First of all, I’d like to apologize to anyone experiencing a heat wave in the United States. I know how frustrating is when all you want to do is go to Homegoods and buy fall stuff, wear scarves and a hoodie and you’re forced to wear sandals and sweat. Despite the wonky weather, I brought fall today in form of this Sesame Pumpkin Chocolate Cake.
For all intensive purposes, this cake is a snacking cake. You snack on it when you probably should just make yourself a meal. You bake this and then keep it on your counter for as long as possible (it probably won’t last long). It’s a great way to live!
Here’s why this Sesame Pumpkin Chocolate Cake amazing. Ready?
-This cake requires one-bowl
-If you want, you can leave out the chocolate. You have freedom.
-The flavor of toasted sesame oil and sesame seeds with pumpkin are surprisingly lovely.
-The chocolate adds a lovely gooey touch to this cake that I am into.
I’m into lazy cakes like this. It really should have a whole new section on this blog. And of course, this cake was inspired by my these sesame chocolate chip cookies that I made last year.. If you haven’t made them, dooooo it!
I tested this recipe a few weeks ago and took it over for a friend gathering. I love getting feedback. People were torn between keeping the chocolate or excluding it. Many felt like it muddled things up. At the time the sesame wasn’t as prominent as it should’ve been so I added a bit more.
I kept the chocolate because I liked eating little bits of chocolate throughout. But obviously, feel free to leave it out!

Sesame Pumpkin Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3 tablespoons neutral oil (such as avocado oil or grape seed oil)
- 1/4 cup sesame oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons white sesame seeds
- 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 4 ounces dark chocolate chunks or chips (about 3/4 of a cup) reserving a few pieces for the top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and line a 8-inch round baking pan (or you could use a 8x4-inch loaf pan. Alternatively you can also use a 9x5-inch loaf pan (but your loaf will be a bit more stout).
- In a large bowl, whisk together the pumpkin puree, neutral oil, sesame oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice and sugar. You want it to be well combined so mix it with a whisk or spatula for a good minute or so. Next, add the flour, sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, kosher salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix once more until mostly combined. Lastly, add most of the chocolate (reserving a few pieces for the topping) and mix until no more speckles of flour appear; being sure NOT to over-mix the batter.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared baking dish and smooth it out into an even layer. Sprinkle the top with a small handful of black sesame seeds and white sesame seeds, along with a few chunks of chocolate.
- Place in the oven to bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
This is definitely being added to my Thanksgiving Day menu! Stunning!
This looks GREAT!!!! Have you ever tried making this with almond flour?
i haven’t and i recommend using an all-purpose gluten free flour if you’re going to try and make it gluten free. 🙂
This looks GREAT!!!! I’m gluten free, so I’m going to try to convert this recipe to use tahini and almond flour. Have you ever tried that??
hi brad, just wanted to comment again that you won’t be successful with using almond flour instead of all-purpose. almond flour is very fine so if you’re bent on using almond flour (maybe it’s the only thing you have), i’d recommend googling gluten-free baking recipes that use almond flour!
Could these be made into muffins?
I realize we spoke on IG stories but wanted to comment and say yes! It should make 12 muffins and will probably need 25 to 30 min. 🙂
Could these work as muffins?
are you using the TOASTED sesame oil? Pretty sure that’s the type but wanted to make sure . thanks, kim
yep, toasted sesame oil! 🙂
this looks amazing! in the UK it’s freezing today- could do with some of this. if only we had canned pumpkin or pumpkin spice!
Hi Emma, Tesco has canned pumpkin in the US foods section (i just bought one!) it’s an orange tin, around 70p 🙂
ooh thank you!