Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Snack Cake

Flour – Again, I prefer using white whole wheat flour here, as I do in my whole wheat cinnamon apple bread. If you can’t find that, you can use regular whole wheat flour, or regular all-purpose flour as well.

Spices – Use a combination of pumpkin pie spice, with some additional ground cinnamon and nutmeg.

Leaveners – Use both baking powder and baking soda.

Sugar – I like a combination of both white and dark brown sugar for this snack cake. If you don’t have dark, light brown sugar is fine as well.

Pumpkin – Make sure to use pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling. The filling comes pre-sweetened and flavored, so it throws off the recipe and isn’t interchangeable.

Fat – A mix of both vegetable oil and melted butter here works. I like to use a bit of butter to replace some of the oil for flavor, but you should be fine to use all oil, or even replace with applesauce for another healthier substitute.

Vanilla – In most desserts, I find a splash of vanilla extract helps to balance flavors.

Eggs – You’ll need 4 large eggs at room temperature here.

Chocolate – I enjoy the flavor combination of whole wheat flour and dark chocolate chips, but you can use any chocolate chip you prefer, or swap for chunks or mini chips also.

Cinnamon Chips – This is completely optional, but a nice addition for small pops of flavor. Cinnamon chips are sold in the same area as chocolate chips, but if you can’t find them, you don’t need to include them. Other good options include butterscotch, toffee, or caramel chips. During the Fall, Nestle also makes pumpkin pie spice chips.

Preheat your oven to 350°F / 180°C and line a 13x9 baking pan with a foil or parchment sling and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, add the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk thoroughly and set aside.

In a larger mixing bowl, add both sugars, pumpkin, oil, melted butter, and vanilla. Whisk together until the sugar is dissolved.

Now add the eggs, one at a time, whisking until there’s no streaks of egg remaining.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until just combined and there’s no obvious pockets of dry flour.

Finally, add the chocolate chips and any optional chips and gently fold into the batter without overmixing.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and smooth out the top. Place it into the middle of the oven and bake for 35-45 minutes (start checking at 30 minutes), until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove it from the oven and let it rest in the pan about 10 minutes before lifting out and letting it cool on a cooling rack.

Once cooled, slice the pumpkin chocolate chip snack cake into portions for serving and enjoy.

Whisk – While I like using a balloon whisk for most of the mixing, Danish dough whisks are perfect anytime you need to fold in ingredients like the dark chocolate chips and cinnamon chips here without overmixing. I switch to this when I begin adding flour.

Bowl Scraper – A cheap bowl scraper made of stiff but flexible plastic or nylon are amazing for recipes involving batters or doughs. I use one here because it contours to the shape of the mixing bowl to easily scrape out all the pumpkin chocolate chip batter and it helps to spread and level it out in the baking pan.

❄️ Storing Snack Cakes

Once cooled completely, you can store this pumpkin chocolate chip snack cake in an airtight container at room temperature for 4-5 days. For longer storage, you can transfer it to the refrigerator for about a week.

If you add dairy like a whipped cream or cream cheese frosting, however, you will need to keep it stored in the refrigerator the whole time. Refrigeration extends the shelf life, but also tends to dry out cakes faster as well. You can also store the cake at room temperature and any dairy-based frosting in the fridge, then frost as you go instead.

For longer term storage, you can wrap the cake in plastic wrap and then again in aluminum foil and freeze for 3-4 months.