Pumpkin spice cake

Covered with a snowy layer of cream where gingerbread trees guard each other, this is an ultimate festive season cake to serve for brunch, breakfast, lunch or tea time. Almost sugar-free and sweetened with dates, it has just enough sweetness to satisfy everyone and especially those who do not like too much sweetness. It is worth waiting 12 hours while the cream drains because it just lightens up the pumpkin cake – the creaminess and also the taste.

Ingredients

220 g wholegrain flour
pinch of sea salt
10 g (2 tsp) baking powder
3 cardamom pods, seed finely crushed
2 tsp ginger powder
50 g Demerara sugar
250 g mealy, dense pumpkin puree
240 g sheep’s or cow's milk Greek yoghurt
200 g pitted juicy dates
130 ml grape seed oil
4 egg yolks
50 g dried cranberries
40 g candied apple or quince

for the cream:
500 g sour cream or Greek yoghurt
1‒2 tbsp honey
cinnamon to taste
pinch of sea salt
finely grated zest of an organic orange

Prepare

Start to make the cream day before. Set a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth or a coffee filter over a bowl and spoon sour cream into the sieve. Cover, refrigerate and allow the liquid to drain off for 12 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°. Line a 10 x 25 cm baking pan with baking paper.

In a bowl, add flour, salt, baking powder, cardamom, ginger, sugar, and mix. In a separate bowl, mix puree with yoghurt. Divide in two parts. Add dates to one part and blend until smooth (some pieces left bigger is great). When blended, mix with the rest of the puree mix, add eggs, oil, and mix with a fork. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. Mix just until incorporated – don’t over mix. Add the cranberries and apple pieces and mix.

Fill the pan, spread evenly, and bake in the middle of the oven for 45-55 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted comes out clean. When done, remove and cool 30 minutes in the pan. Transfer to a cooling rack. Cool completely.

When the cake is cool, in a bowl, mix the strained cream with honey, orange zest, salt and cinnamon. Spread over the cake, decorate and serve. Or, you can cut the cake without the cream and put the cream on table so that everyone can put as much as they want or not at all.

Don' t forget to bake gingerbread cookies and have some salad before the cake.

Pictures, style and text: Signe Meirane
In collaboration with HM Home Christmas collection
Christmas tree: www.eglupiegade.lv