“Pumpkin and spice is everything nice.”

My way of destressing is get into the kitchen and BAKE. Anything! This time it was a big wedge of pumpkin that was staring back at me when I opened the fridge. It’s a pumpkin cake this time .

Pumpkins have thick shells and contain seeds. The benefits of pumpkin are many. To name a few, it is a good source of vitamin A ,is an antioxidant, is a source of potassium and zinc and is a good source of fibre. Pumpkin can be baked or cooked as in pumpkin pie. Pumpkins are carved and cut as lanterns for Halloween. The seeds too are dried and roasted and is a rich source of antioxidants. It is a very versatile fruit and vegetable.

I have in my recipe collection, 8 to 10 recipes for a pumpkin cake. I have tried a couple of them but was not too happy with the product. Either the cake was dense in texture or it was too sweet, the balance was missing. This is a recipe I put together from 3 recipes, the quantity had to be tweaked for a few ingredients to ensure the cake at the end was, moist, airy and soft, had a tinge of spice with every bite and was delicious. There was a lot of apprehension at home about how my nth attempt would turn out – not bad at all. Loved it.I loved it. Simple and fresh.

Happy to be sharing this wonderful recipe with you,

Ingredients:

• Butter- 1 cup (200 grams -Amul)
• Pumpkin purée – 1 and 1/4 cup
• Sugar -1 cup ( 3/4 cup white and 1/4 cup brown sugar)
• Eggs – 3 big
• Flour – 2 and 1/4 cups
• Baking powder -2 tsp
• Baking soda -1 tsp
• Cinnamon powder -3 tsp
• cloves (6) and nutmeg grated (1 tsp) – powdered
• Walnuts chopped -3/4 cup
• Curd – 3/4 cup
• vanilla essence -2 tsp

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180deg.C.
• Remove the shell of the pumpkin, cut into big cubes and steam till well cooked. Purée.
• To the pumpkin purée, add curd and vanilla essence.
• To the flour, add cinnamon powder, mixed spice powder, baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
• Measure out 1 cup of sugar ( both white and brown) and powder.
• Beat butter and sugar till thick and creamy.
• Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Alternately add pumpkin-curd mixture and flour mixture mixing well after each addition , do not overbeat.
• Fold in the chopped walnuts.
• Pour the batter into a greased cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes.
• Dust with icing sugar and serve warm.

Chefs tips:

• In the place of fresh pumpkin, you can use tinned pumpkin too.
• There should be no water present in the pumpkin while puréeing the same.
• You can also bake the pumpkin for 30 minutes in a moderate oven ( 180 deg.c) for 35-40 minutes.
• Do not overbeat the batter. Use an egg beater till the eggs are added.
• After that, use a metal spoon to blend in the flour and pumpkin purée.
• This cake serves 10-12 people.

Till my next post,

Cheers

Rose