Now, I know you all have that friend who has already begun the countdown to Christmas... heck, maybe you are that person! I'm generally not, but I've got to say that baking this Pumpkin Spice Cake with Nespresso made even the grinch in me feel a little excited for the festive season!
Of course, pumpkin spice lattes are a huge feature of the US autumn season, so we were intrigued to taste the Nespresso version (it's true, it's my first time!).
And baking with pumpkin (or butternut, if pumpkin unavailable) is also pretty novel. The spice blend is incredibly intoxicating and conjures up warm, gooey feelings of childhood Christmas mornings.
So the task at hand was a gooey, incredible smelling cake! Tough job, I know.
It was fun! Now, I'm a coffee person so my cake baking (while still very yummy) is certainly not the prettiest! I'm going for that rustic, wood cabin vibe...
I think I nailed it right?! Sort of a, beautiful ugly cake :)
Recipe: Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake
Serves 12
Streusel Topping
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup cake wheat flour
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecan nuts
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 3 tablespoons butter, softened
For the Cake
- 2 cups cake wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 250ml (1 cup) pumpkin purée (the store bought cubes are great to roast up with a little butter and cinnamon, not too brown, but soft through, 180 degrees for 35min should do the trick)
- 40ml Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Coffee
- Preheat the oven to 180º C.
- Grease a 20cm square tin or I used 2x 20cm round cake tins, with butter or non-stick cooking spray. I've gotten into the habit of using baking paper as a lining in the tins, which limits clean up and makes it super easy to get out of the tins (especially as because of the streusel you're not flipping them over, you're lifting them out.
- To make the streusel, place all the ingredients in a small mixing bowl and work through until crumbly.
- For the cake, in a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients, up to and including the granulated sugar.
- In a small bowl or jug, whisk together the sugar, oil and eggs. Add the pumpkin purée and mix to combine.
- Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, then add the pumpkin mixture. Add the Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Coffee, then stir gently to combine.
- Spoon half the batter into the tin. I used two round tins, so I just divided the batter between them. Sprinkle with the streusel. If using one tin, spread the remaining batter of the streusel and smooth over.
- Bake for about 40 minutes or until cooked through. It is quite a dense cake due to the pumpkin puree so might take a bit longer depending on your oven.
- Once a bit cool, lift out with baking paper and if you're doing a stacked version, pop one of top of the other.
- It's a somewhat more savoury cake, so a little festive dusting of icing sugar made a lovely sweet addition, plus it adds to the pre-Christmas cheer, despite a complete lack of Christmas snow in the Southern hemisphere hehe.
