How do you feel about vegetables in your cake? I know some people are skeptical to use vegetables or fruit in cake recipes but belief me it can be so yummy. I once ordered a red velvet cake from a coffee shop and the baker used beetroot as the main ingredient. It was absolutely divine. The other is of course my ultimate carrot cake recipe. Those who have eaten it will always come back for another slice or three. My carrot cake recipe has never been shared on my blog and I intend keeping it that way – it is my little secret.
However I thought about changing the recipe slightly but decided against it. Seriously that cake is just unbelievably delicious and messing about with the recipe would be disastrous. I then decided to use some elements of my carrot cake recipe and created a new recipe using pumpkin. This new delicious spiced pumpkin cake recipe is completely different from my carrot cake. I think my spiced pumpkin cake might have become the new hot favourite as the review ratings are high. This cake is perfectly spiced, moist and absolutely delicious.
Delicious Spiced Pumpkin Cake
moist and spicy
Prep time: 10 min
Baking time: 60 min
Serve: 10
Ingredients
1½ cups brown sugar
200ml canola oil
2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cardamon
2 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
1 tsp salt
3 xlarge eggs (room temperature)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 cups cooked pumpkin (puréed with no lumps)
½ cup chopped pecan nuts (optional)
¼ cup pumpkin seeds (optional)
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 cup cream cheese (Plain)
50g butter (room temperature)
2 cups icing sugar
the juice of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence
Decorate cake with chopped pecan nuts and roasted pumpkin seeds
Directions
Preheat oven to 180°C and spray a bundt cake pan with spray and cook. I used a silicone bundt cake pan for my recipe but you are welcome to use two cake pans if you want to make a two layer cake.
In a mixing bowl beat together sugar, vanilla essence and oil. Sift the dry ingredients and add half to the oil-sugar mixture. Incorporate well. Add the other half of the dry ingredients with the beaten eggs. Mix through. Add pumpkin, pumpkin seeds and nuts and mix well.
Spoon batter into a bundt cake pan.
Bake for 60 minutes until the skewer comes out clean.
Once the cake has cooled down slightly, turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
For cream cheese frosting.
First cream the cream cheese with a hand mixer, then add the butter and mix well. Slowly add the icing sugar and mix, then add the lemon juice and vanilla essence until well blended. Frost the cake and top with chopped pecan nuts and roasted pumpkin seeds. Remember if you make a two layer cake to frost one layer and then the top layer.
Enjoy with a hot cup of tea or coffee!!
