Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake

Believe it or not October is coming to an end soon and Thanksgiving is exactly a month away! I'm sure a lot of you have already planned out the big feast for Thanksgiving day. For those who hasn't, you still have time.

This year for desserts why not try something different than the traditional apple pie and/or pumpkin pie? Or you could serve these along with the apple pie or pumpkin pie: Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake(pictured above) and/or Cinnamon Apple Walnut Cheesecake. Now don't these just sound yummy?

For today I will post the recipe for Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake. Let me tell ya, this cake is to-die-for if you love pumpkin and chocolate! I saw this recipe in the Oct/Nov issue of Taste of Home and had been dying to try it. Well, I finally made it yesterday for a party and everyone loved it!

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1-1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips (I used 1/2 cup semisweet & 1/2 cup white chips)
2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, divided (I did not put in any nuts)

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake
Instructions:
1) Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2) In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.
3) Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture alternately with pumpkin. Fold in chocolate chips.
4) Divide batter in half. Stir melted chocolate into one portion. In a well-greased 10-in. fluted tube pan, sprinkle 1/2 cup pecans(you can skip this, which I did). Spoon chocolate batter over pecans; top with pumpkin batter. Sprinkle with remaining pecans(or skip this).
5) Bake at 325° for 65-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.
Yield: 12 servings.

In a few days I will post the recipe for Cinnamon Apple Walnut Cheesecake.