Russian Season

Follow my blog with bloglovin

On the first snowy day in Riga, Mom made this cold pumpkin cake.

I’ve never seen a fall as long, warm, and sunny in Riga as this year. I believe this was done specially for Ivanka :) thanks to the fine weather, we could stay in the fresh air for hours, and those long long rains typical for Latvian autumn began only in mid-November. Or maybe that’s just a head start before a severe winter, we’ll see. Anyway, yesterday everything got covered with a thin layer of snow - and believe me I can see far from my 14th floor! In fact I can make mini-weather forecasts from here! Not to mention that it’s just nice to see nothing but the sky from the windows. I noticed some drawbacks of living on the 14th floor however, when the elevator stopped and someone remained stuck inside until the mender arrived…

Anyway, it looks like winter here now, and it’s a reason to have a piece of delicious cake, isn’t it? The pumpkin cake made by Mom is a compilation of multiple American cake recipes (including carrot cake) and it’s cold like winter, dusted with snow-like caster sugar, and comforting and filling as anything made of pumpkin is. I loved the super-dense, super moist texture, the slightly salty creamy filling and the subtle sweet flavour of baked pumpkin enhanced by ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I’m sure it’s good with a cup of Christmas tea, although it was just as good with the delicate jasmine and peach blossom tea that my aunt brought from China. These pictures of the cake are actually taken by her (seems like everyone in my family is getting involved in this blog, hehe)!

Ingredients

- Batter:
1kg fresh pumpkin, peeled
450g all-purpose flour
400g sugar
180g butter, melted
4 eggs
1tsp ground nutmeg
1tsp ground ginger
1tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground cloves
1/2tsp salt
4tsp baking powder
2tsp baking soda

-Filling
200g Philadelphia or similar cheese
400ml whipping cream
1 cup sugar
2tsp vanilla sugar

Caster sugar for decoration

28cm diameter springform

Shred the pumpkin and drain excess juice.

Add butter, sugar, and eggs, and beat with a fork until well-blended.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, spices, salt, baking powder and baking soda, stir well.

Stir the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture and stir until well-blended. Pour into prepared springform.

Bake at 180C until a wooden stick inserted into centre of the cake comes out clean (approx. 70 mins). Allow to cool.

Make the filling by whisking together cheese, whipping cream, sugar, and vanilla.

Cut the cake into two layers and spread the cream between the layers. Dust with caster sugar, refrigerate for at least 3 hours and serve chilled.