Easy Pumpkin Cake With Creamy Filling Recipe

Autumn Pumpkin Delights

As the autumn sets in an overabundance of colours and hues over the land, it is customary to eat pumpkin in any form besides carving a few for Halloween. An easy to make pumpkin cake with creamy filling is just perfect for those crisp October mornings and can work wonders with a steamy cup of coffee.

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My favourite pumpkin cake of all is the one in mom’s recipe book. She made it without fail every autumn, and I kept the tradition ever since I became the owner of her bountiful recipe book many years ago.

Mom’s recipe does not use pumpkin in the dough layers. Instead, it creates a delicious creamy filling packed with all the goodness this fairy tale vegetable has to offer in combination with autumn spices that enhance the taste of this simple cake.

Why do we love pumpkins?

We love pumpkins not only because they miraculously shift shapes and become luxurious carriages for exploited good souls in Disney land, but primarily because of the excellent health benefits this vegetable provides and its unmistakable taste, especially when combined with the right spices.

Part of the Cucurbitaceae family and cousin with courgette, watermelon and cucumber, pumpkin is over 90% water but loaded with vitamins and nutrients that help the human immune system fight nasty diseases. All this, of course, applies to the raw pumpkin, consumed as it is.

Once processed at a temperature or mixed with sugar, the narrative changes a bit.

This blog promotes a healthy lifestyle and thrives on creating the healthiest possible recipes using organic products and low, unrefined sugar. Therefore, this cake with creamy pumpkin filling attempts to keep up with these principles.

Mom’s original pumpkin cake with creamy filling recipe and my alterations

Mom’s original recipe is what I call the “perfect ten” formula. It does not involve gymnastics if you think of Nadia Comaneci right now. Instead, the recipe requires ten tablespoons of each main ingredient for the dough.

In time, I have adjusted the recipe and replaced ingredients to stay on the healthier side. Therefore, five tablespoons of coconut sugar make this cake as tasty as I remember it from my childhood.

Because I was born in communism and lived under a restrictive regime for the first fourteen years of my life, I remember the shortage of foods and the cards we used to buy what we were allowed monthly (similar to wartime in the UK).

The choice was practically non-existent, so we had to use whatever we could buy and make it last a month until the next card was issued. What coconut sugar, what cold-pressed rapeseed oil? I never heard of these things until communism ended in a blood bath in Romania!

Fortunately, we live in different times, and I am not sure if for the better since too much choice does not necessarily mean safer or healthier. But, because I strongly advocate against all industrially processed foods and am pro-nature, I hope that I stay on the healthy side as much as possible and help others think of their food choices in the process.

For these reasons, there will be no margarine, refined oil or sugar or non-organic ingredients in this recipe. But it is still a cake, and it needs some flavour. Half of the sugar quantity mom used does just that, especially since preparing the pumpkin will require additional sugar. Remember that the flavour comes from the spices, and a sack of sugar will only make any desert needlessly sickly sweet.

Ingredients for pumpkin cake with creamy filling

Organic pumpkin

Organic plain flour

Organic eggs (yolks for dough; whites for pumpkin filling)

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil

Unsweetened almond milk

Organic coconut sugar

Baking powder

Spices (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, aniseed, nutmeg)

Raisins, walnuts (optional)

A pinch of rock/sea salt

Method

To prepare the dough

Preheat the oven and line the baking tray with parchment paper.

Use an electric mixer to batter the egg yolks with sugar and salt until it becomes lighter in colour. Add the milk, then the oil and mix with a spatula. Sieve the flour mixed with baking powder over and mix until it incorporates nicely.

Knead the dough until all the ingredients incorporate nicely and split it into two parts.

Use a roller pin to roll each part to fit nicely on the bottom of your baking tray.

Place the first sheet into the tray, spread some semolina (it helps absorb excess humidity), add the pumpkin filling and place the second dough sheet on top.

Gently pinch the top sheet with a fork to allow any trapped air to escape and obtain a smooth baked surface.

To prepare the creamy pumpkin filling

Wash the pumpkin with warm water and dish wash. Rinse well and dry the pumpkin.

Use a sharp chef knife and a vegetable cutting board to cut the pumpkin as you would for Halloween carvings. Peel the external hard layer off and use a large tablespoon to carve the seeds and the pulp out of the pumpkin.

The seeds have a lot of health benefits, and you can easily find a use for them (in bread baking, for instance, or added to cereals).

Cut the pumpkin you will use into pieces small enough to make it comfortable to grate. Use a box grater to shred the pumpkin on the larger holes side. The same applies to an electric grater.

If you use previously grated and frozen pumpkins, allow defrosting overnight and remove the excess water by pressing down.

Place the grated pumpkin into a pan and over low heating, as if you would make a jam. Allow cooking at low heating the whole time, even if it might sound tedious. You are not aiming for a charred pumpkin and ruined pan! Patience makes perfect!

When the whole quantity of pumpkin is thermally processed, and the volume reduces visibly, add the sugar, spices, and raisins/nuts. Mix and cook for further two-three minutes.

Turn the heat off and allow the cooked pumpkin to cool completely before the next step. Failure to do so will spoil the entire filling for this cake!

While the pumpkin cools, batter the egg whites with a pinch of salt until you get stiff peaks. Add it to the completely cooled pumpkin and mix gently with a spatula until it incorporates nicely. The filling will become fluffy, creamy looking and lighter in colour.

Pour the pumpkin filling over the first dough sheet in the tray, then continue as explained above with the second sheet.

Bake on the middle rake for 40-50 minutes. Allow cooling before slicing.

Cut the pumpkin cake with creamy filling in squares or a rhomboid shape, dust it with powdered sugar if desired (I usually skip this step) and serve with the coffee of your choice.

If you don’t mind the cold weather or live in a milder climate, and iced coffee is your thing, check here for inspiring ideas.

Enjoy!

Autumn Pumpkin Delights