Chocolate Pumpkin Cake - Vegan and (easily) Gluten Free

Happy Fall! Even if it doesn't feel like fall where you live, it's officially autumn, and, for me, that means candy corn, pumpkins, apples, and the crisp feel of the air. It means I can start adding cinnamon and/or pumpkin pie spice to everything. It's a good season.

This cake is super easy, both in the making and in the cleaning up, like the Blood-Orange Olive Oil Cake I showed you earlier this year. It's also super easy to eat for breakfast. It's very moist and quite rich. I made a simple glaze, mostly because Official Taster has an issue with frosting-less cakes. It doesn't need it, but it works. You could also just dust on some powdered sugar to jazz it up if you'd like.

I happened to find a can of pumpkin pie mix in the pantry, which is what I used in this cake. It's just regular canned pumpkin with pumpkin pie spices already mixed in. When you make this, you can just use regular pumpkin with or without spices or this pre-mixed stuff. Depends on how sweet you want your cake and how pie flavored you want it.

For all you gluten free folks out there, I believe this cake would lend itself very well to substituting either an all-purpose gluten free flour or the sorghum blend I told you about for my patriotic cupcakes.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
cooking spray
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 C unsweetened cocoa
2 C all purpose flour
1 C water
1 C sugar
1 C pumpkin
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x5 inch loaf pan, and either flour it or use cocoa instead (no white splotches on the finished cake that way)
2. Combine water, sugar, pumpkin, and vanilla until thoroughly blended. Sift baking soda, baking powder, cocoa, and flour into the mixture and beat until very smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove cake and let cool in the pan at least 5 minutes. Remove cake from pan and finish cooling on a rack.
4. Frosting is optional. For a chocolate pumpkin glaze, combine some confectioners sugar, cocoa, and pumpkin until smooth and your desired thickness. Drizzle or spread on cake. Another option is to dust with confectioners sugar.