Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake

This Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake is fun and festive and oh so good! It has a dark chocolate glaze and even a little spider to add to the spookiness.

What is a marble cake?

A marble cake is a cake with a streaked appearance that is done by very lightly blending light and dark cake batter. The more different in color the batters are, the more the marblization can be seen. And for this cake, the two batters are an orange pumpkin and a dark black chocolate. Both very different colors.

What main ingredients are needed for this Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake?

Pumpkin Purée: canned pumpkin purée is what you need for the pumpkin portion of the cake. There is no need to use cooked fresh pumpkin.

Pumpkin Spice: pumpkin spice is different spices mixed together. They are made up of spices that usually go in a pumpkin pie.

Black Dutch Processed Cocoa: You can use regular dutched process cocoa or regular cocoa powder, but the chocolate part of the cake will not be as dark.

Flour: All purpose flour is best for this cake. The crumb doesn’t red to be small, so cake flour isn’t needed.

Buttermilk: I prefer buttermilk as the main wet ingredient for cakes. Buttermilk makes cake extra soft and moist, which is much better than whole milk.

Sour Cream: The addition of sour cream with buttermilk improves the moistness and texture of cakes. It’s used in the pumpkin cake half of the cake. The chocolate half just uses buttermilk and a bit of boiling water of coffee.

What is dutch processed cocoa?

Dutch processed cocoa is a very dark and rich cocoa powder. Black Dutch processed cocoa is simply a cocoa powder that has been heavily dutched or alkalized. It has smoother non-bitter taste that is literally black in color. When used it baking, it turns everything extremely black. The contrast of the ultra dark chocolate batter and the orange pumpkin batter, gives the cake a great look. For this cake, I used black cocoa from The Cocoa Trader, which can be purchased on Amazon. 

How is the Marbled Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake put together?

Make the 2 batters separately in two different bowls. Once made, spoon half of the chocolate batter into a Bundt pan sprayed with baking spray. Then spoon half of the pumpkin batter in. Repeat the process with the remaining batters. At this point, you can use a butter knife to swirl the batters or leave the layers the way they are. I left them alone because when baking, the layers slightly shift giving a natural swirl pattern, but that’s optional. After the cake is baked and cooled, make a glaze with powdered sugar, black cocoa and milk. Drizzle it over the cake. Then add a Halloween decoration like the black fondant spider.

How is the spider decor made?

The spider decor is completely optional. It’s just a little decoration to make the cake more festive. I used Satin Ice Black Fondant, which can be purchased on Amazon. You can also use other brands like Wilton, which is very popular.

Break off a piece of the fondant from the body, about 2 thirds of the size of the palm of your hand. Roll the fondant in your hands to make an egg shape. Break off a second piece about 1/3 of the side of the first fondant piece. Roll it into a ball and press it to the front of the larger piece. Pinch off 4 small pieces and roll into ropes twice the length of the width of the spider bodies. Place the ropes down on a board crossing them in the middle like “X’s”. They should look like there are 4 spider legs on each side. Place them under the spider’s body and place the spider on the cake.

Commonly Asked Questions:

Can marble cake be frozen?

To freeze, wrap the unglazed, undecorated cake in plastic wrap twice until it’s fully sealed. Place in the freezer and freeze up to 3 months. To serve, place on the counter until thawed. Add the glaze and decor.

You can technically use any type of cocoa powder. Regular cocoa will make the chocolate cake brown. Dutch processed cocoa will make the chocolate cake very dark brown. Black dutch processed cocoa will make the chocolate cake black.

Here are other spooky Halloween treats!