure was good. The weight-gain was on track at fourteen pounds. The baby’s heart-rate at the doppler was steady. The OB said everything looked the way it should look at eighteen weeks. The anatomy scan is next Wednesday.

Sunday I made pumpkin chocolate chip cake because Carol’s 1990 card had come up next in the recipe-box rotation Mama and I have been working through. The card: pumpkin cake with chocolate chips and warm spices, baked in a Bundt pan, dusted with powdered sugar. The cake is one of Mama’s favorites from her own growing-up — Carol used to make it for Mama’s birthday across the 1990s, the special-occasion-upgrade variant of Carol’s standard pumpkin cake with the chocolate chips folded into the batter for the celebratory version.

The procedure: cream a stick of butter with one and three-quarter cups of brown sugar. Beat in three eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla. Stir in one can (fifteen ounces) of pumpkin pureée and a half-cup of buttermilk. In a separate bowl whisk two and a half cups of flour, two teaspoons of baking soda, a teaspoon of baking powder, a teaspoon of salt, two teaspoons of cinnamon, a teaspoon of ginger, a half-teaspoon of cloves, a half-teaspoon of nutmeg. Combine wet and dry. Fold in one cup of dark chocolate chips and a half-cup of toasted pecans. Pour into a buttered ten-inch Bundt pan. Bake at three-fifty for sixty-five minutes. Cool, dust with powdered sugar.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 45 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour | Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 can (15 oz) pure pumpkin puree
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan and lightly flour it, tapping out any excess.
2. Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Set aside.
3. Combine wet ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until smooth and well combined.
4. Bring it together. Add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients and stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. Fold in 1 cup of the chocolate chips.
5. Fill the pan. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it evenly. Scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips over the top.
6. Bake. Bake for 40—45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (a melted chocolate chip on the toothpick is fine; wet batter is not). The top should spring back lightly when pressed.
7. Cool and serve. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature — both are perfect.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 340 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 15g | Carbs: 50g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 190mg