Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

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I’ve spent most of my life in California, where I know the seasons are changing based on what’s for sale at drugstores (pool toys in summer, dog costumes in fall, plastic wreaths in winter) and the produce at the market (tomatoes, squash, kale, cherries, repeat). Aside from the occasional rainy day or cascading leaf, the outdoors yield few environmental signals that the earth’s orbit is trying on a new tilt. Our cue that sweater weather has arrived depends heavily on the annual release of the Starbucks holiday cup. It’s a dependency we don’t like to admit and are very sensitive about.

So you can imagine the awe and splendor that is a California girl’s brief COVID-induced stint on the east coast as fall unfurls and winter transcends. I’m not sure if my outward obsession with the technicolor trees is more a sign of my age or visitor status (probably both) but I rest my case that Fall is objectively the coolest and will continue to take pictures of trees and stomp on leaf piles and drink apple cider with whisky in it alongside this here pumpkin cake that is actually just pumpkin bread with icing on it. 

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And what is cake, really? What is bread? These are words we use to make ourselves feel less guilty or more festive or more meal-period appropriate. In reality, we are all adults and can make decisions for ourselves. I personally ate this pumpkin bread/cake for breakfast, snack (the most holy of meals) and dessert once. The bread/cake’s identity shifted throughout the day from bread to breadcake to cake and I don’t know about you but this is the kind of support I need these days.

So here you have it, a pumpkin-spiced cake (okay, I’m caving, it’s cake) with maple icing that is moist and fluffy, comforting and warming. It will greet you whence you’ve returned from leaf stomping in the long shadows of an earlier yet sunset or will be at the ready as you light your seasonal candle indoors and imagine you’re there.

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Pumpkin Cake Ingredients

  • 2½ cups all-purpose flour

  • 2 tsp. ground cinnamon

  • ½ tsp. nutmeg

  • ½ tsp. ginger powder

  • 2 tsp. kosher salt

  • 1 tsp. baking powder

  • ½ tsp. baking soda

  • 2 large eggs or 3 small eggs

  • 1 15-oz. can pumpkin purée

  • 1½ cups sugar

  • 1 cup olive oil

Maple Icing Ingredients

  • 2 cups confectioners' sugar

  • 3 tablespoons milk

  • 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Bake the Pumpkin Cake

  1. Preheat the oven to 325°. Lightly coat a bundt cake pan with vegetable oil or cooking spray.

  2. Combine flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg and ginger in a medium bowl.

  3. Whisk eggs, pumpkin puree and sugar in a large bowl.

  4. In three batches, fold the dry ingredients into the large bowl.

  5. Transfer batter to the bundt pan.

  6. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a knife or chopstick comes out clean.

  7. Let cool for a few minutes. Place a plate larger than the diameter of the cake on the open side of the pan. Holding the bottom of the plate with one hand and the bottom of the bundt with another (oven mitt wearing) hand, flip the cake onto the plate. Set aside to cool completely and work on the icing.

Make the Maple Icing

  1. Add the confectioner’s sugar to a medium bowl and whisk in the milk. Add more milk until the desired thickness is reached. The mixture should be pretty loose.

  2. Whisk in the maple syrup.

Assembly

  1. Drizzle a third of the icing over the cake so that it drips down all the sides, avoiding the center hole. 

  2. Let dry for a few minutes and repeat with the next third and then the final third of the icing. 

  3. There will be a lot of lost icing that drizzles down to the plate. You can transfer the cake to a fresh plate or serve as is and scoop the icing from the bottom onto the slices for some extra sweetness.

recipesSienna Mintz