Chai-Spiced Pumpkin Cake

This is the cake I made recently for the Kingfield Farmers Market Pumpkin Bake-off. It didn't win but I still think it was one great cake. The texture was surprisingly light & moist. The addition on the Asian spices was a nice change up from the typical pumpkin pie spices. The cayenne was my mother-in-laws idea, it doesn't add heat but brightens up all the other flavors. She says that is her trick with for a lot of recipes.

I was originally going to create my own chai spice mix for this but then read somewhere (I can't find where now) that Asian five spice powder mixed with cardamon made an easy chai spice blend. That seemed like a pretty easy way to go so I started there & then added a little more cinnamon because I felt like the flavor needed it.

I did a basic sugar/milk glaze for the icing but a cream cheese frosting would be good too. Want to make it a little spookier for halloween drizzle the glaze on in a spider web pattern though I really like it all drippy like this.

Since I was making cake for just Matt & me, I baked it up in two little 4" springform pans to give us each a little cake. I think this would probably be enough batter for an 8" cake too. The recipe can easily be doubled too & then you can just use the whole egg instead of only the white. For the bake-off I made two sheetpans but increasing the recipe quite a bit using whole eggs & it was still nice & light.

Chai-Spiced Pumpkin Cake

3 T unsalted butter
1/2 t Asian five spice powder
1/4 t cardamon
1/8 t cinnamon
pinch of cayenne
1/4 c and 2 t white sugar
1/8 t vanilla extract
1/4 c and 2 t pumpkin purée (check out He Cooks She Cooks for great post on making Pumpkin Purée from scratch)
1 egg white
1/4 c and 2 t all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/8 t salt

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter two 4" individual springform cake pans.

Put the butter, five spice powder, cinnamon & cayenne in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook slowly until the butter is brown & has a nice nutty smell. Be careful not to burn it. Put into a small mixing bowl & let cool.

Whisk the sugar, vanilla & pumpkin into the butter. Then mix in the egg white.

Stir the flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt together. Then slowly mix into the wet mixture until everything is combined.

Divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool on a rack before icing.

Makes 2 small cakes

Powdered Sugar Glaze

Powdered sugar
Milk

I really don't have a recipe for this. Typically, I start out with about 1/4 c of powdered sugar & then slowly add milk to it until I get a nice drizzly consistency. You can flavor it with vanilla or other extracts if you want too.

Check out all the other great Halloween post during the #GreatHallowTweet Halloween Blog Hop by clicking on the blogs listed on the left.

Tomorrow I'll give you an easy way to use up any pumpkin purée you have left....

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