08 | October | 2012 | Words and Herbs

Autumn is here, and the trees are dressed for the occasion!

“The Chestnuts came in yellow,
The Oaks in crimson dressed;
The lovely Misses Maple
In scarlet looked their best”

(from October’s Party, by George Cooper)

Time to celebrate and make pumpkin cake!

This delicious cake contains one of my favourite ingredients…. correction – three of my favourite ingredients, and that’s not even including the pumpkin!

Vanilla ~ Cardamom ~ White Chocolate

I posted it last year, but thought I’d post it again anyway, as it is VERY good! It’s rich and moist, a little spicy, and very satisfying. This time round it was given a cream cheese frosting because… well, just because!

😉

Pumpkin Cake with White Chocolate Chips

Pumpkin Cake, November 2011

You will need:

100g (7 tbsps) butter
100g (1/2 cup) brown sugar
100g (1/2 cup) caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
2 eggs
200g (7 oz) pumpkin puree
100ml (7 tbsps) milk
125g (1 cup) self-raising flour
75g (2/3 cup) wholemeal flour
1tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp allspice
100g (3.5 oz) white chocolate, chopped into very small pieces

Preheat oven to 200° C/400°F. Grease and flour a 22cm x 22cm square cake tin (22cm is about 8 or 9 inches). Cream the butter and sugars with an electric mixer until fluffy, then slowly add the eggs until well mixed. Add the pumpkin and milk. Sift in all the other dry ingredients and fold in carefully. Finally add the chocolate “chips” and fold in gently. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for about 25 mins, or until it is set in the middle.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:

Whisk together 55g (1/2 stick) cream cheese, 100g (3/4 cup) icing sugar and 20g (4 tsps) butter. Pipe decoratively onto individual pieces (I usually do that as not everyone likes a frosting).