Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Recently I decided to fill some holes in my baking pan collection and so I picked up my very first bundt pan. That began a search for the perfect bundt pan cake recipe to break it in. Given that it's pumpkin season I had my eye (and my pins) on some spiced pumpkin cakes. But then Anuradha from Baker Street posted a chocolatey, pumpkiny, marbleized, swirled, glazed creation that was baked in a bundt pan. My choice was made!

Because I'm new to the world of bundts while Anuradha has baked everything under the sun, I decided not to mess too much with her basic recipe. The biggest change I made was to omit her chocolate glaze. I'm not much of a frosting or glaze fan in general as I find they usually make the cakes too sweet for me. So I opted for a simple dusting of powdered sugar. But I encourage you to check out the original recipe on her site and decide for yourself.

The cake itself is moist and flavorful but it's also quite rich so I've only had a small slice so far. Brian, on the other hand, has been having it for both breakfast and dessert. Enjoy!

Ingredients
(Based on Baker Street recipe)
3 Sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 Cups sugar
6 Eggs
2 Teaspoons vanilla
1 1/4 Cups pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 3/4 Cups all purpose flour
2 Teaspoons baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
2 Teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (I used 1 teaspoon of spice and 1 of cinnamon)
3/4 Cup Dutch processed unsweetened cocoa
2/3 Cup buttermilk

In a large bowl, beat the butter, vanilla and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the eggs one at a time and then divide the batter into two bowls.

In one bowl, beat in the pumpkin puree. Sift together 1 3/4 cups of the flour, 1 teaspoon of the baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of the salt and all the spice. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin batter and mix just until incorporated.

To make the chocolate half of the batter, whisk together the remaining cup of flour, teaspoon of baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the cocoa powder. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk into the batter until blended.

Pour half the pumpkin batter into a greased and floured 12-cup bundt cake pan. Spoon half the chocolate batter over the pumpkin layer. Spoon another quarter of the pumpkin batter over the chocolate, all the remaining chocolate over that and, finally, all the remaining pumpkin over that. Swirl a butter knife through the cake mixture several times each way. Bake in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for approximately 1 hour or until a cake tester comes out clean. Remove from the oven and allow to cool thoroughly before inverting onto a cake plate. Dust with powdered sugar or glaze. Makes approximately 12 - 16 servings.