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Moist and tender pumpkin butter cake with chocolate swirls, topped with pumpkin seeds.
A less sweet buttery cake, which you’ll love even for a breakfast treat!
Are you someone who enjoys eating pumpkin?
Not really for myself and my kids though (ha!). Pumpkin has a lot of nutritional values for health benefit, so I thought it could be a great way to incorporate pumpkin into bakes!
How Does This Pumpkin Swirl Butter Cake Taste Like?
If you love moist and tender cakes, you’ll love this pumpkin butter cake!
It has a nice buttery scent, without the overly greasy texture. With the addition of pumpkin puree, you’ll know that the crumbs will be soft and moist! Oh, I also love the touch of chocolate batter swirled on top, with some pumpkin seeds crunch.
I find the taste gets better as it develop overnight, like most butter cakes, so do bake this a day ahead!
What Ingredients Do I Need?
We need just a few ingredients for this easy pumpkin swirl butter cake!
- Unsalted Butter: As usual for butter cakes, do soften the butter slightly in normal room temperature. You can cut and weigh the butter, and leave them to soften as you prepare the rest of the ingredients. If your environment is not overly hot, the butter should be softened properly by the time you prep the ingredients.
- Sugar: This cake is not really sweet, so do not cut the sugar anymore.
- Eggs: Use medium sized eggs, about 55-60g each.
- Milk: Use whole milk, not the low fat ones. Fresh or UHT doesn’t matter.
- Flour: You can use plain flour with baking powder, or just self-raising flour.
- Mashed Pumpkin: Steam the pumpkin for about 15 – 18 mins and mash them while it is still hot. Let the mashed pumpkin cool down completely before using.
- Cocoa Powder: The cocoa cake batter will add some color and flavor to this cake, so don’t leave it out! 🙂
>> MORE DELICIOUS CAKE RECIPES:
Is This Pumpkin Swirl Butter Cake Easy to Make?
Yes! If you are familiar with the basic creaming method, this butter cake is really easy to prepare.
We will just need to cream the softened butter with sugar together, till it lightens in color and looks fluffy. After that we will be alternating wet ingredients with the dry ingredients.
Finally you will just need to bake in an 8″ square pan for about 30-35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean, or with just a few dry crumbs.
Can I Bake The Butter Cake in Loaf Pans?
Yes you can! If you do not have a square pan, you can bake it in a round pan, or loaf pans (you might need 2 loaf pans)!
If you are using loaf pan, you might need to add 10-15 mins time more to the baking time.

Pumpkin Swirl Butter Cake
- Prep Time: 30 Mins
- Cook Time: 30 Mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8" x 8" pan 1x
Ingredients
- 150g unsalted butter, softened
- 120g caster sugar
- 3 eggs
- 140g mashed pumpkin
- 50g whole milk
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, optional
- 200g plain flour
- 2.5 tsp baking powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cocoa powder
- Pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 170C. Grease and line 8″x8″ pan.
- Whisk to combine eggs, milk and vanilla extract in a medium sized bowl. Set aside.
- Sift together plain flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- Beat softened butter and sugar till fluffy and lighter in color.
- Add in 1/2 of egg mixture. Beat well.
- Mix in 1/3 of dry ingredient, till no traces of flour can be seen.
- Add in remaining egg mixture. Beat well.
- Add in another 1/3 of dry ingredient. Mix well.
- Mix in mashed pumpkin.
- Add in remaining dry ingredient. Mix till no traces of white flour can be seen.
- Remove 2 tbsp of batter and mix in cocoa powder.
- Pour remaining pumpkin cake batter into prepared pan. Smooth batter on top.
- Drop dollops of cocoa cake batter on top and make a swirl pattern. Top with pumpkin seeds.
- Bake in preheated oven at 170C for about 30-35 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out relatively clean, or with a few dry crumbs.
- Let cool completely on wire rack before storing in container. Taste better overnight.
Notes
To make mashed pumpkin, simply peel pumpkin and cut into smaller pcs. Steam pumpkin pcs over medium-high heat, for about 15-20 mins. Mash the pumpkin while it is still hot. For 140g of mashed pumpkin, you can steam about 170-180g of raw pumpkin.
- Method: Creaming
Keywords: Butter Cake
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