pumpkin Archives - Page 2 of 4

Pumpkin Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

8|07|2016

After making this cake and literally fighting for a small piece with friends and family to at least figure out what this was all about, I wondered why I haven’t made a pumpkin cake before. I seriously wonder! I mean how gorgeous is the combination of brown sugar, spices, cream cheese and salted caramel. Oh and chocolate coated honeycomb that is the crunch factor hidden between those layers. It is one of the best things I had lately.

Pumpkin puree is probably one of the reasons if not the only one to blame. We don’t get canned puree in Australia which I feel is so unfair because a Pumpkin cake deserves to be a part of every cafe and bakery for it’s simplicity and beautiful flavours. The fact that it does not taste of pumpkin but more like a moist, spiced, caramel cake is perhaps unknown to many. Don’t get me wrong, It’s not that making puree from scratch is a big deal for me but I always felt that there is something extra special in those canned purees which is why they are so widely used in America in the colder months. But after a little research and a bit of testing, I succumbed to the fact that there is not going to canned puree anyway so if I want a Pumpkin cake, I might as well figure out my own way of doing it.

We had friends over for dinner and I decided to cook Italian. It should come as no surprise to you that I start planning backwards from dessert. So I whipped up a quick Tiramisu and the stress was off my back. When dessert is sorted out, I am relieved! Even if the meal is a disaster, there will be dessert to make up for everything. Ha! I think I am quite fortunate to have friends for guests who think that way too. Otherwise ,just imagine who would ever come to my place?! Anyway, no one even bothered to taste my Tiramisu. They wanted the Pumpkin cake and went back for seconds until I had to plead with them to spare a single piece for my photos. Did I tell you these kind of cakes have a name at my place? They are called ‘blob cakes’ by my dear children who declared that Mum is ‘blobbing’ frosting on the layers. Basically, the way the piping goes for these cakes.

‘Blobbing’ is actually a stress buster, especially when it yields such a delicious result!

Notes :

I made 3 layers out of the cake batter. You could make two as well. The cooking time will increase by 7-10 minutes.
Honeycomb is a light, crunchy toffee made out of brown sugar or golden syrup or molasses. It can be made at home or store bought. In this recipe, you could substitute it with chocolate chips or shaved chocolate.
Make sure the salted caramel sauce is thick enough to stay in one place. The consistency thicken when stored in te refrigerator.
To make pumpkin puree from scratch, read here.

Pumpkin Cake
Makes a 6-inch, 3 layered, round cake (adapted with slight variation from Joy of Baking)

120 g unsalted butter, room temperature
11/4 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup (about 220 g) pumpkin puree
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups self-raising flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 cup buttermilk (120 ml), room temperature
Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe below)
Salted Caramel Sauce (recipe below)
Chocolate coated honeycomb (store bought). If not available, you could use, shaved dark chocolate or chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Frosting
225 g full fat, cream cheese
50 g unsalted butter, room temperature
11/2 tbsp maple syrup
2 cups icing/powdered sugar

Salted Caramel Sauce
50g butter
1 cup (220g) brown sugar
1 cup (250ml) cream
1 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Lightly grease and line the bottom of 3 round 6 inch cake tins with baking paper.

In the bowl of your electric mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated (the batter will look curdled).

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and spices. Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the batter in three additions beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Evenly divide the batter between the cake tins. Bake for approximately 15-20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake just comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the cakes out onto a wire rack to cool. Once completely cooled, frost the cakes.

To make the cream cheese frosting, place the cream cheese and butter in a bowl and whip until smooth and blended. Add the maple syrup and icing sugar and beat until light and creamy. Add more sugar or maple syrup as needed.

To make the salted caramel sauce, combine butter, sugar and cream in a saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat and add the salt.

To assemble : Spread a tiny bit of the frosting on a cake plate or stand and place the first layer in the centre. Using a round tip, pipe little kisses of frosting on the cake leaving a circle in the middle. I piped two rows. Spoon two tablespoons of the salted caramel in the middle and drizzle a bit on the frosting. Place the crushed honeycomb/chocolate chips on the frosting and sauce. Repeat with the other two layers. Decorate with sugar shards (optional)

Roasted Garlic-Maple-Mustard Pumpkin

25|10|2015

When planning meals in the last few years, I realize that my attention to side dishes have gone from little to none. I am mostly trying to include my 5 serves of vegetables and fruits in my main dishes. Most of the times, that would be a salad. My mind is somewhat distracted in thinking of sweet combinations and hence between main course and dessert, there is very little room for appetizers and side dishes. Yes, in a past life (before kids), my meals were perfect, my planning was immaculate but today my imagination is restricted to kids lunchboxes and desserts. I am on a mission lately to look for side dishes that are big on flavour, nutritious and most importantly, require little or no effort. Roasted vegetables is one of them. I like the way pumpkin gets a golden and charred appearance on the outside while the inside is all soft and mushy.

The glaze is a quick and simple maple-mustard glaze. Garlic is always great on roasted vegetables. Onions pump in more flavour and taste great themselves when charred. Since, there is hardly any chopping/cubing required…I find that this is becoming a go-to dish for me on weekdays. I usually buy butternut pumpkin as it’s quite versatile to cook with but I am pretty sure that the recipe can be adapted to use other types of pumpkin as well. This dish is a great option for people on a gluten free diet.

Roasted Garlic-Maple-Mustard Pumpkin
Serves 3

1/2 butternut squash
1 red onion, peeled, quartered
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp oilve oil
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard
salt and pepper, to season
Micro-parsley (or finely chopped parsley), to serve
Edible Nasturtium flowers (optional)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced). Scoop out and discard the seeds from the butternut pumpkin. Slice them into 1 inch pieces (leave skin on).

In a large roasting pan, arrange the pumpkin slices and onions in a single layer. Sprinkle the chopped garlic over the pumpkin. Combine olive oil, maple syrup and mustard in a bowl and add to the pan. Season. Toss to coat evenly.

Bake for 40-50 minutes or until pumpkin is tender. Plate and stir through micro-parsley (or finely chopped parsley) just before serving. Garnish with edible flowers, if using.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies

19|10|2015

There are a few food trends that I have come to embrace only after I started to write a blog. Pumpkin in October is one of them. I am generally a person who loves any and every fruit and vegetable at any point in the year. That does not mean I will buy them when they are not in season or overpriced (Berries are an exception) But with pumpkin, I have a feeling that the entire universe conspires for you to bring it into your kitchen. In the Northern Hemisphere, without a doubt! In our part of the world, I feel a little lonely writing about mangoes and lychees at this time. This is the time of the year when berries and stone fruits are close to season but not abundant…We are a little fed up with mandarins and apples…we’ve had enough of strawberries (we have two seasons remember?) So we end up buying pumpkin too. We don’t get the ready made puree here. I wonder why!

We make our own puree. This year I made a big batch and used it in sweet and savory recipes. These whoopie pies taste great. I think it’s the spices I like more than the pumpkin in it. And the creamy cheese filling that goes harmoniously with the soft cake like whoopie pies. My whoopies had a slight speckled look as the puree wasn’t quite as smooth as the canned version.

The recipe is from Joy of Baking. I’ve halved the recipe for the whoopie pies and they were a success, though the colour was a few shades lighter in my case. Possibly due to the home-made puree. If you are using canned, I think yours will look just like the original ones. For the filling, I’ve swapped the vanilla frosting for a cream cheese filling. You could use either one.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pies With Cream Cheese Filling
Makes 12 sandwich Whoopie Pies

11/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp powdered ginger
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
1/2 tsp powdered cloves
1/4 tsp salt
120 g unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
220 g pumpkin puree (canned or home made, no spices added)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C (160 degrees C for fan forced). Lightly grease two baking sheets and line them with baking paper.

In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt.
In a different bowl, with an electric mixer or by hand beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix well. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract and pumpkin puree. Beat in the flour until just incorporated.
Scoop out 1 tbsp balls of the dough, roll them between the palms of your hand and place them on the baking sheets (5 cm apart). Smooth the tops and flatten them with moistened fingers or with the back of a spoon.

Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until the tops spring back when pressed gently. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the filling
120 g cream cheese, room temperature
60 g unsalted butter, room temperature
11/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
a few drops vanilla extract

In a large bowl, with an electric or hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add cream cheese and beat until well combined. Add icing sugar and vanilla extract, beat until blended.

To assemble : Take one cookie and spread (or pipe) a heaping tablespoon of the filling on the flat side of the cookie. Top with another cookie. The assembled cookies can be covered and stored in the refrigerator for several days. Enjoy cold or at room temperature.

Pumpkin and Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza with Basil and Feta

1|12|2014

Love happens in the most unlikeliest of places. It happened to me in Melbourne. On a bus. We had stopped by at a quaint little town for tea on our way to Philip Island and I was so engrossed in taking pictures that I did not realize that our 30 minute tea break was getting over and it was time to get back up on the bus. I looked around and noticed there weren’t that many options for take-away. One of the cafes nearby, had a few sweet things on offer but no-one was game except me. I urged my husband to get hold of some sandwiches while I got the kids seated on the bus. Hubby came back at the nick of time holding two small and two big brown paper bags. I did not have breakfast that morning so I was ready to eat anything. He handed over mini pies to the kids and I thought a large one was coming for me.

‘Pumpkin Foccacia’ he said handing over one of them. I was so sure that I had heard him wrong. Our tour guide had taken over the speakers on the bus and was describing the next destination. If you are with me for a while, you know I am not a fan of pumpkin. I may have started to eat it and enjoy it it small quantities but not in my sandwiches and wraps. I looked inside the bag and there it was. ‘No way’ I exclaimed.
‘They said it is the most popular item on their menu’ he replied. I wasn’t happy but I was hungry so I bit into it. I could taste basil pesto and feta, two of my favourite things. I started to enjoy it. The pumpkin was mild and a perfect contrast to the crunchy foccacia, salty feta and aromatic pesto. I loved the flavour combination. It was like a burst of freshness in the mouth. Something so unexpected for me. It also looked amazing with the bright orange, green and white.

When I got home, I wanted to give the flavours another try. Instead of a foccacia I used the dough to make a pizza. Instead of pesto, I added fresh basil leaves and sun-dried tomatoes. I thought I managed to create a similar flavour effect, yet I would recommend using Pesto for a bolder taste and the ideal balance. If you are making this recipe, go with a strong herb pesto like basil or mint. You may use home-made or store bought. Dollop spoonfuls over the pizza base before you layer the pumpkin. The pumpkin is more like the filler component here and a great base to pair the rest of the ingredients. This would make a nice meat-free alternative for vegetarians as well.

Pumpkin and Sun-Dried Tomato Pizza with Basil and Feta
Serves 4

Pizza Dough (makes two 12 inch pizzas)
3 cups Plain Flour
2 tsp/7g/1 sachet dried yeast
1/2 tsp castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups warm water
1 tbsp olive oil
Olive oil, for brushing
Semolina or Polenta, to dust

Pizza Topping
1/2 cup pizza/pasta sauce
150 g butternut pumpkin, peeled, de-seeded and thinly sliced
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes
1/2 cup feta, crumbled
salt and pepper, for seasoning
Extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
a handful of fresh basil leaves
a handful of rocket & baby spinach leaves, for garnish

Make the dough: Combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the warm water and olive oil. Mix together and use your hands to bring it to a soft dough. Knead it on a floured surface to make it smooth and pliable. Return it to the mixing bowl that has been brushed with oil. Add the dough and turn to coat.
Cover with a damp tea towel. Set aside in a warm place for 30 minutes or until dough doubles in size. Punch down dough with your fist. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead it gently for a minute. Halve the dough (for one 12 inch pizza) and roll it out to the desired portion and thickness.

Make the pizza :Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. Dust pizza tray with semolina or polenta. Place the rolled out dough onto the prepared tray. Spread a thick layer of pizza/pasta sauce around the base of the pizza. Top with thinly sliced pumpkin, sun-dried tomatoes and feta. Season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 10 minutes or until base is crisp. Remove the pizza from the oven, top with leafy green (basil, rocket and spinach). Serve with an extra drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and cracked pepper.