When the Fine Cooking arrived last month I took one look at the cover and new I had. to. make. that. cake! I finally got around to making it for Rob's 30th Birthday Party and we LOVED it!!! With the cream cheese frosting it makes for a good breakfast (or coffee cake!) too. It does take several hours (2-3 depending on how good you are at multitasking), but we definitely thought it was worth it.
I made it again for Thanksgiving and the mayhem fairies came to help! I pulled the pumpkin puree out of the freezer and made the cake the night before Thanksgiving. I went to bed so proud of myself and smug thinking of the leisurely morning I had created for myself. I should have gotten out of bed one of the first three times I woke up in the middle of the night, but instead I forced myself back to sleep. The fourth time I could distinctly smell my pumpkin cake.....hmmm, it smells good, but I shouldn't still be able to smell it....alas, I had set the cakes on top of the stove to cool overnight and didn't realize one of the burners was still on!!! So, at 5am I made two more cakes and we had a triple layer Brown Butter Pumpkin Layer Cake for dinner. The extra layer was yummy, but this cake it so rich that I would stick with two!
Makes one 9-inch cake
Modified slightly from Fine Cooking, September 2010
Pumpkin Puree
2 tsp. olive oil
1 medium-large Sugar Pie pumpkin, cut in half from stem to bottom and seeded
Cake
3/4 cup butter; more for the pans
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon1 tsp. ground ginger
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar*
2 large eggs
1/3 cup buttermilk
Topping
3 Tbs. butter
1 1/3 cup pecans
1 cup unsalted, raw, hulled pepitas
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar*1/2 tsp. salt
3 Tbs. chopped crystallized ginger**
Frosting
1/2 cup butter
8 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar*
1 1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
Make the pumpkin purée
Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Brush a 9x13-inch baking dish with the oil. Put the pumpkin halves in the dish cut side down and bake until tender when pierced with a fork, about 45 minutes. Let cool. Peel the pumpkin and purée the flesh in a food processor until smooth. You’ll need 1 1/2 cups of the purée for the cake. Refrigerate or freeze any remaining purée for another use.***
Make the cake
Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans with removable bottoms.
Melt the butter in a heavy-duty 8-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan occasionally until the butter turns a nutty golden-brown, about 4 minutes. Pour into a small bowl and let stand until cool but not set, about 15 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and cloves. In a large bowl, whisk 1 1/2 cups of the pumpkin purée with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and buttermilk until very well blended. With a rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Gently whisk in the brown butter until completely incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
Bake the cakes until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 28 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Remove the pan sides and cool completely.
Make the topping
Melt the butter in a heavy-duty 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the pecans and pepitas and cook until the pecans brown slightly and the pepitas begin to pop, about 2 minutes. Sprinkle in the brown sugar and salt and stir until the sugar melts and the nuts are glazed, about 2 minutes. Stir in the ginger. Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool in the skillet.****
Make the frosting
Melt the butter in a heavy-duty 8-inch skillet over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan occasionally until the butter turns a nutty golden-brown, about 4 minutes. Pour into a small bowl and let stand until cool but not set, about 15 minutes.
Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, cream cheese, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light in color and the brown sugar has dissolved, 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar and continue beating until fluffy, 1 to 2 minutes.
Assemble the cake
Put one cake layer on a cake plate. Spread 1/2 cup of the frosting on the layer. Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the nut mixture over the frosting and top with the second layer. Frost the top and sides of the cake with the remaining frosting. Arrange the remaining topping in a ring 1-1/2 inches in from the edge of the cake and serve.*****
Notes:
* As usual, I didn't have any brown sugar in the house, so I used regular old white sugar and added some molasses to it (about 1 tablespoon molasses per cup of sugar).
** The first time I made this cake, I tried to chop the ginger up in the food processor and ended up with a gooey ball of crystalized ginger. The taste was fine, but I don't think that was the intent of the recipe. The second time, I coarsely chopped it with a knife., That worked much better and we really liked getting small bursts of ginger flavor when eating the cake.
***My pumpkin made enough puree for 3 of these cakes. I froze the extra pumpkin and the second and third (see story above for the Thanksgiving debacle) were much faster to make.
**** The first time I made this cake, I took the skillet off the stove, set it aside, and didn't even think about it again until I was assembling the cake. A lot of the buttery, sugary goodness of the topping hardened into a brittle and stuck to the skillet. The second time, I learned from my mistakes and let the skillet on the stove. The burner was off, but the heat from the oven below kept the topping from fusing to the pan.
***** The first time I made the cake, I had extra topping so I covered the sides with it too. The second time, I stuck just to the top. Either way was good, but the second option was a bit less messy! Especially when trying to travel!
