Pumpkin “Neapolitan” Cake

This cake is a fun fall twist on the classic Neapolitan combo. Instead of using chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry, I flavored my buttercream with chocolate, cream cheese and pumpkin!

The recipe for these buttercream flavors should be more of a guideline rather than a set of rules. It’s simply a modification of my Italian Meringue Buttercream. I split it into three equal portions and flavored each to taste.

So with that being said, feel free to adjust the flavors to your taste. Just keep in mind that the more stuff you add to your buttercream, the softer it will become, making it harder to pipe.

Watch the video below to see how I made each flavor and decorated my cake, or read on for more notes on the recipe.

Pumpkin Buttercream

I used canned pumpkin for this recipe, but I roasted it first to get the most concentrated flavor.

To roast, spread the pumpkin puree out into a very thin layer on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Roast at 350 F for about 30 minutes. I weighed my pumpkin puree before and after roasting and found that it reduced by almost 50% in this time.

Let the roasted pumpkin puree cool completely before adding to your buttercream. Avoid adding any bits around the edges that may have gotten crisp or dried out in the oven.

I also added a bit of cinnamon to this buttercream, but pumpkin pie spice or any other spices you like would work as well.

Cream Cheese Buttercream

The cream cheese buttercream I made for this cake was kind of a cheater’s cream cheese frosting. Usually you would omit some butter and replace it with cream cheese to make a real cream cheese frosting. But since I wanted to flavor frosting that was already made, I just mixed in a very small amount of room temperature cream cheese.

If you decide to make this particular frosting, I really wouldn’t add any more than the amount of cream cheese I have listed below. Any more and the frosting will definitely be too soft to pipe.

I also added a splash of lemon juice. It’s totally optional but I think it helps up the tangy flavor of cream cheese frosting!

Chocolate Buttercream

When making chocolate buttercream I always use a good quality dark chocolate. Because the buttercream already has a lot of sugar in it, you will get more of a “milk chocolate” flavor when adding dark chocolate. If you add milk chocolate, the resulting buttercream will be overly sweet.

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Pumpkin Neapolitan Cake

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Dessert – fall

By Katie – Serves: 10-12

Delicious, moist pumpkin cake frosted with a trio of buttercreams. Pumpkin, chocolate, and cream cheese buttercreams come together for the perfect flavor combo.

Ingredients

• one batch of Italian Meringue Buttercream split into three equal parts (about 400 grams each)
• 100 grams roasted pumpkin puree, cooled
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 50 grams cream cheese, room temperature
• half a lemon
• 100 grams dark chocolate, melted and cooled
• one Pumpkin Layer Cake, baked, cooled, and layers leveled.

Instructions

1

To the first 1/3 of your buttercream add the roasted pumpkin puree and cinnamon. Mix until well combined.

2

To the next 1/3 of your buttercream, add the cream cheese and a splash of lemon juice. Mix until well combined.

3

To the last 1/3 of your buttercream, add the melted and cooled chocolate. Mix until well combined.

4

Prepare three piping bags with a star tip #32 (or tip of your choice). Scoop each flavor frosting into its own bag.

5

Use the piping bags to pipe rings of each flavor frosting between the layers of you cake.

6

Crumbcoat the cake with whichever flavor you like, the refrigerate the whole cake for 10-15 minutes.

7

Finish decorating the cake by piping stars, rosettes, and shells to cover the surface!*

Notes

*Cream cheese buttercream is not as sturdy, so you may finding it harder to get crisp piped designs with it. I only used the cream cheese buttercream to pipe small stars.