Thomasina Miers' Pumpkin Spice Cake with Ginger Icing

Another gem of a recipe that I recently found in The Guardian was Thomasina Miers' Roast Pumpkin, Olive Oil and Nutmeg Cake with Ginger Icing.  I just loved the sound of this cake, and I already had some of the ingredients, including the  pumpkin.

Of course, I didn't make the recipe exactly as written.  Instead of roasting my pumpkin, I boiled it - the weather was too warm for me to want to put the oven on for the extra time to roast the pumpkin.  Also, since I tidied out my pantry cupboard, I cannot find my nutmeg.  This is why I have changed the name of the cake to just Pumpkin Spice Cake.

I think it turned out nicely - here's a peek inside the halved cake:

The ginger buttercream was a revelation - so tasty that I would make it again for other applications.

And the finished cake - it was devine:

Tempted?  To make this cake (with my modifications), you will need:

300g mashed pumpkin
300g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg (if you find it!)
3 eggs
125g brown sugar
175g white sugar
100ml buttermilk (or a tablespoon of lemon juice used to sour 100ml milk) 
150ml olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

For the icing:

150g softened butter
100g cream cheese
1 x 3cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled
280g icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 180C and grease and line an 8" round springform pan.

Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spices into a large mixing bowl.

Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat lightly with a fork.

Put the pumpkin puree, eggs, olive oil and vanilla into a food processor and blitz. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the pumpkin mixture, and quickly fold together. 

Pour the cake batter into the prepared springform pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked through. Remove the cake from the oven and cool in the tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, beat the butter for five minutes in a stand mixer until pale and creamy. Chop the cream cheese into cubes then beat it into the butter until smooth. Finely grate the ginger and beat it into the icing.  Add one third of the icing sugar to the mixture and beat in, then repeat with the remaining icing sugar in two lots.  Place the icing in the fridge to set. 

Cut the cooled cake in half, and spread the bottom half with half the icing.  Place the other half of the cake on top,  then spread the remaining icing on the cake however you please to decorate.

Slice the cake and enjoy!