PUMPKIN SPICED CAKE

If you have never eaten a pumpkin spiced cake, you must try this one. I totally made it up last week and the result was incredible. We are big fans of carrot cake but this pumpkin spiced cake has won first place.

It's dense but at the same time soft, the spices play a big part and make you think of autumn, dry leaves on the floor, cosy nights with a blanket on the sofa watching your favourite tv series. You seriously need to try it. And the smell in the house while it's baking... OH MY GOD!

If you go and read the recipe you will probably think the process it's too long but it's not really. You can go and buy a tin of pumpkin puree if you're lucky to find it in the UK or where you live but I wanted to make my own pumpkin puree and so I added it to this recipe instead of doing a different post talking about it.

Shall we see how to make this wonderful cake?

PUMPKIN SPICED CAKE

For the pumpkin puree:

1 butternut squash

1 tablespoon olive oil

For the cake:

260g flour (2 cups)

370g sugar (2 cups)

400g pumpkin puree (2 cups)

1/4 cup chopped pecan nuts 

4 eggs

1 tsp salt

1tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tbsp baking powder

130ml vegetable oil

For the frosting:

125g unsalted butter at room temperature

125g cream cheese

300-500g icing sugar

Method:

We start with the pumpkin puree by turning the oven on at gas mark 4, cutting the butternut squash in half and placing it on a tray. We brush the whole butternut squash with olive oil and put it cut side down.

We put it in the oven for about 50-60 minutes or until it is soft. We let it cool over a rack and once it's cold enough to handle, we use a spoon to take the inside and put it in a bowl.

Now you have two options: you can blend it or you can use the potato masher to make the puree. I used the potato masher and it worked just fine.

Perhaps next time I will use the hand blender just to see the difference but the consistency I got with the potato masher was good enough. See it for yourself:

Now, if you're not going to use it straight away, just put it in the fridge in an airtight container or even the freezer but make sure you get rid of the excess water when you defrost it and you might need to blend it again in order to get the creamy consistency.

So now let's make the cake.

We pre-heat the oven at gas mark 4/ 180C and line a 9" cake tin. we set it aside and we start with the cake batter.

In a bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar and oil together. Add the pumpkin puree and whisk until it's all mixed.

In a separate bowl we mix together the flour, salt, spices, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and add it to the egg mixture folding the ingredients with a spatula. Once the batter is done, you can add the pecan nuts if you want to use then. I  didn't because my children don't like them but I would have if the cake was just for me and my husband.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and into the oven for about 45 minutes. Remember the cakes are always cooked in the middle level of the oven.

Once baked, we let it cool completely over a cooling rack before we remove it from the tin.

In the meantime we can do the frosting by beating the butter with a wooden spoon until you get a creamy consistency. Add the cream cheese and beat only until the two ingredients are mixed well. if you over beat the cheese, it will turn liquid. Add the icing sugar bit by bit and stop when the frosting holds its shape. Place it in the fridge to harden a bit.

I would normally slice the cake in half and fill it with them cream cheese but I would normally do this if it was a celebration cake. For a coffee cake I like just to spread the frosting on top and that's it. Sprinkle some cinnamon and enjoy it!

See you soon!