Spiced Pumpkin & Olive Oil Cake with Ginger Icing

• temps total: 47 minutes

Ingrédients

The key here is to keep the dry ingredients apart from the wet until the last minute. Then fold deftly and quickly, and get it in the oven as soon as possible. You will be well rewarded. This cake is glorious and keeps well for 3-4 days in a cake tin.

1 delica pumpkin (or other small variety; or 300g pumpkin puree)

300g plain flour

½ tsp sea salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground nutmeg

3 eggs

125g light soft brown sugar

175g caster sugar

100ml buttermilk

150ml olive oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

For the ginger buttercream

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature

150g cream cheese

1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled

300g icing sugar

Instructions

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease and line a cake tin. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and cut into wedges. Steam or roast, until soft.

While the pumpkin is cooking, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarb and spices into a large mixing bowl. Break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk with a fork.

Once the pumpkin is tender, scoop 300g of the flesh into a food processor and add the sugars and buttermilk (save the rest for another dish). Whizz to a smooth puree, then blitz in first the eggs and then the oil and vanilla. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix, quickly fold in the pumpkin mix, then tip into the cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool then turn out on to a wire rack.

While the cake is baking, make the icing. Beat the butter until soft, voluminous and pale. Sieve the cream cheese to get rid of any excess liquid, then beat that into the butter. Finely grate the ginger (with a microplane, ideally) and beat in, then beat in the icing sugar a third at a time, then put in the fridge to set.

Once the cake has cooled, sandwich the two halves with half the buttercream and spread the rest all over the top and the sides. Garnish with lightly toasted pumpkin seeds tossed in a hot dry frying pan with a few tablespoons of icing sugar.

Stunning top in the pics from @irisfashion