Pumpkin Spice Cake with Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting
An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott
Preparation time: 40 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
For Cake
- 2 cups cake flour*
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon bicarb soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 113g/1 stick butter, softened
- 1 cup caster or superfine sugar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
For Frosting
- 250g/8.83ozs. cream Cheese
- 1 cup caster or superfine sugar
- Fat pinch of fine salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste
- 1 teaspoon citric acid or lemon zest
- 1 cup cream
To Decorate
- 1/4 cup pepitas, toasted
- 4 tablespoons salted caramel sauce
To make 1 cup of cake flour replace 2 tablespoons of plain flour with cornflour or fine cornstarch
Step 1 - Preheat oven to 145C/293F (a very low oven) and line a 20cm/8inch springform round tin with parchment on the base and sides. Whisk the cake flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and nutmeg together.
Step 2 - Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla for 3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time making sure to combine them well between each addition. Using a spatula, add half of the flour mixture and half of the pumpkin and stir. Add the rest of the flour and pumpkin making sure not to overmix. Spoon into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Step 3 - Cool for 10 minutes and then unclip the cake and allow to cool completely. You can wrap this up to frost the next day.
Step 4 - Using a whipping attachment, whip the cream cheese, sugar, salt, cinnamon, vanilla and citric acid or lemon zest for 2 minutes until fluffy. Add the cream and start on low speed while it mixes in and then gradually increase to high speed whipping until it is voluminous and fluffy.
Step 5 - Slice cake into three layers and place the bottom layer back in the tin and spread with a third of the frosting. Place second layer on top and spread this with another third of the frosting and repeat. Refrigerate for 1 hour and then decorate with pepitas and salted caramel sauce.