Pumpkin Sweet Potato Cake
A moist, tender pumpkin cake made from scratch with roasted pumpkin and sweet potato, yogurt and warm fall spices. Bake it in a round pan or shaped like a pumpkin for Halloween, with a chocolate-filled face.
10 slices
Equipment
- 20-22 cm (8-9 in) round cake pan Or a 25 cm (10 in) loaf pan
- Lékué 3D pumpkin cake mold Optional, 2.3 L (about 10 cups), with the recipe doubled
- Electric mixer or stand mixer Optional, for whipping the eggs
- Probe thermometer Optional
Ingredients
- 105 g roasted pumpkin puree scant ½ cup; from about 250 g (9 oz) raw pumpkin, at room temperature
- 105 g roasted sweet potato puree scant ½ cup; from 1 small sweet potato of about 180 g (6 oz), at room temperature
- 3 eggs US large or EU medium; at room temperature
- 140 g granulated sugar ⅔ cup + ½ tbsp
- 105 g unsalted butter 7½ tbsp; melted and cooled to about 40 °C (105 °F)
- 85 g plain yogurt ⅓ cup; at room temperature
- 16 g lemon juice 1 tbsp
- 225 g all-purpose flour 1¾ cups + 1 tbsp
- 2 g baking soda scant ½ tsp
- 2 g fine salt ⅓ tsp
- 2 g ground cinnamon ¾ tsp
- 1 g ground ginger ½ tsp
- 1 g ground nutmeg scant ½ tsp
- 1 pinch ground turmeric ⅛ tsp; for color
- 5 g butter for greasing 1 tsp; or parchment paper
For the Halloween face (optional)
- 50 g dark baking chocolate 1¾ oz; semisweet, bittersweet or milk. To drizzle over the cake or, with the recipe doubled, to fill the face of the 3D pumpkin
Instructions
The purees
- Roast the pumpkin and sweet potato. At 200 °C (400 °F). The pumpkin in pieces, seeds removed, for about 30-40 minutes, until a fork slides in easily. The sweet potato whole and pricked with a fork, 45-60 minutes depending on size. They can go in together.
- Make the purees. Scoop out the pumpkin flesh, peel the sweet potato and blend them separately. If the pumpkin puree is watery, dry it for a few minutes in a skillet. Weigh 105 g of each and let them cool.
The batter
- Get the oven and pan ready. At 170 °C (340 °F), conventional setting with top and bottom heat, rack in the middle. Grease the pan with the 5 g of butter or line it with parchment paper.
- Melt the butter. The 105 g, and let it cool to about 40 °C (105 °F).
- Sift the dry ingredients. The flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and turmeric, together.
- Beat the eggs with the sugar. With a hand whisk, for 1 minute. Optional, for a taller, airier cake: whip them with an electric mixer or a stand mixer for 6-7 minutes, until pale and almost tripled in volume. For the 3D mold, we recommend it.
- Add the purees and the yogurt. Both purees, the yogurt and the lemon juice, and mix. Then the cooled butter, a little at a time, in a thin stream.
- Fold in the flour. In two or three additions, with a spatula, folding. Stop as soon as you can't see any flour: overmixing makes the cake tough.
Baking
- Bake right away. Pour the batter into the pan, no more than two thirds full, and into the oven without waiting, because the baking soda is already reacting with the yogurt and lemon. 40-50 minutes in a 20-22 cm (8-9 in) round pan or 55-65 minutes in a 25 cm (10 in) loaf pan.
- Check that it's done. A skewer in the center should come out clean. With a probe thermometer, 95-98 °C (203-208 °F) in the center.
- Let it cool. 10-15 minutes in the pan, then unmold and let it cool completely on a wire rack.
If you're using the 3D pumpkin mold
- Double the ingredients. All of them, and whip the eggs with the sugar in step 6.
- Prepare the mold. Grease both halves well, especially the ridges, and close it.
- Fill it. Pour the batter through the hole at the top until it's about three quarters full, and tap it gently so the batter settles into the ridges.
- Bake lower and longer. At 160 °C (320 °F), on the lowest part of the oven and on a preheated baking sheet, for 90-110 minutes. Check with a long skewer through the hole.
- Unmold in two stages. 20 minutes in the closed mold, remove the top half, wait 30 more minutes and unmold.
The Halloween face (optional)
- Carve the face. With the pumpkin completely cool, carve eyes, a nose and a mouth with a small knife.
- Fill it with chocolate. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in short bursts, stirring. Fill the holes with a piping bag or a bag with a snipped corner, and serve.
Video
Notes
- The purees can be made the day before and kept in the fridge. Take them out ahead of time so they're at room temperature.
- If you only have pumpkin, use 210 g of roasted pumpkin puree. It comes out with a little less color.
- For the 3D pumpkin mold (about 2.3 L), double all the ingredients and follow the steps in the mold group.
- Panela (unrefined cane sugar) instead of sugar works well too, just darker.
- If you have batter left over, bake it in muffin liners for 20-25 minutes at 180 °C (350 °F).
- It keeps for 2-3 days well covered at room temperature.