Pumpkin biscuit

How to prepare a pumpkin cake .

In Autumn the pumpkin begins to flood the markets. It is a product that we can consume for a good part of the year.  

It is perfectly preserved for quite a few months, so we don’t have to relegate it to the colder months. We can extend until well into spring, all the preparations with this product from the land.

In addition to the incredible purees and stews that we can cook with pumpkin, you can make numerous recipes. The sweet preparations are a success, the chulas or pumpkin fritters are a classic in my house and surely in many others in our country.

But today we are going to prepare a recipe of Anglo-Saxon origin. It is a spiced pumpkin cake , a pumpkin spiced sponge cake .

Americans don’t understand Halloween without their pumpkin pie , and today’s recipe is in a variation. In our dessert recipes you could not miss this pumpkin cake flavored with spices that, I am sure, you will love.

On the blog you will find several pumpkin desserts, all delicious. From the famous Pumpkin Pie (American pumpkin pie) to the most Spanish recipes, such as chulas or Canarian pancakes .

The combination in this pumpkin sponge cake with cinnamon, cloves and ginger are perfect and balanced. Ideal to enjoy in the form of a juicy and very rich sponge cake.

Preparation of the spiced pumpkin sponge cake

1. We start preparing the homemade buttermilk , for this we put the milk in a cup.
2. We add a good splash of lemon juice. Let the mixture sit for about 15 minutes before using it. We will see that the milk will stay as if it were curdled.
3. Peel and cut the pumpkin to remove the inner seeds and leave it ready to prepare the puree.
4. In a saucepan, heat water and cook the pumpkin for about 20 minutes.
5. Strain it and place it on a strainer. We squash the pumpkin with a fork to undo it.
6. We let it sit for 30 minutes to give it enough time to remove as much water as possible and warm up.

Preparation of the cream for our pumpkin pie

1. When the pumpkin is well drained we put it in a bowl and add the sugar.
2. Mix well to make a thick and uniform cream. Add the butter with ointment texture, very soft, and beat the mixture.
3. Add the eggs and the homemade buttermilk and continue beating until the mixture is well integrated.
4. In another bowl we mix the solids. That is, the flour with the yeast, the bicarbonate, the cinnamon powder, the ginger, the cloves crushed in the mortar and the salt.
5. We remove to integrate all the ingredients.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the liquid bowl. Mix until you make a uniform cream, without beating excessively, just enough so that they are integrated.
7. Spread the mold with butter on the base and sides and line the base with parchment paper.
8. If we have two equal molds we distribute the mixture in both. If not, we fill our baking pan into two batches or just one.
9. Then we will cut the cake in half to make the two layers of our cake.

Baking Pumpkin Pie

1. Bake with the oven previously hot at 180º C for 25 minutes. The oven time will depend on whether we make two thin cakes or just one.
2. The time that I mark you is to bake in two biscuits, dividing the mixture into two molds.
3. If we bake all the mixture in one time, the oven time will increase to about 45 minutes.
4. We must be aware of cooking and prick with a stick to check that it comes out clean, at that time the cake will be ready.
5. We remove the mold from the oven and leave it on a rack for 10 minutes before unmolding the cake.
6. When unmolding we will place it with the bottom up. This will be the top of our cake, the smoothest.
7. We must let the biscuits cool completely before proceeding to assemble the cake.
8. We can leave them overnight, wrapped in transparent paper, once cold, for the crumb to settle.

Cheese frosting preparation

1. To prepare the cream, beat the ground sugar or icing sugar with the cream cheese in a bowl.
2. I advise that the cheese is at room temperature, so it will be easier for us to beat it with the sugar. We reserve.
3. We assemble the cream very cold with a whisk of rods and add it to the bowl of the cream. We mix so that it integrates and we keep in the fridge until the moment of using it for the filling and topping of the cake.
4. To assemble the cake, the first thing we do is prepare the two layers of cake.
5. To do this we cut the top pompadour of each of the biscuits with a serrated knife, until leaving a horizontal surface.
6. If we have only baked a sponge cake, we remove the top and cut it in half. So we will have the two layers of our cake ready.

Final assembly of the pumpkin pie

1. We will mount the cake on the final serving tray. So to avoid smearing it with the cream during the process I tell you a trick.
2. We line the tray with 4 pieces of transparent paper, so that an uncovered space remains in the center.
3. We have to take into account that once the cake is assembled we will not move it from the site to remove the plastics.
4. That is why 4 are necessary, so that we can remove them by pulling each one once the assembly is finished.
5. We place a first layer of cake with the bottom up, which will be the smoothest.
6. We spread a generous amount of cheese frosting over the entire surface and place the second layer of cake.
7. We cover the entire cake with the cheese frosting taking special care that it is as smooth as possible. For this it will be advisable that we use a spatula.
8. Finally we decorate the cake as we like. This time I have sprinkled it with some colored chocolate shavings.

It is a laborious sweet but I assure you that it is worth the work. We can enjoy this cake with a good coffee in the afternoon or as a dessert for a great meal.

If you want, you can share with everyone your Halloween recipes with the hashtag #HalloweenDeRechupete. 

You can see all the photos of the step by step in the next album.