Pumpkin Cake with Nuts & Dark Chocolate

This is a wonderfully spiced vintage pumpkin cake—moist from grated pumpkin and olive oil, with dark chocolate and plenty of nuts or almonds. I’d keep it as a rustic cake rather than adding frosting, since the original recipe doesn’t call for any.

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Prep Time 25

Cook Time 1

Servings: 16

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: European

Calories: 520

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

3 large eggs
700 g (3½ cups) brown sugar
750–1,500 g (6–12 cups) grated pumpkin flesh
330 g (1½ cups) olive oil
440 g (3½ cups) all-purpose flour
2 g (½ tsp) baking powder
5 g (1 tsp) baking soda
6 g (1 tsp) salt
3 g (1½ tsp) ground ginger
2 g (1 tsp) ground cardamom
1 g (½ tsp) ground nutmeg
5 g (2 tsp) ground cinnamon
100 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
240 g (2 cups) walnuts, other nuts, or almonds, roughly chopped
Sesame seeds, for coating the pan

Method

Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Grease a large springform pan and sprinkle the inside with sesame seeds.
Beat the eggs with the brown sugar until thoroughly combined and slightly aerated.
Stir in the grated pumpkin and olive oil.
In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and stir just until combined.
Roughly chop the dark chocolate and nuts, then fold them into the batter.
Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and level the top.
Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until the center is baked through and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out without wet batter.
Allow to cool before removing from the pan and slicing.

Notes

The vintage recipe genuinely gives 3–6 glasses of grated pumpkin, which is a very broad range. For a modern, repeatable version, I’d recommend starting with about 750 g grated pumpkin rather than the full upper amount.

Also, because the original recipe uses unusually large quantities of sugar and oil, this makes a large, rich cake.