Pumpkin Spice Cake with Brown Butter Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
A deeply spiced pumpkin cake made with brown butter, toasted walnuts and orange, topped with silky maple cream cheese frosting and crunchy maple-cinnamon walnuts.
Servings: 12
Calories: 337kcal
Equipment
- 20 cm cake tin round
Ingredients
Batter
- 260 g pumpkin, Hokkaido Cooked, cooled and mashed
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 165 g plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp ground ginger
- ⅓ tsp nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp cardamom
- tiny pinch cloves
- 115 g unsalted butter
- 130 g soft dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 80 g Greek yogurt
- 1½ tsp vanilla
- zest of ½ orange
- 60 g toasted walnuts roughly chopped
Frosting
- 45 g butter
- 170 g cream cheese Full-fat
- 70 –80 g icing sugar Sieved
- 1½ tbsp maple syrup
- ¾ tsp vanilla
- pinch of salt
Walnut topping
- 1 tsp maple syrup
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- tiny pinch flaky salt
Instructions
Brown the butter
- Melt the 115 g butter over medium heat and let it foam and turn golden with those gorgeous little brown flecks.
- Don't rush this bit. That's one of the flavours that will make this cake special.
- Let it cool for 10–15 minutes.
Pumpkin
- Mix your 260 g pumpkin with 1½ tsp maple syrup.
Batter
- Heat the oven : 160°C fan / 175°C conventional
- Whisk the brown butter + brown sugar.
- Add the eggs, then yogurt, vanilla and orange zest.
- Mix in the pumpkin.
- Fold in the dry ingredients, followed by the 60 g toasted walnuts.
- Don't overmix.
Bake
- use a 20 cm round cake tin for this quantity.
- bake for approximately 35–40 minutes.
- Start checking at 30–35 minutes. We want moist crumbs, not a completely dry skewer.
Frosting
- Brown the butter and allow it to cool. Then whisk it until slightly creamy, now add all the other frosting ingredients.
- Don't make the frosting too sweet. That tang from the cream cheese against the brown sugar/pumpkin cake is going to be chef's kiss.
Walnut topping
- Use another 25–30 g walnuts.
- Toast them, then toss with:1 tsp maple syrup½ tsp cinnamontiny pinch flaky salt
- Let them cool and get slightly sticky/crunchy.
- Then pile them over the frosting.
Notes
- Use well-drained pumpkin purée. Hokkaido pumpkin can hold quite a bit of moisture, and excess water can make the cake heavy. Let the cooked pumpkin drain well before measuring.
- Don't skip the brown butter! Those little golden-brown milk solids are where all that gorgeous nutty, caramel-like flavour comes from. Keep an eye on it because brown butter can go from perfect to burnt surprisingly quickly.
- Toast the walnuts. It only takes a few minutes, but it makes a huge difference. Toasting brings out their natural nuttiness and gives the finished cake much more flavour.
- Don't overmix the batter. Once the flour goes in, fold just until everything is combined. This helps keep that beautiful tender, melt-in-your-mouth crumb.
- Let the cake cool completely before frosting. I know. It's torture when the kitchen smells this good. 😏 But frosting a warm cake will make your beautiful maple cream cheese frosting melt.
- Keep the frosting slightly tangy. Resist the urge to make it super sweet. The tangy cream cheese balances the rich pumpkin cake and maple beautifully.
- The walnut crunch is worth making! The combination of toasted walnuts, maple, cinnamon and a little flaky salt gives you the perfect contrast to the soft cake and creamy frosting.
- For the best flavour, serve at room temperature. If you've refrigerated the cake, let it sit out for about 20–30 minutes before serving. The brown butter and maple flavours become much more pronounced.
- Make it ahead: The unfrosted cake can be baked a day ahead and kept well wrapped at room temperature. Prepare the frosting and walnut topping separately, then assemble before serving.
- A little extra orange zest on top gives the cake a beautiful fresh finish and makes all those