Cake Slice Bakers - October 2010: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pound Cake

I am really excited. This past month I joined the Cake Slice Bakers!! Whoo which means cake every month! (can’t complain about that now can you?) Well the cake book we will be baking from is called Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman and this is the first cake I have baked from it and it all cakes turn out as good as this one did, it’s going to be a good year :)

Now this is the first recipe I’ve ever made with pumpkin and I’m really proud of my self that it turned out soo good. The cake is really moist and it still tastes very good the second or third day. For the bath that I kept for home I made into cupcakes because I wanted to use my Halloween cupcake liners and the second batch, which I gave to my ex-piano teacher was in the traditional loaf shape. And after baking for 3ish hours the house smelled soooo good. I did make a few changes though. I wasn’t able to used ground cloves because by the time I got home from grocery shopping I realized we didn’t have ground cloved and I was too lazy to make the trip to the grocery store so I omitted that and also it called for walnuts and I would have loved to put them in, but I knew my sister would never even try it if it had even the tiniest hint to nuts in it, so I reluctantly took that out of the recipe as well.

I was a little hesitent to make these into cupcakes because i had no clue what the timing would be, but they turned out just fine :)

 Baked to perfection. They were springy and moist, just like the book said it should be.

mmmmm. This recipe is deffinately a keeper.  

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Pound Cake
adapted from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman
makes 8-10 servings per loaf (with cupcakes I got 17 cupcakes)

Ingredients
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves (omitted)
Pinch nutmeg
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 cup canned pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup milk (used 2%)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (used 2/3 cups mini)
1 cup chopped walnuts (omitted)

Directions

1. Heat the oven to 350F. Coat the inside of a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray and dust with flour. To make cupcakes just line a cupcake tin with cupcake liner.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, cloves and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl.
3. Combine the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream with an electric mixer on medium high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice as necessary.
4. With the mixer on medium low speed, add the eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the pumpkin puree and vanilla. Stir in the milk.
5. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the flour mixture, ½ cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Stir in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula. Bake the cake until it is firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 55 minutes to 1 hour (cupcakes take about 24 minutes per batch). Let the cake cool in the pan for 5 minutes, invert it onto a wire rack and then turn it right side up on a rack to cool completely.
6. Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the refrigerator, wrapped in plastic for up to 1 week.

Nutrition Facts
serving size: 1 cupcake
Calories 214.5 Total Fat 8.7 g Saturated Fat 1.9 g Polyunsaturated Fat 0.1 g Monounsaturated Fat 0.3 g Cholesterol 52.0 mg Sodium 189.1 mg Potassium 12.3 mg Total Carbohydrate 31.4 g Dietary Fiber 1.1 g Sugars 20.2 g Protein 2.7 g