Few things say ‘autumn’ more than pumpkin, even Italians agree! And this time of the year there’s plentiful supply in the supermarkets… and at very affordable prices too (which is a rarity these days!).
But the traditional, humble, carving pumpkins are unfortunately not the tastiest and its pulp won’t give the best results in a ‘primo piatto’ or side dish where its flavour needs to take centre stage. So what can we do with all the leftovers from the kid’s (or our) halloween decorations? Pudding, of course!
Y’all know by know that we have a sweet tooth here at Linguini, so we really couldn’t resist the temptation of a baking project. This is a very simple recipe and you can tweak it to your taste by substituting pecans with walnuts or hazelnuts, or raisins instead of chocolate chips (but why would anyone ever want to swap chocolate, we’d ask?).
This cake is light, pillowy, moist and gives out the perfect autumn vibes! In Italy we would have this for breakfast with a cup of hot milk or as a mid-afternoon treat with tea/coffee, but you can (and should) enjoy it whenever you feel like it!
Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients
- 150 grams Flour
- 120 grams Pumpkin Purea
- 60 grams Sunflower Oil
- 45 grams Sugar
- 20 grams Milk
- 25 grams Pecan Nuts (chopped)
- 25 grams Chocolate Chips
- 6 grams Baking Powder
- 1 Egg
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 pinch Salt
For the decoration
- Icing Sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl beat the egg and the sugar with an hand mixer until the batter is fluffy.
- Add the oil, the vanilla extract, the pumpkin purea and the milk to the bowl and continue to whisk until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, combine together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.
- Progressively incorporate the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients one spoon at a time. Stir until all the ingredients are well combined (but don't overmix!).
- Finally incorporate the nuts and the chocolate chips to the batter
- Transfer the batter to a cake mold (18 cm diameter) lined with parchment paper
- Cook in the oven at 180° for 35 minutes. Your Pumpkin Cake is ready! Let it cool completely, decorate with icing sugar and enjoy!
