Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Glaze

It’s Halloween week here in Easy as Pie, and mostly everywhere else. Great party out there, even if we, Barcelonians (?),  don’t celebrate it as the English do. But still. Halloween calls for orange things, right? Orange things like pumpkins! If you tell me Halloween doesn’t scream for pumpkin probably you are from Mars.

So, pumpkin! I baked this cake instead of the typical pumpkin pie just because. Don’t ask me for complicated reasons behind my cooking behavior.

Besides, I made my own pumpkin puree so yeah, I’m cool like that.

That’s not cheating, right? Buying a peeled and non-seeds pumpkin, I mean. It’s still homemade! :)

Whatever. Put the prepared pumpkin in a baking sheet and bake for about fifteen minutes depending how big the slices are.

The slices will be soft and fork-tender.

I used a food mill to make the puree but you can either use a food processor or a potato masher.

In a large bowl mix light brown sugar, regular granulated sugar and butter. Add eggs, one at a time. And when you get a creamy sweet batter add pumpkin puree. 

 In another bowl mix flour and spices; I used cinnamon and nutmeg, you can add a bit of ginger if you want to. Then, add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the butter/pumpkin mixture.

Note: I used soy milk and the result came perfectly fine, if you don't want to use soy milk use whole milk instead.

Once you got a smooth orange-y batter, pour it into a greased baking pan or covered by baking paper, like I did.

Bake for 45 minutes approximately.

 I used a relatively small baking pan usually used for Plum Cakes, so some batter left over. With that I made some pumpkin cupcakes with my new silicone baking molds, which are perfection because any kind of grease is needed. Aren't they also so autumn-like?

Bake them for 15 minutes or until a pick inserted in center comes out clean. 

Now let's make the glaze. Very easy. Just mix confectioners' sugar, cinnamon and milk in a bowl and pour over the cake. Yum yum!

I did enough glaze for the cupcakes also so...

There are two options: pouring some glaze over the cupcake, which is okay, and dunk the cupcake in the glaze, which I highly recommend... you'll know what you're doing.

This cake was really good, the pumpkin taste it's not very obvious but it leaves a nice sweet aftertaste. I highly recommend covering all the cake in glaze even if it falls through the sides and the cake seems it's swimming in glaze. Trust me in this one, BETTER if this happens.

PUMPKIN CAKE WITH CINNAMON GLAZE

Serves a large cake or a small one with 6-7 cupcakes :)

• 1  (15-ounce) can pumpkin
• 3/4  cup  granulated sugar
• 3/4  cup  packed brown sugar
• 1/2  cup  butter, softened
• 4 eggs
• 1  teaspoon  vanilla extract
• 3  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1  teaspoon  baking powder
• 1/2  teaspoon  baking soda
• 1/2  teaspoon  salt
•  6 tablespoons milk (soy milk works as well)

 Glaze:

• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2  tablespoons milk

Once you got the pumpkin puree ready...

1. Preheat oven at 200ºC
2. In a large bowl mix light brown sugar, regular granulated sugar and butter. Add eggs, one at a time. And when you get a creamy sweet batter add pumpkin puree. 
3. In another bowl mix flour and spices; I used cinnamon and nutmeg, you can add a bit of ginger if you want to. Then, add the flour mixture and milk alternately to the butter/pumpkin mixture.
4. Pour batter into a greased baking pan or covered by baking paper.
5. Bake for 45 minutes or until a pick comes out clean.
6. While the cake is baking make the glaze. Mix all glaze ingredients together.
7. Once the cake has cooled pour the glaze over it.
8. Let the glaze cook and get its typical consistency and enjoy!!

xo,

Adela*