Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake — This easy pumpkin cake is loaded with chocolate chips and drizzled in rich and decadent chocolate ganache. It’s one of the best pumpkin cakes I’ve ever had!! An EASY no-mixer fall favorite cake that everyone just LOVES!
Table of Contents
- Easy Pumpkin Bundt Cake … with Chocolate Chips!
- Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake Ingredients
- How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
- Recipe FAQs
- Tips for the Best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bundt Cake
- The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Recipe
- More Easy Pumpkin Desserts:
Easy Pumpkin Bundt Cake … with Chocolate Chips!
I originally posted this recipe in the fall of 2012. I had a little girl in the kitchen that day who was just 5 years old helping me. She’s now a freshman in high school. I feel like I remember more about this cake than I sometimes do about the last 9 years that have seemingly passed by in the true blink of an eye.
If you’re lucky enough to have small kids underfoot, bake a pumpkin cake with them! You will thank yourself when they’re in high school and far too busy to be baking cakes with you.
The last decade of blogging hasn’t been like the first few years when I started and (over) shared about my personal life, but I wanted to at least share that memory.
I went on to write a cookbook dedicated to only pumpkin recipes, published in 2014. It’s called Cooking With Pumpkin and I’d love it if you wanted to buy or download a copy! I included this pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake in my cookbook because it’s just THAT good!
The pumpkin puree keeps this chocolate pumpkin bundt cake moist and dense and the spices, including pumpkin pie spice, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves, complement the pumpkin puree and are a reminder that fall is here.
Being the chocaholic that I am, I used chocolate in two ways. Chocolate chips are woven throughout the cake and chocolate ganache is poured over the top.
The ganache is so easy to make and comes together in about 1 minute in the microwave. Chocolate chips, cream, and vanilla. It’ so simple to make but tastes so decadent.
The ganache stays a bit soft and silky, even over time, which is very different from a chocolate buttercream which hardens and dries out after it’s exposed to the air. I love buttercream but not when it gets crunchy.
Between the chocolate chips in the cake and the chocolate ganache on top, if you like your pumpkin with a side of chocolate, this cake will make you happy.
It made me very happy.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake Ingredients
To make this pumpkin bundt cake with chocolate chips, you’ll need:
- Eggs
- Pumpkin puree
- Granulated sugar
- Canola oil
- Sour cream
- Vanilla extract
- Butter extract
- Spices
- All-purpose flour
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Cream or half and half
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
Can the Butter Extract Be Omitted?
I added a bit of butter extract to the batter and if it’s not something you keep on hand, don’t worry about it. From time to time, I use butter extract as a flavor enhancer and flavor booster in cookie dough and cake batter.
I wouldn’t necessarily say it makes things taste ‘buttery’. Rather, it rounds out the flavors, complements the existing flavors, and gives food that homey quality, and although you can’t exactly put your finger on what it is, it just makes you want to have seconds.
Just like adding brewed coffee to chocolate cake batter does not make the chocolate cake taste like a chocolate-coffee-flavored-cake and instead intensifies the chocolate flavor, the butter extract principle is similar. It enhances without making you think you just swallowed a stick of butter or anything.
Butter extract is only about $2.99 for a little vial, compared to about $6.99+ for vanilla extract of the same size, and it’s a fun little bargain extract to keep around. I add a few drops of it to the melted butter to be poured over popcorn for really buttery-flavored buttered popcorn.
How to Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake
Making a pumpkin bundt cake with chocolate chips couldn’t be easier! Here are the basic recipe steps:
- Whisk together the wet ingredients in a large bowl, then mix in the dry ingredients.
- Gently fold in the chocolate chips.
- Turn the batter into a greased and floured 12-cup bundt pan.
- Bake until the top has set and is golden, or a toothpick comes out clean (due to the chocolate chips, you may hit some chocolate patches with the insertion test).
- Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before inverting it.
- Once the pumpkin chocolate chip bundt cake is mostly cool, top with chocolate ganache.
Recipe FAQs
I baked this pumpkin chocolate chip cake in a 12-cup Bundt pan, but it can be baked in a 10-cup Bundt, and you’d probably have success dividing the batter among two 8-by-4-inch loaf pans.
Or, follow this classic pumpkin chocolate chip cake recipe so you don’t have to worry at all about pan conversions!
I love cake as much as the next person, but many of us are cooking for ourselves or small families and we don’t necessarily need ginormous Bundts just laying around and this one isn’t extreme.
This pumpkin chocolate chip cake will keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
In an effort to duplicate that springy yellow-cake-mix-cake quality, I added sour cream. Sour cream, or Greek yogurt, gives cakes a spongy and springy quality, tenderizes them, and keeps them soft and moist. There is nothing worse than dry cake and I’d rather have nothing than a piece of dry cake.
I didn’t actually use butter in the cake and used oil instead. Oil makes cakes moister, springier, and softer than butter.
I do love the flavor of butter in cookies and pie crust, but in recipes where the butter flavor would get lost anyway, such as this one with the pumpkin, the spices, and all the chocolate going on, may as well use oil to keep the cake moister. Plus, the butter extract makes up for any lack of real butter.
Tips for the Best Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bundt Cake
I used a mixture of cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, all spice, and cloves in this pumpkin cake recipe. If you don’t have all of these spices on hand, mix and match with what you do have. It will probably turn out fine!
Once the dry ingredients are mixed into the wet, don’t over mix! This is a thicker cake batter, and you can easily over-develop the gluten and create a dense cake.
The pumpkin chocolate bundt cake MUST cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before it can be inverted. If you try to invert the cake right away, you run the risk of the cake sinking.
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The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Ingredients
Cake
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup canned pumpkin puree, not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup canola or vegetable oil
- ¼ cup sour cream, Greek yogurt may be substituted
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon butter extract, optional
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch salt, optional
- 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Chocolate Ganache
- ⅔ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- ¼ cup cream or half-and-half
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- optionally add 1 to 2 tablespoons rum or bourbon, coffee liqueur, or chocolate-flavored liqueur
Instructions
Cake:
- Preheat oven to 350F. Spray a 12-cup Bundt or tube-cake pan with cooking spray (I use Pam for Bakingwith excellent results) or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large bowl combine eggs, pumpkin puree, sugar, oil, sour cream, vanilla extract, butter extract, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, allspice, cloves (if you don’t have all of them on hand, just use what you do have) and whisk to combine until mixture is smooth and silky.
- Add the flour, baking soda, salt and stir until just combined (don’t overmix or the gluten will over-develop and cake will be tougher).
- Fold in the chocolate chips and pour batter into prepared pan, smoothing it lightly with a spatula if necessary and give it a slam on the counter to release any air.
- Bake for 38 to 42 minutes, or until top has set (it may crackle, this is okay) and is golden or a cake tester, toothpick, or blade of a knife comes out clean (due to the chocolate chips, you may hit some chocolate patches with the insertion test).
- Allow cake to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before inverting and releasing cake from pan and placing it on a rack to finish cooling. While cake cools, make the ganache.
Chocolate Ganache:
- Place chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl and heat on high power for 1 minute to soften chocolate; set aside.
- In a small microwave-safe bowl or measuring cup, heat the cream (I used half-and-half) on high power just until it begins to bubble and show signs of boiling, about 1 minute.
- Pour hot cream over chocolate and let it stand about 1 minute. Whisk vigorously until chocolate has melted and mixture is smooth and velvety.
- Add vanilla, optional alcohol, and whisk to combine. Set bowl aside for about 5 minutes, allowing ganache to cool and thicken a bit.
- Whisk mixture briefly before preparing to drizzle it over the cake. Ganache will set up a bit with time, but remains quite viscous and drippy.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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More Easy Pumpkin Desserts:
Easy Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting — Moist pumpkin cake is topped with a creamy homemade cream cheese frosting. This easy fall dessert is perfect for Thanksgiving, Halloween, and more!
The Best Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bread — This pumpkin chocolate chip bread is truly the best homemade pumpkin bread you’ll ever make. It’s moist, packed with chocolate chips, and tastes like fall!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Brownies — Rich, fudgy brownies topped with pumpkin and chocolate chips!! An EASY, no mixer pumpkin brownie recipe that’s FASTER than using a boxed mix! Bring on pumpkin spice season!!
Cream Cheese-Filled Pumpkin Bread — This is without a doubt the BEST pumpkin bread recipe! This pumpkin cream cheese bread tastes like it has cheesecake baked into the middle. You’ll definitely want a second slice!
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies — Between the molasses, pumpkin pie spice, and pumpkin pie spice extract that I used, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies beautifully showcase the flavors of fall!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cake — This soft and moist pumpkin cake is loaded with chocolate in every bite!! An EASY one-bowl fall dessert that’s perfect for impromptu entertaining or anytime a pumpkin craving strikes!!
Originally posted October 1, 2012 and reposted September 29, 2021 with updated text.
Sigh… I just finished baking this and realized I had misread a key instruction: I used an entire can of Libby’s “pure pumpkin” for a grand total of 2 cups rather than 1 cup! I wonder now whether I should have bought the “organic pumpkin puree” instead. Tasting the batter, I also found that the spices – especially the cloves – overpowered the pumpkin flavor. We’ll see how everything turns out with the ganache. I was going to bring this cake to a party tomorrow night, but I may end up keeping it in the family.
I wrote an entire cookbook about pumpkin and never used organic and used Libby’s for everything. If you used the entire can, they’re 15-ounces and that’s about 1 3/4 cups, not the 1 cup called for in the recipe. Whether you use organic or non-organic doesn’t matter so much as measuring correctly because with baking, that’s very important.
The batter is nicely spiced but it does mellow after being baked. However, if you prefer more bland tasting foods, you can always reduce the spices. I adore this cake and it’s one of the most popular pumpkin cakes on my site and readers seem to love it…I have a feeling (if it turns out due to the mis-measuring issue) that you will really enjoy it too! Thanks for trying the recipe.
You said cream do you mean sour cream?
There’s 2 creams, sour cream and half-and-half/cream. I would guess it’s probably the later. Just follow the recipe exactly as written b/c the cake is perfect that way!
This cake was the first made in my bundt pan for last night’s Thanksgiving feast, and it turned out great made gluten free! Thanks for the delicious recipe! My family loved it!
That’s awesome that you made this GF and it turned out great! Wonderful to hear!
I made this cake today and it looks and smelled yummy. I cooked it for longer than the time and it was firm to the touch but no sooner did I pull it out, it fell. After I let it cool and put on the ganache, I served it and it was slightly gooey on the inside. I think the main difference was the fact that I was not using canned pumpkin but pumpkin that I had cooked myself. Just a thought, you may want to indicate that in the recipe. Maybe it needs a little bit more flour when using homemade pumpkin. Other than it being slightly gooey, it was delicious and we all enjoyed it!
Thanks!
Janelle
https://www.parsnipsandparsimony.com
Thanks for trying the recipe and yes the recipe was written and intended for canned, storebought pumpkin puree rather than homemade. With homemade, it’s usually denser, has more water and in this and all recipes if you are using homemade, you’ll likely want to increase the flour and also possibly decrease the amount of pumpkin used. But with all baking, it’s kind of an experiment until you’re looking in the mixing bowl and stirring. Thanks for trying the recipe and glad you enjoyed the cake regardless! But yes, if you plan to remake, I would add a bit more flour so it’s not as gooey.
This cake looks great! If I plan to make it one day but serve it the next, should I put the ganache on the day that I make it or the day that I serve it? Thanks and can’t wait to try this recipe!
If you have a choice, I’d add it day-of serving. An few hours before so it can set up. Enjoy! And actually the cake itself will taste better on Day 2. The flavors marry and it will get better with time! Enjoy it!