This autumn cake has a surprise (and surprinsly great) twist
The addition of spice enhances that warm, earthy sweetness from the pumpkin, and the brown sugar adds a lovely caramel richness.
With this cake, pumpkin takes centre stage both in the batter and adorned on top. While using pumpkin in cake might raise some eyebrows at first, think about the irresistible charm of a carrot cake or a luscious pumpkin tart. It works.
The addition of spice enhances that warm, earthy sweetness from the pumpkin, and the brown sugar adds a lovely caramel richness. I like to serve it with a thick dollop of cream but if you’re up for extra work, a cream cheese frosting made from cream cheese, butter and icing sugar is an excellent addition. This cake truly encapsulates the essence of autumn.
This cake takes slightly longer to bake than your average cake thanks to the pumpkin in the batter, but if your oven runs hot, check it at the 1-hour mark.
For more golden goodness, try my golden pumpkin pasta bake recipe.
Pumpkin and brown sugar cake
Ingredients
- 1 x 1kg butternut pumpkin (roughly half a pumpkin), peeled and deseeded
- 200ml extra virgin olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
- 1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- 60ml (1/4 cup) buttermilk
- 300g plain flour
- 300g brown sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon all spice
- Dollop of cream, to serve
Method
- Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan forced). Grease and line the top and sides of a 20cm removable-base cake tin with baking paper.
- Peel your pumpkin and cut up in 1cm slices. You should end up with about 600g-700g pumpkin flesh once prepared. Put 300g of pumpkin aside for the cake batter. With the remaining slices, drizzle with 1 tablespoon olive oil, and sprinkle over 1 teaspoon cinnamon and salt. Toss to coat. Lay out on a lined baking tray and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until soft. Remove from oven and put aside to cool.
- Blitz reserved 300g of pumpkin in a food processor until very finely chopped, almost like a grainy puree. If you don’t have a food processor, you can finely grate, then chop grated pumpkin with a knife. Add eggs, 200ml olive oil and buttermilk to the food processor (or bowl) and blitz until it comes together.
- In a separate bowl add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, all spice and remaining ½ teaspoon of cinnamon. Stir to combine. Pour in your pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined. Pour into prepared cake tin.
- Arranged baked pumpkin slices on top, carefully nestling them down in the mixture. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of brown sugar over the top of the cake. Place on centre rack in the oven and bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before gently releasing. Leave cake to cool for an hour before cutting, to allow crumb to develop. Serve with cream or allow it to cool completely and top with a cream cheese frosting.
Serves 6-8