Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Orange & Mascarpone Icing
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 120 g (4 oz) butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
- 200 g (7 oz) pumpkin, peeled and finely grated
- zest and juice of 1 orange
- 70 ml (2 1⁄2 fl oz/5 tbsp) light olive or seed oil
- 230 g (8 oz) light brown sugar
- 3 eggs
- 1⁄2 tsp salt
- 1⁄2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 250 g (9 oz/2 cups) 00 or all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp baking powder
For the icing:
- zest of 1 orange plus 1 tbsp juice
- 250 g (9 oz) mascarpone
- 180 g (6 1/4 oz) full-fat Philadelphia cream cheese
- 100 g (3 1⁄2 oz/3⁄4 cup) icing (confectioner’s) sugar
To decorate:
- orange zest, sprinkles, or candied orange slices,
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF/Gas 4). Butter 2 × 22 cm (8 1⁄2 in) sandwich tins and line the bases with baking parchment. Put the grated pumpkin in a bowl and add the orange zest and juice.
- In a large mixing bowl and using an electric mixer (or in the bowl of a stand mixer), beat the butter, oil and sugar until pale, smooth and fluffy, with a light caffe latté colour. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until they are fully incorporated.
- Add the salt, cinnamon, flour, baking powder and, finally, the grated pumpkin and orange mix, and stir to combine.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared tins, dividing it equally and smoothing the tops. Bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until risen and golden. Insert a skewer or spaghetti strand to check it’s done (see p 252).
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out of the tins and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Beat the ingredients for the icing together in a mixing bowl. Spread half of the icing over the base of the cake, sandwiching it with the top half, then spread the remainder of the icing on top.
- Decorate with orange zest or sprinkles, as you see fit. Some slivers of candied orange would also be nice.