Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting

When I learnt about pumpkin spice cake, I was intrigued by the combination of flavours initially. Finally tried my hands on this and just speaking about the sponge, never thought that spices and pumpkin gels so well with each other. I haven't got to use pumpkin a lot in my regular cooking. So, was little skeptical about using pumpkin, but it turned out to be a super moist flavourful cake.

Pumpkin Puree

Pumpkin is hero of the cake. Add adequate amount of pumpkin puree to your cake to get best flavour. Well, you don't have to buy a whole pumpkin. Find pre-cut pumpkin which comes in small packets or you can get it cut from the local vegetable market. Peel the skin and grate the pumpkin. Pulse it to make a puree out of it.

DIY All Spice Powder

Spices added bring out the beautiful aroma. I keep the spices quantity minimal since I like subtle flavour of it. You can adjust the quantity of spices according to your preference.

I am a homemade person, I try to make most of the things at home unless it's really a big hassle to get done or ingredients aren't available. To make this, you will need these spices - ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground nutmeg. Some add ground cloves. Don’t worry, if you are not fond of making everything at home. Feel free to buy it from a supermarket or online. In case, if you wish to make them at home, start with crushing cinnamon sticks slightly in mortar & pestle. Then grind cinnamon chunks into a fine powder and sieve it to remove large particles. Repeat the process for nutmeg. Heads up!! I had ground ginger ready in my pantry. So, I didn’t go about making it from scratch. To make it at home, wash and peel off the ginger’s skin. Cut them into thin slices. Spread them on a parchment paper lined on a baking sheet. Dehydrate the ginger chips at lowest possible heat in a pre-heated oven, for couple of hours. Generally, 1-2 hours or until they are nice and crisp. Let it cool down and pulse it to fine powder. In a jar, add all the grounded spices and give it a good shake. You have your DIY all spice powder.

Brown Sugar or White Sugar?

My preference is always brown sugar for pumpkin spice cake. I like the colour that gets imbibed into cake from brown sugar. You could use regular white sugar and you may have a less brown cake which is still okay. If you are using white sugar, reduce the amount by 1-2 tbsp to the one mentioned in the recipe.

Are you team Vanilla Buttercream Frosting or team Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting?

Both frostings would go well with pumpkin spice cake. I have used latter one. I would highly recommend to add only tad bit of ground cinnamon to frosting since it adds strong flavour of cinnamon. If you are not a cinnamon person, go ahead with vanilla one. Vanilla is saviour, for sure. However, you can cover your cake with cream cheese frosting too.

Recipe:

Serves 8 servings

Prep time: 25 min

Bake time: 25 min

Frosting time: 1 hour

Total time: 1 hour 50 min

Pumpkin Spice Cake

All purpose flour - 60g or 1/2 cup

Wholewheat flour - 60g or 1/2 cup

Brown sugar - 110g or 1/2 cup tightly packed

Oil- 60ml or 1/4 cup

Pumpkin puree - 75g or 1/2 cup

Thick Yogurt - 120g or 1/2 cup

Milk - 30ml or 1/8 cup

All spice powder - 3/4 tsp

Baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Baking powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cinnamon buttercream frosting

Milk - 130 ml

All purpose flour - 20g

Softened butter - 110g

Powdered sugar - 120g

Ground Cinnamon - 1/4 tsp

Salt - a pinch

All spice powder

Ground Cinnamon - 1 tbsp

Ground Ginger - 3/4 tsp

Ground Nutmeg - 3/4 tsp

Steps:

All Spice Powder

• Mix ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a small bowl and transfer it to an air tight container. Your diy all spice powder is ready. Scroll up to read more about this under heading "DIY All Spice Powder".

Pumpkin Spice Sponge

• Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees for 10-15 min. Grease 2 round 6" cake tins with oil and dust with flour.

• In a medium sized bowl, sieve all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, all spice powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

• Peel the skin of pumpkin, grate it and grind it.

• In a large mixing bowl, stir in brown sugar, oil and curd. Whisk until all sugar is dissolved. Add in pumpkin puree and give it a good whisk.

• Add in the flour mixture to wet ingredients bowl. Using spatula, mix in the flour until last bits of flour is disappeared. Make sure there are no lumps.

• Weigh the batter and divide it equally between 2 cake tins or you can just eye ball it. Pop it in the preheated oven and bake it for about 20-25 min or until the skewer comes out clean.

• Once done, cool the cake tins on a wire rack for 5-10 min. Run a knife around the edges and de-mould the cake. Let it cool down completely. (See notes 1)

Cinnamon buttercream frosting

• In a saucepan, mix milk, all purpose flour, powdered sugar and a pinch of salt. Make sure there are no lumps.

• Heat the saucepan on low flame while continuously whisking. Cook it until it thickens and gets almost a condensed milk consistency.

• Take it off the flame and immediately sieve the cooked custard to remove the lumps. Add in cinnamon powder and give it a good mix. (see notes 2)

• To avoid skin formation on the custard, cover it with cling wrap touching the custard and pop it in the fridge for about 20 min until it is completely cooled down.

• Meanwhile, cream butter for 3-4 min at med-high speed until it becomes fluffy, light and airy. Don't forget to scrape the bowl in between.

• Now add in the cooled custard to whipped butter. Whip it for a min or 2 until it is well combined and the mixture is fluffy.

Assembling the cake

• On turn table, place a cake cardboard. Apply a bit of frosting at the centre. Place the cake on it.

• Brush lightly with sugar syrup. Add a dollop of cream and spread it. (See notes 3)

• Place another sponge. Repeat the process.

• Now crumb coat onto the sides of cake with offset spatula or piping bag with round tip. Smoothen it using bench scraper or offset spatula. Let it sit for 10-15 min in fridge.

• Apply cream to cake and even it out using bench scraper. Get creative on the decoration. I made some rosettes, and dollops. Sprinkled some cinnamon powder and pumpkin seeds.

• Once done with your decoration, chill it in the fridge until you are ready to serve. (See notes)

Notes

1. If you are not frosting the cake same day, you can cling wrap the cakes and refrigerate or keep it on the kitchen counter.

2. Before you could cook the custard, keep a bowl suspended with a sieve. Once you take off the cooked custard, immediately sieve it.

3. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar to 4 tablespoons of water and mix it until sugar is dissolved. Your sugar syrup is ready.

4. Stays good for about 2-3 days when refrigerated.