One of the boons of modern life is how much easier it is to buy great ingredients. This is especially true of fruit and veg. Although it can feel extravagant to buy a niche vegetable variety when the standard is often much cheaper, the taste can be revelatory – and I reassure myself that this kind of ingredient is a steal compared with the cost of meat (healthier, too). I am also seduced by the notion that my pennies are working in the greater scheme of things: buying interesting varieties promotes biodiversity, and supports good farming.
One such recent discovery for me is the delica pumpkin. It’s so nutty and sweet that it leaves butternut standing. It also delivers brilliant results in this moist, ethereally light sponge cake in which the ginger buttercream adds a fiery, sweet lilt to an otherwise fluffy pillow of warming spice.
For a light cake, keep the dry ingredients apart from the wet until the last minute. Then fold deftly and quickly, and get it in the oven as soon as possible. You will be well rewarded. Serves eight.
1 delica pumpkin (or other small variety; or 300g pumpkin puree) 300g plain flour ½ tsp sea salt 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 2 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground ginger 1 tsp ground nutmeg 3 eggs 125g light soft brown sugar 175g caster sugar 100ml buttermilk 150ml olive oil 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the ginger buttercream 150g unsalted butter, at room temperature 100g cream cheese 1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled 280g icing sugar
Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Grease and line a standard, loose-bottomed cake tin. Cut the pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and cut into wedges. Put these on a baking tray, scatter over two tablespoons of water, cover with foil and roast for 30-40 minutes, until soft. (Alternatively, if you have a steamer, steam the pieces until tender – I find they cook quicker this way, but you must allow them to steam dry at the end.)
While the pumpkin is cooking, sift the flour, salt, baking powder, bicarb and spices into a large mixing bowl. Break the eggs into a small bowl and whisk with a fork.
Once the pumpkin is tender, scoop 300g of the flesh into a food processor and add the sugars and buttermilk (save the rest for another dish). Whizz to a smooth puree, then blitz in first the eggs and then the oil and vanilla. Make a well in the centre of the flour mix, quickly fold in the pumpkin mix, then tip into the cake tin and bake for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool.
While the cake is baking, get on with the buttercream icing. Beat the butter for five minutes with the paddles of a food mixer until soft, voluminous and pale. Sieve the cream cheese to get rid of any excess liquid, then beat that into the soft butter. Finely grate the ginger (with a microplane, ideally) and beat in, then beat in the icing sugar a third at a time, then put in the fridge to set.
For more read the full of article at The Guardian.
