Spiced chocolate pumpkin cake with gelt filling
This wonderful recipe incorporating Chanukah and Thanksgiving comes from Franci Cohen of Manhattan, a personal trainer, and certified nutritionist and exercise physiologist.
The convergence of holidays rarely happens throughout history (the last time was 1888), so this year as Thanksgiving Day and the first day of Chanukah collide so will the spread. What better way to celebrate and give thanks than with a potluck of seasonal fare? The dishes are created to introduce a new twist on traditional Thanksgiving and Chanukah recipe uses fresh seasonal produce while still keeping a classic quality.
Some of her other interesting recipes include a spiced pumpkin and butternut squash soup, and a Chanukah menorah challah with cranberry sauce.
Spiced Chocolate Pumpkin Cake with Chanukah Gelt Chocolate Filling
3-inch metal circle form or cookie cutter
3 9-inch-round cake pans
Pam cooking spray
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 teaspoons grated orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Store bought chocolate frosting
1 box (approx. 20 packs) of Chanukah gelt (chocolate coins)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray cake pans with cooking spray.
Whisk the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and salt in a large bowl.
In another bowl combine the pumpkin, sugar, orange zest, vanilla, and eggs (one at a time). Add the vegetable oil in a steady stream, and mix until fluffy. Then add the flour mixture and mix until incorporated. Lastly, mix in the chocolate chips.
Divide the batter between the 3 prepared pans and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes have a spongy feel. Transfer cakes to a rack and let cool 10 minutes in the pans, then unmold onto wax paper-lined tray.
To Prepare the Cake:
Take circular cutter and cut a hole in the middle of 2 cakes, keeping bottom layer whole. Stack the layers while adding chocolate frosting between each.
Fill middle of cake with chocolate coins “gelt.”
Place one of the “cake middles” that you removed earlier with cookie cutter, back on top of cake to seal the top.
Pipe chocolate frosting on top and around sides of cake.
Voilá! Friends and family will be surprised by the fun Chanukah filling disguised in this traditional Thanksgiving chocolate pumpkin cake!
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