cold days are perfect to make pumpkins the main character of our dishes. they can appear in our main dishes and in our gorgeous desserts. in this case, since this is a baking blog, I’ll explain step by step how to achieve this American 4 layer cake.
this recipe has been inspired by the polka dotter blog (which I recommend you to go and check) changing some ingredients depending on the results I wanted and I must say the final cake has been liked so much by the friends who were lucky to try it, even some of them repeated, as usual.
in my own opinion, I think the kick of pumpkin toasted in the oven gives a special flavour to the cake that reminds me a lot of the grated carrot in the classical and well-known carrot cake. it is sweet thanks to the salted caramel sauce, it’s also moist as well because of the pumpkin purée and it has a personal kick of crunchiness thanks to the honeycomb. this cake is perfect!
let’s bake!
PUMPKIN CAKE WITH SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE, HONEYCOMB AND MERINGUE
makes about 12 servings
· ingredients ·
pumpkin cake
230g pumpkin purée
180g melted unsalted butter
180g caster sugar
100g muscovado sugar
50g honey
1 tsp vanilla paste
125ml whole milk
3 free range large eggs
300g plain flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
A pinch of salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
¾ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground nutmeg
honeycomb
200g caster sugar
60ml honey
60ml maple syrup
2 tsp baking soda
salted caramel sauce
30g butter
50g sugar
40ml heavy cream
a pinch of salt
swiss meringue
3 large egg whites
70g caster sugar
70g light brown sugar
decoration
cacao nibs (optional)
· step by step ·
pumpkin cake
preheat the oven to 180ºC and prepare two 15cm baking moulds with baking paper.
peel and chop the pumpkin into little dices and place them into a pot with water and boil them until they are tender inside. next put the dices into the oven to grill them, in a tray with baking paper and let them toast a little on the top. in this way, the taste will be more intense.
once they are a bit toasted put the pumpkin dices in a deep container and crush them until you get a purée. to obtain a softer result pass the purée through a sieve.
in a big bowl mix the purée, melted butter, caster and muscovado sugars, honey and vanilla paste until everything is well combined.
add to the mix the whole milk and the eggs one at a time, until the batter is uniform and thick.
sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, ground cardamom and ground nutmeg and mix all this together being careful not to over-mix it in order not to develop the gluten too much.
divide the batter into two equal parts in the moulds already prepared and put them in the oven at 180ºC for about 45min.
once out of the oven let them cool for about 10min and place them into a cooling grid, then cut them with the help of a cake cutter or a big knife through the middle of the cake so you will obtain 4 equal cake layers.
at the time of assembling the cake, place a good quantity of salted caramel sauce in the middle of each layer and, little pieces of honeycomb and cover the borders and the exterior of the cake with the swiss meringue. To decorate use more salted caramel sauce, honeycomb to the taste and cacao nibs on the bottom if you like it.
honeycomb
in a deep saucepan place the sugar, honey and maple syrup to medium heat stirring constantly.
with a kitchen thermometer controlling that all the sugars are dissolved until it rises 150ºC.
at this moment add the baking soda being careful and stirring quickly, it’s normal if it doubles the size inside the saucepan making bubbles and foam. here is when you have to quickly pour the mixture into a mould completely covered with baking paper.
leave it cool completely. It’s normal if it loses a bit the volume.
cut it into pieces to the size you prefer and keep the leftovers in an airtight container.
salted caramel sauce
in a saucepan pour bit by bit a little amount of sugar up to low-medium heat until everything is dissolved.
at the same time pour the heavy cream into a saucepan and bring it to a boil.
when the heavy cream is ready then pour it into the dissolved caramel and add the butter moving the mixture quickly until everything is homogeneous.
remove it from the heat and add the salt to the taste.
leave the sauce to cool completely before you use it.
swiss meringue
prepare a saucepan with water and a bowl on top with the egg whites and the caster sugar to cook it in a bain marie.
with a kitchen thermometer control the temperature until it rises to 65ºC when the white eggs had been totally pasteurized.
place this mixture in a new bowl and beat it until the white eggs are shiny and totally firm.
· tips ·
when you do the honeycomb, you must be careful when pouring the baking soda into the mixture of sugars because it will double the size immediately making bubbles. That’s why the size of the saucepan has to be big enough to don’t allow the mixture to come out at this point.
the kitchen thermometer is important in this recipe because it gives you precision, although if you don’t have one you can still do it by checking all the sugars are well dissolved in each step.
the salted caramel sauce and the honeycomb are recipes difficult to make in small quantities, that’s why there will be leftovers that you should keep in an airtight container.
enjoy!
Follow me on my social media:
Instagram
Pinterest
Facebook
I would love to see your take on my recipes, tag me or use the hashtag #bloodydelicious
All my social media links are in the sidebar, come and say Aloha!
Share and follow me for more recipes to come : )
Leave a Reply