A big part of Autumn is filling the house with the smell of cinnamon and mixed spice baking.
One of my favourite bakes that I’ve ever done is my pumpkin patch chocolate chip cake. Not only was it delicious, but making it gave heavy Autumn vibes. The whole kitchen smelled of pumpkin and cinnamon spice, and while I baked I lit an apple spice candle and watched Hocus Pocus on my laptop. Since then I’ve tried to make it tradition. I always have Hocus Pocus on the go while I bake.
This year I wanted a new bake. I still went with the same brand of canned pumpkin as I originally used. But went on a search for a slightly different recipe. Obviously a very popular combination this time of year is coffee and pumpkin spice. And I love coffee cake. So this recipe was a must.
You can also watch this recipe in progress on my Instagram.
You Will Need:
For the Cake:
100ml vegetable oil
1/2 Can (425g can) of Pumpkin Puree
2 large free range eggs
100ml strongly brewed coffee
125g caster sugar
125g light brown soft sugar
250g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp mixed spice
For the Coffee Syrup:
50 ml strongly brewed coffee
50g caster sugar
For the Icing:
50g icing sugar
100g full fat soft cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
250ml double cream
Mixed spice for dusting
Plus, pumpkin or coffee-themed decorations
0.1 Preheat the oven to 180c (gas mark 4), and line a loaf tin with parchment paper or a loaf tin cake case. To make the cake, make the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately to begin with. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the vegetable oil, eggs, pumpkin puree, coffee mix and sugars. In a separate mixing bowl combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and mixed spice.
0.2 Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix gradually, folding until you have a smooth batter with no lumps. Pour this into the lined loaf tin, and bake in the oven – this can take anything from 45 minutes to an hour, so keep an eye on the cake. When the time is up, check the cake is ready by putting in a knife or skewer and checking that it comes out clean with no wet mixture on. When it’s ready, remove from the oven and leave to cool.
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0.3 To make the syrup (you can do this while the cake is still cooling), mix together the coffee and caster sugar in a small saucepan. Warm over a low heat until the sugar has all dissolved, then turn up the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. The mixture should thicken. Brush the top of the cake lightly with the syrup, and set aside the rest for the top of the icing later.
0.4 To make the icing, whisk together the icing sugar, soft cheese, and vanilla extract until it’s a smooth mixture. Gradually add the cream while still whisking continuously, until it’s thick. Add the icing onto the top of the cake, and dust the top with the mixed spice. Drizzle the leftover coffee syrup, and decorate with any extras you want to.
