Isn’t she lovely! I’m convinced that this will be one of the moistest cakes you’ll ever taste. The flavours and textures will exceed all your expectations. I am excited for her to become one of your new favourites…
INGREDIENTS
CAKE 4 large eggs 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup sunflower/canola oil 2 cups pumpkin, steamed and mashed (Tip 1) 1 tbsp vanilla essence 1 apple, grated 1 cup pecan/pistachio nuts (optional) 2 cups cake flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp salt 1 ½ tsp cinnamon 1 tsp mixed spice (Tip 2) ¼ tsp cloves ¼ tsp nutmeg ¼ tsp ginger CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE ICING 100g butter, room temperature 400g icing sugar 1 tsp vanilla essence ½ tin caramel treat 1 tub (230g) cream cheese ¼ tsp salt
METHOD
CAKE 1. Prepare two round cake tins (21-23cm) with baking paper and non-stick spray. 2. Preheat the oven to 180ºC and place the oven rack in the middle. 3. In a large mixing bowl, with an electric mixer, whisk together the eggs, oil and sugar until light and fluffy. 4. Add the pumpkin, vanilla essence, apple and nuts (optional) to the wet ingredients. Mix until well combined. 5. Sift all the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. 6. Divide the cake batter between the prepared cake tins and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a test/wooden pin comes out without any runny batter on it (Tip 3). 7. Allow the cakes to cool down for 10 minutes before loosening the sides and demoulding them onto cooling racks. CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE ICING (Tip 4) 1. In a medium bowl, cream the butter with an electric mixer until light, fluffy and pale. This is the most time-consuming step, but it delivers a high volume and creamy icing. 2. Add the icing sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until well combined and creamy (Tip 5). 3. Add the vanilla essence, caramel treat, cream cheese and salt. Mix until just combined. 4. Allow the cakes to cool down completely before icing. Store in an airtight container at room temperature and enjoy with your loved ones!
TIPS 1. I used “boerpampoen” and would recommend it, although butternut will also work. It's important to measure the pumpkin raw and diced, not mashed. 2. If you can’t find mixed spice, you can adjust the other spices; add 2 tsp of cinnamon and ½ a teaspoon of cloves, nutmeg and ginger. 3. I use a scale when dividing the cake batter to ensure that the cake layers are the same height and evenly baked. Also, this is a very moist cake, so the cake pin shouldn’t be completely clean when testing the cakes. You shouldn’t see liquid on the pin, but a few crumbs are perfect. 4. If you want to play around with the decorations (as in the photo), you can use the basic cream cheese icing (add all the ingredients except for the caramel treat), the caramel cream cheese icing (caramel treat added to the cream cheese icing) and thirdly, the remaining caramel treat. 5. At this step you can add your vanilla essence and some of the caramel treat when the mixture becomes too dry.