Serves: about 24 squares - Time:
This cake has autumn written all over it-even the caramel brown hue matches the colour of the autumn leaves. As Halloween is approaching I couldn’t resist adorning the top with the mini sugared pumpkins -which you can buy on Amazon. This is one of the easiest cakes to make especially as the pumpkin purée comes from a can which you can now find in most supermarkets. Look online if you can’t source it locally. The Pumpkin Spice Mix can be found widely online too, however you could replace it with a mix of cinnamon, ground ginger and ground allspice. If you can’t get jars of dulce de leche I would suggest Carnation Caramel or Bonne Maman Salted Caramel but they have a milder flavour so you may need to add an extra tablespoon or two. I love sheet cakes for the fact you can cut them into bite-size squares so this cake would feed about 24 small mouths. If you’re planning a Halloween party this may be the perfect cake.
Ingredients
- A little butter for greasing
- 150g plain flour
- 100g wholewheat spelt flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin spice mix (see intro)
- 150g golden caster sugar
- 150g light brown muscovado sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 150ml sunflower oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 x 425g can pumpkin purée
- For the frosting
- 80g unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 250g full fat soft cheese
- 200g dulce de leche
- ¼ teaspoon Maldon salt
Method
- Heat the oven fan 180˚c, mark 6. Grease and line with non-stick baking parchment a 32 x 22 cm tin. Put the two flours, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and spice mix in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Put the two sugars, eggs, oil and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl and beat until smooth and thoroughly mixed. Beat in the pumpkin purée. Gradually mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until no floury lumps remain.
- Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes until risen and golden. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- For the frosting, beat the butter with the soft cheese until smooth. Stir in the dulce de leche and salt.
- When the cake is completely cold spread the frosting over the top of the cake. If you like, decorate with sugared pumpkin sweets or similar.
