Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

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A wonderful moist, soft and fluffy sponge cake, loaded with pumpkin and Autumn spices, swathed in a silky, creamy cheese frosting. This Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting is deceptively easy to make, yet full of flavour with an amazing texture. The pumpkin purée, yoghurt and sunflower oil guarantee a tender, moist crumb, whilst the warm spices, which include cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves and all spice, ensure the cake bursts with seasonal, comforting flavours.

Rather like my Carrot Cake, but slightly spicier, I have deliberately made this cake nut and coconut free. However, you could add desiccated coconut and chopped nuts to the cake batter, if you prefer. Pecan nuts or walnuts would work particularly well.

How to make Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Where is this recipe from?

Based on my Spicy Cake with Vegetable/Fruit and Nuts – Core Recipe, this recipe can also be used to make muffins, baked into a 900g/2lb loaf or made into a slice (in a 20cm/8in square cake tin).  The changes I have made include:

• omitting the nuts and desiccated coconut
• increasing the flour
• replacing the grated carrots with pumpkin purée

Collect all your ingredients together:

Dry ingredients –

• plain/all-purpose flour
• bicarbonate of/baking soda
• baking powder
• cinnamon powder
• ginger powder
• ground nutmeg
• ground cloves
• all spice
• fine salt

Wet ingredients and sugar –

• unsweetened pumpkin purée, either home made or from a tin (not pumpkin pie mix)
• neutral flavoured oil such as sunflower, vegetable or light olive oil
• natural yoghurt
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• light muscovado sugar or light brown sugar

Cream Cheese Frosting –

• unsalted butter, at room temperature
• ine salt, or more to taste
• icing sugar 
• vanilla extract
• cream cheese, at room temperature

How to make this scrumptious cake:

1. Preheat the oven and grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in, round cake tins.
2. Weigh the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix well.
3. Weigh the wet ingredients and sugar directly into another mixing bowl and mix thoroughly.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
5. Use a balloon whisk to mix thoroughly until smooth and then divide equally between the cake tins. You can do this by eye, but I like to weigh them – in which case, it is roughly 415g of cake batter per tin.
6. Bake in the centre of a preheated oven for 35 – 45 minutes, or until cooked. They are cooked when:
   • the centre feels slightly springy when lightly touched
   • a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
   • the cake is beginning to come away from the sides of the tin.
7. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

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Cream Cheese Frosting:

1. Make sure that the butter and cream cheese are at room temperature. Beat the butter and salt with an electric whisk until light and fluffy.
2. Add the vanilla extract and gradually add the icing sugar, whisking well in between each addition. (NB You may wish to first fold the icing sugar in with a spoon before whisking – this will help to stop the icing sugar clouding up and making a mess of your kitchen!) Beat until very light and fluffy. This can take up to 5 minutes.
3. Finally beat in the cream cheese. Taste and add more vanilla and/or salt, if necessary.
4. Cover the cake with the frosting: make sure the cake is completely cool before frosting. Trim the cake, slicing off the rounded top from each cake to make them flat and even.
5. Place one half of the cake onto a serving plate, cut side down and spread over ⅓ of the frosting.
6. Top with the other cake, top side up, and add another ⅓ of the frosting. Spread to cover.
7. Use the remaining frosting to cover the sides of the cake.
8. I like to neaten the frosting on the sides of the cake but leave the top quite rough – totally up to you.

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Pumpkin Purée:

Can I used unsweetened tinned pumpkin purée?

Although I prefer making this cake with homemade pumpkin purée, it can be easily replaced with tinned. If using tinned, it is important to make sure it is unsweetened and not pumpkin pie mix, which is far too sweet. Although readily available in the USA, pumpkin purée can be tricky to get hold of in the UK.

How much uncooked pumpkin do I need if making my own purée?

To calculate how much raw pumpkin you need to make the purée, your prepared raw pumpkin should weigh around 10-12% more than the pureed weight asked for in the recipe.

I like to buy a pumpkin, make a batch of purée and freeze it in 180g portions. This recipe is also a really good way to use up pumpkin left over after Halloween – don’t bin it! Cook and purée it and make this fabulous cake!

Ingredients:

• pumpkin/part of a pumpkin

Instructions:

1. Peel the pumpkin, chop into quarters and remove the stem and seeds.
2. Chop the flesh into squares, roughly 2cm in size.
3. Transfer to a large saucepan and cover with boiling water. Bring to a simmer and cook until the pumpkin is very soft – around 10 minutes.
4. Use a colander or sieve to drain well. Let the pumpkin sit in the colander for 5 – 10 minutes to steam dry. Puree in a food processor, blender or use a stick blender.

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Made this recipe?

If you make this recipe, do please tag me on instagram @daffodil_kitchen. You could also leave a comment in the box directly below the recipe.