A taste of fall you'll want forever

Chocolate pumpkin cake (Mary Elizabeth Williams)

You don’t need an expensive new piece of equipment, or an obscure ingredient you have to hunt for. You just need a fresh way of preparing an old favorite. In "One Way," we’ll revisit classic ingredients and dishes, giving them a new twist with an easy technique you haven’t tried before.

You know you can get pumpkin in cans, right? All year long, in fact. So why is this most sacred and wonderful of flavors confined to the narrow parameters of foliage season? I am not complaining about crisp October days marked by warm cider and Christian girls in thick scarves and every single limited edition item in the Trader Joe's canon. I'm just saying that pumpkin, like gingerbread, is too good to be confined. We eat carrot cake all year; we should feel entirely at liberty to bust out our gourds from sweater season.

Take, for example, Jessie Sheehan's pumpkin snacking cake with chocolate frosting. There is much to love about Sheehan's recent "Snackable Bakes: 100 Easy-Peasy Recipes for Exceptionally Scrumptious Sweets and Treats," but the main selling point for me is that it is entirely composed of exactly what I prefer to bake and to eat — delicious brownies, icebox cakes and single layer cakes you can work into a weeknight routine without breaking a sweat. Her gently spicy, perfectly springy pumpkin cake is a stellar example.

I've made a few small adjustments to make this an even gentler lift for you, including mixing it all in one bowl. Because maybe you don't bake enough to warrant Sheehan's suggested list of fall-themed spices, I've also consolidated the recipe by simply using pumpkin pie spice mix. (McCormick's is the classic.) And while she tops her cake with a fluffy cocoa frosting, she gives a thumbs up to a lower effort glaze too. I've split the difference with a buttery ganache. The combination of chocolate and pumpkin here makes this comforting but decadent, and I don't know about you, but that's a feeling I still want to chase even after the last candy corn has been cleared off the shelf. So make this now — and then keep making it right through the spring.

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Inspired by "Snackable Bakes" by Jessie Sheehan and I Am Baker

Chocolate pumpkin snacking cake

Yields

 9-12 servings

Prep Time

 15 minutes

Cook Time

 30 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of flaky salt
• 1 3/4 teaspoons of pumpkin spice mix
• 1/2 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 1/4 cups of white sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup of unsweetened pumpkin puree
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 cup (8 ounces) of dark chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

2. Line an 8-inch square pan with parchment and lightly oil or butter it.

3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and pumpkin spice mix.

4. Whisk in the oil, sugar and vanilla. Beat in the eggs, then the pumpkin.

5. Stir thoroughly.

6. Pour the batter into the pan and give it a tap on the counter to break up any bubbles and even out.

7. Bake about 30 minutes, turning the pan halfway through the baking, until it seems golden and springy in the middle. Remove from oven and let cool before removing from the pan.

8. While the cake is baking, make the ganache. In a microwave proof bowl, melt the butter for 1 minute. Stir in the chocolate until it's completely melted. (Zap it another 10 seconds if you need to.) Let it come down to room temperature.

9. When the cake is cooled, frost liberally and enjoy.

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Cook's Notes

Never apologize for substituting canned frosting here. And if you're wondering what to do with the leftover pumpkin puree, we've got you covered there.

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