This lightly-spiced pumpkin cake is the perfect fall dessert or simple afternoon snack. The light touch of pumpkin whipped cream elevates the cake without the need for cloyingly sweet frostings, icings, or a glaze. The cake is simply delightful all on its own - exactly as good cake should be!
Prep Time25mins
Cook Time1hr5mins
Cooling Time1hr
Total Time2hrs30mins
Course: Dessert, Snacks
Cuisine: American, Global
Servings: 12servings
Ingredients
For the cake:
4large eggs
2cupsevaporated cane sugar
1 ¼cupsavocado oil, or other expeller-pressed/minimally-refined vegetable oil
2cupspumpkin purée
1teaspoonvanilla extract
3cupsunbleached all-purpose flour
2teaspoonsbaking soda
2teaspoonsbaking powder
¼teaspoonsea salt
2teaspoonground cinnamon
⅛teaspoonground cloves
powdered sugar, optional, for dusting
For the pumpkin whipped cream:
1cupheavy cream, well chilled
3tablespoonspowdered sugar
½cuppumpkin purée
Instructions
For the pumpkin cake
Prepare. Butter and flour a bundt pan and set aside. Preheat the oven to 350F.
Beat together eggs and sugar. In a large bowl, beat eggs well with a fork or whisk. Stir in the sugar.
Whisk in the oil, pumpkin, and vanilla. Continue whisking while slowly pouring in the oil. Beat until thick and smooth.
Add pumpkin and vanilla. Stir in pumpkin purée and vanilla until the entire mixture is homogeneous.
Sift dry ingredients and add to the batter. In a medium bowl or on a piece of parchment, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and spices. Pour into the batter in three additions, stirring after each addition. After final addition, stir just until blended. The final batter should be thick but pourable.
Bake the pumpkin bundt cake. Scrape batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake until a skewer, knife, or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 60-70 minutes.
Let cake cool. Remove the cake from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely at room temperature before serving. Dust with powdered sugar just before cutting, if desired.
For the pumpkin whipped cream
Whip the cream and sugar. In an electric mixer, beat the chilled cream to soft peaks. Add the powdered sugar and continue beating until the cream holds stiff peaks. Fold in the pumpkin purée gently by hand with a spatula.
Serve. Serve each slice of cake with a dollop of pumpkin whipped cream, as desired.
Notes
Suggested Substitutions
While I am definitely an advocate of avoiding conventional vegetable oils, namely any oil that is hexane-expressed, hydrogenated, or genetically modified (which, unless it's marked otherwise, you can be assured nearly every vegetable oil on the market falls into one of those three categories), please note that switching from oil to butter in this recipe will most definitely change the crumb structure. Oil-based cakes tend to be moist and tender while butter-based cakes are slightly denser and richer.Changing the sugar will also change the moisture content of the cake, so be prepared to adjust the dry ingredients accordingly. Your final batter should be thick but pourable.
Optional Oil Substitutions
Butter + Coconut Oil: Replace the 1 1/4 cup avocado oil with 1 cup clarified butter (at room temperature) + 1/4 cup coconut oil (softened). Beat with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, then add the sweetener and beat again. Reduce speed to medium-low and add eggs one at a time. Continue with recipe as directed.
Optional Sugar Substitutions
Maple Syrup: Substitute 1 cup maple syrup for the 2 cups sugar in the cake and 2 tablespoons maple syrup for the 3 tablespoons of sugar in the whipped cream. Pumpkin and maple syrup are a match made in heaven, but it will bring a different flavor to the cake and a distinct change in the moisture content. Be ready to adjust your dry ingredients accordingly - again, the final batter should be thick but pourable.Other Minimally-Refined Granulated Sugars: Try sucanat, rapadura, evaporated cane juice, or any other minimally processed granulated sweetener at a 1:1 ratio for the sugar.
Optional Flour Substitutions
Soak the Flour: Soak your flour first (see why you might want to soak your flours when baking), then continue with the recipe.To soak, place all the flour, the pumpkin purée, the sweetener, and the oil in a large bowl. Mix everything together thoroughly, cover and let sit at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. Incorporate the rest of the ingredients, increasing the baking powder to 2 1/2 teaspoons.Use Sourdough: Use 1 cup fed sourdough starter and 1 3/4 cups of either all-purpose or spelt flour. To use this method, combine the starter, the flour, and 3/4 cup of milk; mixture will be extremely thick. Let sit for 6-8 hours at room temperature. Make recipe as directed, adding the starter mixture when the flour is called for; reduce the oil to 1 cup and reduce the eggs to 3 eggs unless the mixture is exceedingly thick. And no, you won't taste the sourdough. It will heighten the other flavors, though, so even more pumpkin-y goodness!If these substitutions don't work for you, please write me to let me know! I live at sea level in a moderately humid climate, so what has worked for me may not work for you and I'd like to know if my suggestions don't work where you live.