Pumpkin-Filled Chocolate Cake

This is another recipe from the September/October 2009 "Cooking With Paula Deen" magazine. I made this for dinner at my parents' house.

It's supposed to be Upside-Down Pumpkin-Filled Chocolate Cupcakes. But, after spending time in the kitchen, I did not feel like making 20-24 cupcakes! I made a triple layer cake. The layers were thin, but that was fine. The directions I'll give will be with the changes I made. You can find the cupcake recipe here.

This is a pretty simple recipe. Haven't tasted the final product yet, but the licks tasted yummy!

Ingredients:

1 (18.25 oz) box dark chocolate cake mix

4 oz cream cheese, softened

1 cup canned pumpkin

1 cup confectioners sugar

8 (1 oz) squares semi-sweet chocolate

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of 3 cake pans.

Prepare cake mix according to package directions. I baked for about 17 minutes.

Let cool in pans for 10 mintues; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Add pumpkin and cofections's sugard, beating until smooth.

Put one cake layer on plate. Spread half of the mixture on this layer. Top with next layer and spread remaining mixture on top of this second layer. Top with last layer.

In a medium bowl, combine chocolate and cream. Microwave on High, in 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until chocolate is melted and cooled.

Spoon desired amount of mixture over top of cake. I had some left.

Cover and chill, or serve immediately.