Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees F with the rack in the middle. Prepare a 9 X 2 round pan with parchment paper. Sift dry ingredients excluding pumpkin pie spice & cocoa powder in a medium bowl. Combine wet ingredients excluding pumpkin purée in a large bowl. Gently stir the wet and dry ingredients together in the large bowl.

Divide the batter into thirds (about 1 1/4 cup batter for the chocolate & cornbread layer & 1 cup in the pumpkin layer as you will be adding the purée to that one.) For pumpkin layer: Combine 1 cup batter with pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice. For chocolate layer: Combine 1 1/4 cups batter with cocoa powder. Leave the third 1 1/4 cups batter “cornbread” layer as is. Carefully layer batter in pan, first pumpkin, then chocolate then cornbread. If the batter starts to thicken too much add a splash of milk. Bake for about 20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean from the center of the cake. Let cake cool on rack before serving.

Whip cold heavy cream in a stand mixer. Gently fold in pumpkin purée and sweetener of choice. Pipe onto cooled cake or frost with an offset spatula. If you want to cover more of the cake with cream, then adjust ingredients accordingly using the same ratios.

I used canned pumpkin purée in this recipe.