This week's Baked Sunday Mornings recipe, "Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting," was a nice addition to the menu for a light Thanksgiving brunch we hosted at our house. Keeping in mind that most people would be gorging themselves later in the day, we wanted to keep the meal simple, and this cake fit the bill.
You can mix up the batter for this one-layer cake in only a few minutes: cream together butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar until fluffy, add pumpkin (the cookbook includes a recipe to make your own pumpkin puree, but I just used Libby's from a can), eggs, and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg cloves) and buttermilk. You pour the batter into a 9-inch pan and bake.
After the cake has cooled, you top it with a frosting made in the food processor from almond butter, butter, almond milk, powdered sugar, and salt. (The frosting recipe also includes vanilla paste in the list of ingredients, but the instructions never tell you when to add it, so I completely forgot to use it.) I garnished the cake with some sliced toasted almonds.
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This cake was moist, but also very dense and substantial. I really liked the cake itself (even though I couldn't taste any of the almond flour in it); it had a beautiful not-too-sweet pumpkin flavor accented with the perfect amount of spice. The frosting, not so much. First, it was too salty, although this might have been my fault, because I used MaraNatha no-stir creamy almond butter, which has salt added. Also, the frosting texture was odd and a little oily. Finally, although almond is my absolute favorite flavor, I don't particularly like almond butter. It simply doesn't have the same appeal to me as peanut butter, which I will happily eat straight from the jar with a spoon. I'm certain I would have liked this cake better with cream cheese frosting.
That said, tasters enjoyed the cake and I would like to make it again, just with different frosting. It's homey, no fuss, and perfect for fall.
Recipe: "Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
You can mix up the batter for this one-layer cake in only a few minutes: cream together butter, sugar, and dark brown sugar until fluffy, add pumpkin (the cookbook includes a recipe to make your own pumpkin puree, but I just used Libby's from a can), eggs, and alternately add the dry ingredients (flour, almond flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg cloves) and buttermilk. You pour the batter into a 9-inch pan and bake.
After the cake has cooled, you top it with a frosting made in the food processor from almond butter, butter, almond milk, powdered sugar, and salt. (The frosting recipe also includes vanilla paste in the list of ingredients, but the instructions never tell you when to add it, so I completely forgot to use it.) I garnished the cake with some sliced toasted almonds.
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That said, tasters enjoyed the cake and I would like to make it again, just with different frosting. It's homey, no fuss, and perfect for fall.
Recipe: "Pumpkin Almond Cake with Almond Butter Frosting" from Baked Elements: Our 10 Favorite Ingredients, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito. Recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.
Comments
Now your black as night chocolate cake has me very intrigued!