If you thought pumpkin could only be used in savoury recipes, I encourage you to put on your apron and take your skillet out of the cupboard to make this delicious pumpkin and cream cheese cake. Without a doubt, it is an ideal recipe for making the most of pumpkin at its seasonal best and, what's more, a perfect sweet treat to take centre stage on the Halloween table.
Warm and autumnal, this spiced cake is perfect for enjoying at any time and on any day of the year, from January to December. Having it for breakfast with your morning coffee seems like a wonderful way to start the day with plenty of energy. And enjoying a slice with afternoon tea strikes me as the perfect way to savour the afternoon at a leisurely pace.
As well as the spices, the combination of roasted pumpkin purée and cream cheese is what makes this marbled cake really special. You can simply use pumpkin purée, but I recommend roasting the pumpkin and making the purée with it; you'll find that the flavour works much better with the spices and gives the cake a more tender texture. The cream cheese, meanwhile, adds a slightly tangy note that contrasts with the sweetness of the cake and rounds off the final result beautifully.
Here is the recipe for this delicious pumpkin and cream cheese cake. A wonderfully sweet and aromatic treat that you simply have to try!
Ingredients
- 220 g plain flour
- 6 g baking powder
- 2.5 g bicarbonate of soda
- 3 g salt
- 5 g ground cinnamon
- 1 g ground ginger
- 1 g nutmeg
- 0.5–1 g ground cardamom
- 0.5 g ground cloves
- 180 g roasted pumpkin purée (butternut squash)
- 2 eggs
- 40–50 g brown sugar or panela
- 110–120 g white sugar
- 120 ml sunflower oil or mild olive oil
- 10 ml vanilla extract
- 120 ml buttermilk
- 225 g cream cheese, at room temperature
- 50–60 g icing sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 175 ºC.
- Place the cream cheese at room temperature, the icing sugar and half of the vanilla extract (5 ml) in a medium bowl. Beat everything with an electric whisk until the mixture is creamy, smooth and even. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, place the flour together with the spices, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder. Stir to combine the dry ingredients and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the pumpkin purée, eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, oil and the remaining vanilla extract. Beat the ingredients with your KitchenAid hand mixer until everything is well combined.
- Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the buttermilk to the pumpkin purée mixture and beat until everything is well incorporated. Add the remaining dry ingredients and buttermilk and beat again until you have a smooth, even batter.
- Grease your 26 cm Lodge cast iron skillet thoroughly and pour in the batter. Spread it evenly and smooth the surface with a spatula.
- Spoon the cream cheese mixture over the batter and, using a blunt knife or wooden skewer, make gentle swirling movements to create a marbled effect in the cake.
- Bake at 175 °C for 35–40 minutes, or until the cake is cooked through (if a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, the cake is ready).
- Once ready, remove the cake from the oven and leave it to cool in the skillet on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before serving.
Suggestions
- If you have any cake left over, you can freeze it in portions. Simply wrap each portion in cling film.
- You can adjust the amount of spices to suit your taste and also add, swap or leave out any spices you prefer.
- You can also reduce the sugar slightly if you prefer the cake to be a little less sweet.
- When roasting pumpkin, you can prepare a larger quantity and freeze the purée in portions. That way, it will be ready to use whenever you need it.
