Pumpkin Chocolate Cake

October is my very favorite month. I love the whole thing. We celebrated it’s arrival this week with our first new fall recipe and boy, was it a good one! I love pumpkin but I wasn’t sure how I felt about the idea of a pumpkin chocolate cake. I’m a definite believer now. I originally found this recipe on Gluten Free Mommy, but I changed it a little to use the ingredients I prefer.  I used to always just use store-bought all-purpose gluten-free flours in baked goods, mostly because recipes with lists of several flours was so intimidating to me. It worked okay. This year I’ve made a much more solid effort to branch out and try new things. I strongly suggest doing that if you haven’t already. For one thing, the store-bought all-purpose mixes are so expensive. For another, using other flours sometimes gives you much better texture. For example, I have fallen absolutely in love with sorghum flour. I don’t know all the science behind gf flours, but I can tell you that my cakes, breads, etc are so much better with sorghum flour. I’m so glad I finally tried that. Gluten-free baking isn’t nearly as scary as I always thought. Okay, lecture over, on to baking:

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake

2/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup potato starch
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup butter, softened (I used pureed black beans….worked great)
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside. In your mixer, beat the butter (or beans) until fluffy. Add the sugars and mix well. Add the vanilla, then eggs, one at a time.  Add the pumpkin and milk. Mix well. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until well incorporated. Pour batter into two greased 9 in cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 min (mine was done in 30). Remove from oven and cool ten minutes. Invert pans onto cooling rack and wait until completely cool to frost.
Oh, the frosting. It’s fantastic. But if you don’t have everything on hand, I think this one would be great, too.


Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting

4-5 cups powdered sugar (depending on desired consistency)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup canned pumpkin
1/4 cup butter
2 tsp orange juice
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese, softened
Place all ingredients in mixer and beat to combine, but don’t overbeat.

I only frosted half, then froze the other half and the left-over frosting so we can eat again next week. Can’t wait.