Guys Love Cooking weekend recipe: Pumpkin Cake

Before the Guys head off for the holiday season, they left us one more sweet indulgence for this installment of our weekly collaboration. Our friends at Guys Love Cooking plan to use this Pumpkin Cake to settle any ongoing family squabbles over Christmas.

This will be our last recipe before Christmas, and we are leaving you with another idea for a holiday cake. This will most likely be what we will serve on Boxing Day. This cake has all the element of Christmas food: it is indulgent and it has got presence! Boxing Day is usually spent at our place and it is, together with Christmas Eve, the day I like the most. The actual Christmas day is still fine for me. It tends to be sleepy and tedious towards the afternoon. We play games to stay awake, with cards being the favourite choice, and if money is involved…My uncle loves it! Boxing Day instead is meant to be late lunch only. Usually the atmosphere is more relaxed as we approach the end. We continue discussing politics and agree to disagree, at least until next Christmas :) So, today’s recipe is a pumpkin cake with a Philadelphia cream cheese-based topping. You can use mascarpone too. Guys Love Cooking wish you a great Christmas and Happy New Year...See you in January!

Yield: 10-12 servings

Ingredients

For the cake:

Peeled pumpkin: 500 gr (17.6 oz), grated All-purpose flour: 300 g (2 1/4 cups) Baking powder: 3 tsp Baking soda: 2 tsp Ground cinnamon: 1 tsp Ground nutmeg: 1 tsp Sultanas: 150 g (5.3 oz) Salt: 1/2 tsp Light muscovado (molasses) sugar or brown sugar: 300 g (10.6 oz) Egg: 4 Melted butter: 200 g (7 oz) Orange zest: 1 Orange juice: 1

For the cream cheese frosting:

Cream cheese: 240 g (8.5 oz) Butter: 50 g (1.8 oz), softened (room temperature) Icing sugar: 100 g (3.5 oz) Orange zest: 1 Orange juice: 1 tbsp

Method

Make the cake:

Pre-heat an oven to 180 C (350 F). Mix all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, sugar, sultanas, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, salt) together in a big mixing bowl. Using an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs, melted butter and then add the juice and zest. Add the egg mixture into the dry-ingredient-mixture and whisk in low speed until combined. Add the grated pumpkin into the mixture and continue to whisk in low speed until combined.

Pour the batter into a buttered and baking-paper-lined 30 x 20cm (12 x 8inch) tin. Bake for 30 minutes. Test by using a toothpick to penetrate the cake, if the toothpick comes out dry, the cake is done. If not, bake for extra 5-10 minutes. Take the cake out of the oven and leave to set for 5 minutes, then remove the baking paper. Prick the cake all over with a toothpick and then drizzle with the rest of the orange juice while still warm. Leave to cool the cake on a wire rack

Make the cream cheese frosting:

Whisk together the cream cheese, softened butter, icing sugar, 1/2 orange zest, 1 tbsp orange juice until smooth. Keep in the fridge while waiting for the cake to cool down.

Complete the dish:

Spread the cream cheese frosting over the top of the cake in peaks and swirls, and sprinkle the rest of the orange zest on top. The pumpkin cake can be stored up to 4 days in the fridge. Take out of the fridge 30 mins before serving