Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Bundt with Cream Cheese Frosting

There's only so long you can go without making a bundt. 'Almost' the most easygoing and fuss-free cake going (only trumped by a loaf cake). You give the ingredients a little mix then let it do its thing whilst it basks in the oven. I love that I can even fit some washing up and a browse through Instagram with a coffee in whilst its baking!

And, if you haven't seen enough pumpkin recently, then here's some more!

Super moist with warming spices and not too sweet. The cream cheese frosting is my favourite too. The perfect 'grown-up' cake that you can get away with having generous slices...pumpkins are vegetables after all. 

Spiced pumpkin bundt cake with cream cheese frosting
(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Spiced pumpkin bundt cake:

275g unsalted butter, softened

600g soft light brown sugar

4 eggs

560g plain flour, plus extra for the bundt tin

4tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp salt

2tbsp speculoos mix (recipe here, alternatively use a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger)

200ml buttermilk

1 tin of Libby's pumpkin puree

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease a bundt tin, dust with flour and shake off any excess.
2. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spice mix and give a quick shuffle with a whisk to get rid of any clumps.
5. Back to the batter! On a slow speed, continue to mix alternating between a few dollops of buttermilk and the flour mix until everything is incorporated.
6. Gently fold in the pumpkin by hand.
7. Pour into the bundt tin, two thirds of the way up the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 50-55 minutes. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.
8. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Spiced cream cheese frosting:
(yields enough to frost at least a dozen cupcakes or one bundt cake)

200g cream cheese, room temperature

50g unsalted butter, softened

350g icing sugar, sifted

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp speculoos spice mix (recipe here, alternatively use cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger)

1. In a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth. This will ensure there's no lumps in the finished frosting. 
2. Continue to beat whilst adding the cream cheese and icing sugar, a little at a time on a low speed.
3. Finally add the vanilla and spice and beat until incorporated. The mix will be nice and thick for frosting, but add a splash of mix if you want to be able to drizzle over the bundt a little more.

To finish, tip the bundt out onto a serving plate. If the bundt isn't flat on the bottom, you may want to slice a little off with a serrated knife to level it. I decorated mine with a big drizzle of the frosting and blitzed the chopped off bottom pieces to crumbs and scattered on top.

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Recipe: Speculoos Carrot Cake

When lacking in inspiration its always good to take a step back, go back to basics or even to have a short break. Sometimes the never ending amount of talent on my social media feeds can be a little overwhelming and off-putting. How do people even manage a full time job and to post several times through the week?

I can't remember the last time I baked a cake just to enjoy it. Rather than thinking, how can I make it different? How will I photograph it? What ideas can I get from Pinterest? In all honesty, I can't even remember the last cake I did make. 

For each family birthday I try to make a cake, something they'd like and something different each time. With work responsibilities and my brother's wedding in Finland, I've been a little delayed with these birthday bakes. So, with a little time off over the weekend, I set out to make one. I didn't worry about presentation, photographing, just on making something my Mum would love; her favourite carrot cake. 

Forgetting we're 'meant' to be in the height of summer. This weekend called for warming comfort food. For Sunday lunch we enjoyed baked red pesto chicken, roasted marrow and to finish, bread and butter pudding. A slice of this cake also went down a treat...

It was only fitting that I used Signe Johansen's Scandilicious carrot cake recipe as a base. Omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg for a speculoos spice mix to create a cake that I knew my Mum would love...even if it was a little belated.

Fuss-free with no frills, this is a good, honest, back to basics cake. No coloured frosting, layers or fiddly steps. I think this was exactly what I needed to get back in the kitchen!

Speculoos carrot cake with cream cheese speculoos frosting and walnut crumb

N.b. I used a sample of speculaas spice mix (from Amsterdam), but Dan Lepard has a recipe here.

(9" cake, serves 12, recipe adapted from Signe Johansen's Scandilicious Baking)

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

125g soft light brown sugar

200ml vegetable oil

250g plain flour

2 tsp speculoos spice mix

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

350g carrots, peeled and coarsely grated

Frosting:

125g butter, softened

150g icing sugar, sifted

150g full fat cream cheese

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp speculoos spice mix

Handful of crushed walnuts for decoration

1. Heat the oven to 170 degrees and grease a 9" springform cake tin. Alternatively, use a 20 x 30cm rectangular tin.
2. Gently mix together the egg and sugar in a mixer until the egg is broken up.
3. Set the mixer to a medium-high speed and pour in the oil as slow as possible. It is important to pour in as slow as you can so as not to split the mix.
4. Fold in the flour, spices, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
5. Add the carrots and mix just a few times until just about incorporated.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake on the middle shelf. When cooked, a skewer inserted into the middle will come out clean.
7. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool fully.
8. To make the frosting, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the cream cheese, vanilla and speculaas and continue to mix until smooth.
9. Whilst the cake is cooling, pop the frosting in the fridge to firm up.
10. To frost the cake, use a palette knife to smooth over the top and finish with a scattering of walnuts.

And for a little more inspiration:

How about Kate's carrot cake protein balls? Or in fact any recipe from her blog - yep, who knew you could make a cake out of cauliflower or peas?

Zucchini/courgettes laying around after making some zoodles/courgetti? Try Diana's zucchini bread.

Or some snack friendly, healthy berry and carrot muffins from Grace.