Pumpkin Cake
I know that May is not the most natural month to make pumpkin cakes, but the truth is, ehm… that – strangely enough there was a lot of pumpkins on sale at my local supermarket (at this time of the year god knows why) and so, after the pumpkin cheesecake and the pumpkin cookies, here we are with a pumpkin cake recipe, again with a Halloween theme. The cool thing about this truckload of pumpkins is that they have a compact pulp, so that they will release just little water when you cook them.
And now the ingredients of this easy pumpkin cake recipe.
For the pastry
250gr butter
Zest of one lemon
3 egg yolks
500gr flour
1 pinch of salt
200gr sugar
For the filling
1 small glass of brandy
1 tsp of cinnamon, one of nutmeg and one of ginger (yes this is a spiced pumpkin cake)
180ml fresh cream
800gr pumpkin
1 small glass marsala wine
1 large egg
70gr sugar
Let’s start with something easy: preheat the oven at 200ºC (it’s for the pumpkin).
The first (and for me the second most boring) thing (the most boring being peeling the pumpkin), is to prepare the pastry.
Sieve the flour into the bowl and add the diced butter. The purists would say that it will have to be super extra cold, but I am a lenient cook and for this recipe for pumpkin cake suggest you to soften it in the microwave for a couple of seconds (and if you want to melt it completely I will turn a blind eye).
Rub the semi-cold butter against the flour with your fingertips until you have a crumbly texture. Add the eggs and the rest of the ingredients and work with your hands until you have a smooth dough. Flatten it with the palm of your hand, cover it with cling film and leave it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
In the meantime, let’s continue this halloween pumpkin cake with the preparation of the filling.
Peel, deseed and dice the pumpkin and bake it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until tender (keep the oven on at that temperature when you’re done). Transfer to a bowl and mast it with a fork, than add the sugar and the egg and mix. Add the double cream, the spices, and mix, then transfer to a pan and let it thicken on a low heat for about 5-10 minutes. Lastly (if you want), add the liqueurs.
Now take the short crust pastry out of the fridge and stretch it with a rolling pin.
Transfer to a round cake tin (grease it with butter and line it with oven paper first) and press the pastry against the surface. Pierce the bottom with a fork and pour the cream on it. If you have scraps of pastry and an artistic hand, you can draw a cobweb on the surface.
Now the last act for this recipe pumpkin cake: bake the cake for 20 minutes at 200ºC and then lower the temperature at 180ºC for 30 more. If you notice it gets too dark, cover it with cling film.
And this is how to make pumpkin cake recipe from scratch, good night and good luck.
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