Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 (18.25 ounce) box plain German chocolate cake mix
- 1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup cinnamon chips
- 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
Cinnamon-Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted, divided
Instructions
- Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly mist a 13 x 9-inch pan with vegetable oil spray. Set the pan aside.
- Cake: Place the cake mix, pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter will be thick and should look well combined.
- Fold in the cinnamon chips until well distributed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing it out with the rubber spatula.
- Place the pan in the oven.
- Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 35 to 40 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the frosting.
- Cinnamon-Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting: Place the cream cheese and the butter in a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed until well combined, 30 seconds.
- Stop the machine. Add the cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla extract and 3 3/4 cups of the confectioners' sugar. Blend with the mixer on low speed until the ingredients are moistened, 30 seconds. Add more sugar if the frosting seems too thin.
- Increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is fluffy, 2 minutes more.
- Spread the frosting over the cake in the pan with smooth, clean strokes.
- Sprinkle the pecans over the top.
- To make slicing easier, store this cake, lightly covered with wax paper, in the refrigerator until the frosting sets, 1 hour.
- Then wrap it in aluminum foil and store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months.
- Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
