Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake: Just the Thing for Halloween
A delicious light-textured and mousse-like chocolate cake with crunchy pecan pieces and hidden veg. This chocolate pecan pumpkin cake is covered in a rum flavoured cream cheese icing. Halloween decorations are entirely optional.
For years I’ve raged against the invasion of the very American Halloween and associated trick or treating. In the UK, we have All Hallows Eve, from which Halloween is derived. Just five days later we have our very own Guy Fawkes Night, with its pagan effigy burning associations – OK Guy Fawkes was a Catholic, but never mind.
Well, finally I’ve come to the conclusion that if you can’t beat them you’d better join them and this chocolate pecan pumpkin cake seemed like a good start. In fact I had no choice; this month’s We Should Cocoa theme is Halloween.
For Random Recipes this month, Dom has tasked us with picking a recipe from the internet. His suggestion was to type a theme into the search box and then pick a recipe randomly from the first ten that appear. I was game.
To bag several challenges in one, I searched for chocolate and pumpkin, thereby getting We Should Cocoa in as well as Tea Time Treats which has vegetables as this month’s theme. The recipe that popped up was Dan Lepard’s pumpkin chocolate mud cake – perfect.
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake
It’s been a while since I made a Dan Lepard recipe, or should I say tinkered with one. As expected, I did change things around just a little. I replaced vanilla with fennel, added coffee to the mix and changed the quantities. As I sometimes do, just so I can tell myself that cake is good for me, I included some maca powder.
I also added cream cheese to the icing to give it a bit more character and make it less sweet and sickly.
Adding coffee to a chocolate cake is a really good way to enhance the chocolate flavour. It’s a trick I often use. Vegetables can also work well in a cake, giving moisture and body. Just think carrot cake.
Pumpkin or squash is a particularly good one to use as you can see in this almond and squash cake. I’ve also made any number of beetroot cakes, such as these beetroot & orange brownies, nettle cakes, a kale apple cake and an exceedingly good spinach cake.
Decorating aside, this chocolate pecan pumpkin cake is really easy to make. It’s just a case of mixing everything together in a pan, then pouring it into a cake tin. The icing is pretty simple to make too.
The chocolate pecan pumpkin cake was such a success, I shall be making it again for sure. It’s soft, light and mousse-like with a welcome crunch from the pecans and the fennel note gives an intriguing, “what is this?”
It’s not overly sweet, which is good because the icing was. The rum icing may have been sweet, but it was nonetheless delicious and complemented the cake well. An added bonus was that it lasted well over a week and was just as good at the end as at the beginning.
Pumpkin Cake Icing
As mentioned above, I made a rather delicious cream cheese icing to top my chocolate pecan pumpkin cake. It feels rather decadent with its tot or two of rum. This can, of course, be left out if children are likely to be around.
However, you might prefer to make a mascarpone and pumpkin icing instead. It’s creamy, slightly spicy and it has a lovely tangerine tint to it. It’s also more child friendly.
All you need to do is:
- Beat 100g icing sugar with 125g mascarpone until smooth.
- Stir in two tablespoons of pumpkin butter.
- Spread onto the cooled cake and decorate as you wish.
Other Chocolate Nut Cakes You Might Like
- Apple & hazelnut chocolate cake
- Chocolate chip nut cakes
- Nigella’s chocolate pistachio cake
- Nutty chocolate cake with mascarpone icing
- Peanut butter & chocolate cupcakes
- Walnut brownies
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this chocolate pecan pumpkin cake for Halloween, or any other time, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. And do please rate the recipe. Have you any top tips? I’d love to see your photos, especially of something a bit more expertly decorated than my own. Just use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake. PIN IT.
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake – The Recipe
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 225 g dark chocolate I used 72%
- 275 g muscovado sugar half dark and half light
- 3 large eggs I used duck eggs
- 3 drop fennel extract optional (I used Holy Lama fennel drops)
- 275 ml coffee warm
- 120 g pumpkin or butternut squash – grated
- 100 g pecan nuts chopped
- 250 g flour half wholemeal, half white
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp maca powder optional
Rum Cream Cheese Icing
- 20 g unsalted butter
- 160 g icing sugar sifted
- 50 g full fat cream cheese
- 1 slug rum
- 50 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- black icing I used some from a ready bought tube
- chocolate pumpkin faces (optional)
Instructions
Chocolate Pecan Pumpkin Cake
- Melt the butter and chocolate in a large pan over gently heat.175 g unsalted butter, 225 g dark chocolate
- Remove from the heat and beat in the sugar, followed by the eggs, followed by the coffee.275 g muscovado sugar, 3 large eggs, 275 ml coffee
- Stir in the fennel extract if using.3 drop fennel extract
- Stir in the pumpkin and pecans.120 g pumpkin, 100 g pecan nuts
- Sift in the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.250 g flour, 3 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp maca powder
- Scrape the mixture into a deep 23 cm / 9" round silicone mould or lined tin and bake at 180℃ (160℃ fan, 350℉, Gas 4) for 55 mins.
- Leave to cool for 15 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Rum Cream Cheese Icing
- Melt the butter and mix in some of the icing sugar.20 g unsalted butter, 160 g icing sugar
- Beat in the cream cheese, followed by a little more of the icing sugar.50 g full fat cream cheese
- Add the rum along with some more icing sugar and beat again.1 slug rum
- Add the cream, followed by the rest of the icing sugar and beat until smooth.50 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- Place the cake on a stand and spread the icing over the top.
- Create a spider’s web on top with the black icing.black icing
- Add some chocolate pumpkin faces for good measure.chocolate pumpkin faces
Notes
Nutrition Estimate
Sharing
Finally, I’ve given in and I’ve made a Halloween bake. It’s all down to the devilish Hannah over at Honey & Dough, who is guest hosting We Should Cocoa this month.
Random Recipes was the driving force behind this chocolate pecan pumpkin cake with its theme of something sweet, randomly selected from the internet. This is a splendid monthly challenge from Dom over at Belleau Kitchen where we never quite know what recipe we will land up with next.
I made sure to get a recipe containing pumpkin so I could also send this off to Karen over at Lavender and Lovage for her Tea Time Treats. The theme is vegetables this month. This monthly challenge is co-hosted by Jane over at The Hedge Combers.
I reckon, this chocolate pecan pumpkin cake is is just right for this month’s Baking with Spirit over at Cake of the Week. It has rum in the icing and pumpkin in the cake; the theme is autumnal.
Love Cake over at JibberJabberUK is also all about the dark side this month, so I am sending this Ness’s way.
This scrumptious cake has hidden veg in the form of pumpkin, so I’m sending it off to Extra Veg. This is hosted by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy Food for Families.
Finally, a slice of my chocolate pecan pumpkin cake has got to go to Let’s Cook for Halloween over at Simply Food.
This sounds lovely! What a great combination of flavours. Perfect for Halloween.
Thanks very much Kate. I do remember it as being a very nice cake.
Your cake looks gorgeous and I am also very impressed you managed to get a recipe to fit in with so many challenges! 😉
Thanks Lucy. There was a time when we were all trying to get into as many challenges as we could. I think I held the record at one point 😉
Sorry I forced you into Halloween this year, I much prefer Guy Fawkes night mainly because of toffee apples and chilli spiked hot chocolate! Pecan and pumpkin sound like perfect partners and your cake looks gorgeous! Intrigued by the fennel extract 🙂
Haha Hannah, it’s good to get out of your comfort zone from time to time. I am so having a chilli spiked hot chocolate on Guy Fawkes night now – splendid idea. Thank you for hosting, there were some splendid entries.
That looks so pretty and the flavours sound gorgeous
Thanks Alison, amazing what a few pumpkins can do 😉
Those flavours sound just…wow! A delicious (whisper it…halloween) treat of a cake Choclette!
Thanks Kate, glad you whispered 🙂
Gorgeous cake, so festive and pretty! Send me a slice!
You mean you didn’t already get it Galina?
Halloween was stolen from the pagans too – it’s the festival of Samhain where the portal between our world and the ‘other side’ opens and all the spirits can roam into our world. I celebrate Samhain, but not the commercialised Halloween!
Quite right too CC 🙂
Choclette, keep raging against the invasion of American customs (and fast food chains!). Of course, this is coming from a person who creates a little corner of England in her US home! 😀
Thanks Jean, that made me smile 🙂
This looks spooky and fun! I have never celebrated Halloween, but love to see all gorgeous treats that associated with the festival.
Happy Sunday!
Angie
Can’t say as I’ve ever celebrated it before either Angie, but any excuse for a good cake 🙂
Yum yum yum! What a rich, moist, chocolatey cake. I could happily sit and eat my way through this one….. Love the ‘slug of rum’ addition!!!
Ah yes, it’s the slug of rum that really does it 😉
Hi there… we don’t tend to celebrate Halloween, but I do love the look of your cake!
Thanks Lizzy. Well actually we don’t either – Bonfire Night is more of a British thing.
Lovely cake for Halloween. The flavour combination sounds interesting and it clearly works well together. Beautiful decoration and well done as always on all those blogging challenges. Shame AlphaBakes was not P or H this month!!
Thanks Ros, I was wondering if I could get away with rum Icing, but thought probably not!
I haven’t done too well on the challenges this month – Chocolate Week got in the way 😉
I love everything you did with this and would never have thought to put fennel in a cake! Well done.
Thanks Jennifer 🙂
This looks super tasty and delicious , its the perfect entry for Lets cook for halloween event at my blog, inviting you to link the recipe.
Done Nayna
Thanks for entering Baking With Spirit! The cake looks great, and I love the sound of that flavour combination. Rum in the icing sounds like a winner.
The icing was a real winner Janine and twas the rum that made it.
I love cakes made with pumpkin and this one is amazing! The rum icing is a perfect way to finish it off – sounds wonderful.
Thanks Katherine. I agree, pumpkin works really well in cakes. Just wish we’d managed to grow some this year.
Great recipe 🙂 I love how it is decorated too!
Thanks Dannii 🙂
I don’t mind holidays coming over as it gives us more things to celebrate. Now I just need to learn how to bake more treats for said holidays starting with some from your blog.
True Bintu, it’s always good to have an excuse to celebrate. And I’d love you to make some of my recipes 🙂
It looks delicious and I especially love the sound of the icing – I’ve also made my very first Halloween cake this year too!
Thanks Corina – it must be the year for Halloween cakes 🙂
What a great recipe and I love your twists to it. You can’t go wrong with Dan as a base recipe. Looks delicious. Love the decoration too, half Halloween, half xmas-like
Yes Katie, Dan is great and I haven’t made anything of his for ages. Hadn’t thought of this as an Xmas cake, but not you come to mention it …
Lovely looking cake and I think your spider pattern is looking good!
Thanks Janice, that’s a very kind interpretation 😉
I cannot make my mind up with pumpkin cakes but this is one which would sway me I think. Chocolate AND pecans. I’m there =)
Oh no Laura, what do you object too?
This cake look yummy! I love all the flavors you have going on in here. And, I love Halloween! so this is perfect!
Thanks Debi – hope you enjoy the festivities 🙂
such a pretty cake and sounds delicious – I am with you on Halloween – I quite like some of the day of the dead celebrations which seem less commercial but I suspect they are just catching up with halloween
Yes Johanna, it’s the commercialisation of Halloween I object to – not the festivity itself.
I am literally drooling at this! It has been far too long since I had chocolate!
Oh no Latoyah, no chocolate? But you are doing really well. Perhaps a reward soon?
Wow, you baked yourself one awesome looking cake!
Share a piece?
Thanks Agata – indeed you are very welcome 🙂
well, three in one, you met be thrilled!… it looks like a fab cake and has a nice spooky edge to it too… I’ve always loved Halloween as a concept… not the horrid Americanization of it but as the celebration of all things spooky plus it’s such a great looking festival and you can get away with a bit of orange and black which is always a treat!… thanks so much for entering random recipe this month xx
Haha Dom, you’ve outdone me on the spooky orange and black this year – well not so much spooky as ghastly!