OMG, this pudding cake.
Pumpkin + chocolate + brewed coffee + pumpkin pie spices + almond milk = heaven in a dish!
Heaven in a gluten-free, vegan dish, that is. And it’s easily made nut-free just by swapping out the almond milk for coconut milk. Want it soy-free too? Just use soy-free chocolate chips (such as Enjoy Life brand). Oh yea, and because I used moisture-rich pumpkin, this recipe is oil-free but you’d never know it.
If you haven’t had the pleasure of enjoying a chocolate pudding cake before, let me tell you what’s so magical about it: the chocolate cake creates its own chocolate pudding sauce as it bakes! Oh heck yes. It’s like having a sous chef in your very own kitchen. Why make chocolate sauce when the cake can make it for you?
Now that you’re drooling uncontrollably, let me show you just how easy it is to make…
Layer 3 (below) is when you might want to freak out because your cake looks like a hot mess. You will think you did something wrong, but you did everything right, my friends. It’s supposed to look like a hot mess. Don’t you wish all recipes were that easy? So dump on that hot coffee on top and marvel in the hot mess! I promise it will all work out in the end (see after photo). It’s like a magic trick.
See? Nothing to worry about here.
Don’t you just want to dig in with a big spoon?
I highly recommend (no, I beg) that you serve it with your favourite vanilla ice cream (I love Coconut Bliss Vanilla Island) and toasted pecans. The hot vs. cold, gooey vs. creamy contrast is to die for. You won’t be sorry.
Gooey Pumpkin Spice Latte Chocolate Pudding Cake
Yield
6-8 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Coffee, pumpkin, pumpkin pie spices, and chocolate all combined in one gooey, saucy, pudding cake. What on earth could be better? Serve with a scoop of vegan ice cream and toasted pecans to take it over the edge. Be sure to see my notes at the end of this recipe for ways you can change it up. Recipe adapted from The Oh She Glows Cookbook.
Ingredients
- 1 flax egg: (1 tablespoon ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons water)
- 1.5 cups rolled oats, ground into a flour (use certified gluten-free oats, if necessary)
- 3/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/3 cup finely chopped non-dairy dark chocolate
- 1/2-3/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt, to taste
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons almond milk
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons unsweetened pumpkin puree
- 1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup coconut sugar
- 1 + 1/4 cup hot coffee (use decaf, if desired)
- For serving: vegan vanilla ice cream and toasted chopped pecans
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375⁰F and lightly grease an 8-inch square glass baking dish with oil.
- Whisk flax and water together in a small bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to gel up.
- In a large bowl, stir together the oat flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, chocolate, salt, and baking powder.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flax mixture, milk, pumpkin, and vanilla.
- Pour wet mixture onto dry ingredients and stir until thoroughly combined.
- Scoop the batter into the prepared glass dish and smooth out evenly with a spoon.
- In a small bowl or mug, combine the remaining tablespoon of cocoa powder and 1/4 cup sugar. Sprinkle all of it evenly over the cake batter.
- Slowly pour the hot coffee over the cocoa powder and sugar mixture ensuring that the coffee completely covers the powder and sugar. The cake will now look like a complete disaster, but this is normal. Promise!
- Very carefully place the dish into the oven, uncovered. Bake at 375⁰F for 25-40 minutes (see my post for the visual step by step pictures) until the cake is semi-firm on the top, but bubbly and gooey around the edges (see photo in blog post). It will look under-baked, but this is normal (we want it saucy!). If for whatever reason your cake is still watery after 30 minutes in the oven, keep baking it until it looks like the photo in the blog post.
- Let the cake cool for 10 minutes and then serve immediately with vegan vanilla ice cream and toasted pecans. This cake is best served warm straight out of the oven. I tried reheating leftovers in the oven the next day and the cake absorbed a lot of the sauce during the reheat. It was still good, but we preferred the cake the first day, fresh out of the oven. Leftovers are quite good served chilled, as an alternate suggestion.
Tip:
Notes: 1) You can probably swap the coconut sugar for natural cane sugar. The bake time may vary slightly since coconut sugar tends to be more dry. 2) If you aren't a coffee fan, feel free to swap it with boiling water. 3) To make this nut-free, swap the almond milk for coconut milk (or non-dairy milk of your choice) and leave out the pecan garnish. 4) To make the oat flour, add the rolled oats into a high speed blender and blend on high until a fine flour forms. You can also use 1 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons store-bought oat flour instead.
Nutrition Information
(click to expand)
Wishing all my fellow Canadian readers a very happy Thanksgiving weekend! It’s hard to believe it’s already here.
If you are looking for my vegan Thanksgiving recipes, see this post.
Cannot wait to try this!
Just made this and added the 1 cup plus 1/4 cup hot coffee at the end and when I took it out of the oven the coffee was still on top and didn’t absorb? Please help! I really want this to work and can’t figure out what could have gone wrong? I poured the coffee out and just ate the pudding which was still good, but didn’t have the gooey fudge the coffee makes. Help, thanks!
I had the same problem, took it out after 28 minutes and there’s plenty of coffee still sitting on the top. I used raw cacao instead of cocoa and a chicken egg instead of flax, not sure if those swaps could have caused problems?
I used came sugar and it did take longer like Angela thought in her comments after the recipe. I think it took 35-40 minutes but I’m not sure because I literally sat on the floor and watched it bubble! Ha!
PS congrats on your beautiful baby girl! Loved reading your birth story. :)
tried this recipe with coffee, and it was so tasty! it made it feel like tiramisu meets pumpkin meets cinnamon. another recipe from this website that has given my family something to talk about. Thanks !
OMG. I think this recipe might be a life changer for me. I feel like I never eat cake since going gluten-free and the combo of flavors here is EVERYTHING I am craving in one dessert. I’ve been so immersed with pumpkin soap making lately that I’m ready to eat the next batch. I have everything I need to make this–so excited! :) I’m not sharing this one, either. Ha!
Hey Angela! I’m hoping to make this for a somewhat large group. I see it’s supposed to serve 6-8 people, but I’m contemplating whether I could multiply the recipe by 1.5 to make it a little bigger. If I were to do that, what do you recommend in terms of how big of a dish to use? And how to modify the baking time?
Thanks!
Made it, loved it! I took it to a small group gathering and none came home. After a stressful day, I think I will be making this again just for myself tonight. :-)
how long did it sit before you served it. I want to make this, but I won’t be able to serve it right away
This looks absolutely to die for delicious! Even my kids are sitting with me drooling over this. I think we will try it out this weekend..you know, to make sure we get the recipe perfected in time for the holidays.. ;)
Okay Angela, I need to post a comment to tell you.
I made this pudding cake tonight (half recipe since my roommate and I are the only ones here…) and I about wet myself when I took the first bite. I was actually running late to my astronomy lab, so I took a serving to go in a little mug. I think the only reason I did not eat most of the batch right then and there was because I was out of the house when I actually ate it. Mmmmmmmmmm…
“Hallelujah!” is playing in my head at the moment as I stare at this beautiful creation of a cake. Holy moly me oh my I need this in my belly ASAP, please and thank you. You are an angel, Angela! It was love at first sight with the title, then I saw the picture, and then I looked at the ingredients-oh my goodness. I am going to make this dessert, and I am so very excited. This sounds like the perfect after-dinner sweet for an autumn get together! Thanks for sharing:-)
This was fantastic!!! I served it with some lightly sweetened coconut cream.
This was amazing! I ran out of oats, so I subbed in sorghum flour, and it came out great. In the morning I poured some of my pumpkin spice tea over it before reheating, and it was moist and delicous. Talk about an awesome breakfast!
Maybe a dumb question, but I was wondering how you make the pumpkin puree? Or do you buy it?
It looks AMAZING!! I can’t wait to make it :)
When substituting cacao for cocoa should the amount of it change???
Is the nut milk just the personal choice or is dairy milk just not good for this recipe???
Hi Izabela,
Usually it is a 1 for 1 swap. As for the milk, you can use whatever you prefer.
Exactly how much coffee is to be used? I baked this this evening and unfortunately my pie did not solidify on top :( I followed the recipe to a Tee. It’s still so watery on top and cooked in the corners. Suggestions?
Hi Samantha,
How long did it cook for? It sounds like maybe your oven temperature is off and it needed to be cooked longer. The recipe is correct as written.
Oh this looks so delicious I was thinking of having for a birthday treat BUT I can’t have oats. Would some other, gluten free flour work? Eg buckwheat, coconut or chickpea/beban?
It is very exciting you are making teas now!
This was divine and found it re-heated fine if you pour some steamed milk (almond) over it first
This sounds delectable!!
Hi Angela! I see that this does not reheat very well. I would absolutely love to make this for my sisters birthday this weekend but it would need to be made 3 hours in advance as we will have I travel to her town. Do you think it could work if I made it right before we left and just let it sit in the car? Lol. I was wondering if it would be better to make something else a bit more portable but t looks so dang good I just can’t imagine making something else. I have my heart set on it!
Hi Amy, It’s definitely the best when made and served immediately – as it sits the gooey pudding soaks into the cake and it’s not as much of a “pudding + cake” when serving. I would probably opt for something else just in case? 3 hours is quite a bit of time for it to sit.
Made it this afternoon- insane!! The only thing is I didn’t pour enough coffee and ended up with little goo. But still- insane! Will be making it for Thanksgiving. I’ve been a vegan for the past 20 years,-my mother started us all as vegetarians. Now, my own daughter Maya, 4, a super vegan hooligan is lucky enough to taste so many of your recipes – I’m loving the book!! She’ll be having the pumpkin cake for her Halloween party at school!
Does anyone know.. I’m a little confused, if you grind up the oats into flour, you have less than 1.5 cups of flour. So do you want 1.5 cups of the oat flour or 1.5 cups of the oats and then grind into flour? Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Amy, you are to use 1.5 cups rolled oats and then transfer the oats into a high speed blender and blend until a fine flour forms. Hope this helps!
In your notes section you state you can use 1 1/2 + 2 TBSP of store bought Oat Flour. Wouldn’t this be more than grinding the oats yourself? I made this recipe tonight and couldn’t figure out when to take it out of the oven. You stated if it was super watery to keep cooking it – but it never stopped being watery – then got super rubbery. Really disappointing as I had to throw the whole thing away and it’s so much $ worth of great ingredients :(. I also let it sit for about 2 hours before consuming and realize that’s is a big problem.
sorry if this question has been asked already but is there any way to make this grain free (something to replace the oat flour with?)?
Thanks so much!!!
This looks absolutely fantastic. I have a nice flavored coffee right now that I think would be perfect for this. Im very excited.
A-MAZING dessert this was!!! My sister and I just got finished making (and devouring lol) it. Neither of us are really bakers or coffee drinkers but it looked too good not to try. We followed the recipe almost to a “T” (we put just a cup of coffee instead) and the end result was just blissful :) We paired it with some bourbon vanilla ice cream and I swear I died briefly and went to heaven!
So my friend and I baked this tonight (we tagged you on Instagram), and we kinda messed up. We forgot to put the chocolate in the cake, so we put it on top at the last minute. It makes the liquidy pudding SOOOO good.
what would you substitute the sugar with? I can’t have sugar? For the chocolate pumpkin cake.
thanks
My 10 year old daughter and I made the coffee-free version and it was über delicious! My husband hates pumpkin and he even liked it. Two thumbs up :-)
Mmmmmmm! Just made this over the weekend for a Halloween treat and it was delicious! Thanks:)
I have instant espresso but not regular coffee–can espresso be substituted for the coffee and what would the ratio be?
Just made this tonight. Delicious! Very easy to make too.
I made this last night for my birthday celebration with friends and it was a hit!
There’s an almost exact recipe (save the pumpkin) in my mother’s old favorite coobook. She used to make this pudding when I was a kid and it was a family classic ! I made your recipe, with pumpkin, to remind my family of these moments.
This looks so gorgeous!!! I am too sensitive to caffeine-even decaff. What can I substitute in its place?
Thank you for all the beautiful and inspiring recipes.
Daniella
I have an abundance of fresh home-processed pumpkin so I had to try this. I doubled the recipe and used a 9×13 pan. I followed the recipe to the letter. EXCELLENT results. Personally I liked it cold the next day even better. Thanks for posting this!
I currently have reduced sugar vanilla almond milk, does this matter? Or should a use a specific one?
Any almond milk will do :)
I’m adding this to my Thanksgiving menu this year, thank you!
Do you think I can use coconut flour instead of the oat flour? Just curious because I have it on hand. Thanks!
Thought you’d like to know I made this last night for my husband’s work event today and they devoured it. This was apparently the star of the feast :)
I’m so glad I came across your page! I want to make this for my daughter and her friend at Thanksgiving. I will not be at my house so without making the whole dish ahead of time…I want it right out of the oven! Can I do steps 1 -7 and let it sit for a few hours before I do 8?
Amazing as always, Angela! I was lazy and just used hot water instead of coffee and it turned out really nice, with subtle sweetness and spice + ooey gooey chocolate saucy goodness. The Vanilla Island Bliss and toasted pecans truly round out the experience into something divine in terms of flavors and textures. My husband practically inhaled his portion while I am slowly savoring mine, haha! Thank you so much for sharing this delicious gem of a recipe. I’ll definitely be trying it with coffee as well in the future! :)
So excited about this recipe! My question is regarding the oat flour- is there a next best thing I could use? (I don’t need it to be gluten free)
Anyone try this with Rice Milk? One kid with nut allergy, one kid with Dairy allergy. Fun huh?:)
I failed. This did not come out for me at all. I’ve made the pudding cake in your book and it has come out awesome each time. I have no idea what went wrong. :-) As for your book I’ve cooked/baked about 80% of the recipes in it and the only one I had trouble with there was with the Chia donuts.
I made this verbatim and my is not gooey. Its thick. Why?
I made this for our Thanksgiving dessert and it was such a hit! It was awesome. Thank you.
I made this twice and both times it came out thick, heavy, and gummy. There was no gooey at all. I thought the first time was a fluke, as can sometimes happen. I followed the recipe word for word. I tried it again with the same end result.
I’m not new to vegan baking at all. Anyone else have this problem?
This is amazing, simple, rich, chocolate, it has everything!!!
Hi I would love to try this recipe as well as the recipe that you have on your book chocolate fudge pudding cake, can I replace the oat flour, in both recipes with either rice flour or rice flour and almond flour? Many thanks. Margarida
This looks absolutely perfect. I am a coffee fiend and wanted to learn more ways to put it in food. I am very excited to try it.
Just made this for a family dinner! My 94 year old grandma, who has trouble even remembering the word “vegan”, LOVED this cake! She asked for the recipe! Thanks so much for making dishes that are so accessible to people of all diets and ages!