Pumpkin & Pecan Praline Cake

I made this cake quickly after work for a family birthday, on Bonfire Night!

I decided to go for full on autumn flavours with a pumpkin sponge and pecan praline topping. All helped with a good smothering of dark chocolate ganache.

For this I used a combination of Marta Stewart recipes, including the pumpkin sponge I made into mini cakes here, and the pecan praline. The ganache was my first attempt and a bit of guestimating!

Pumpkin cake, with dark chocolate ganache & pecan praline
(Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart)
     2 cups plain flour
     1tsp bicarbonate of soda
     1tsp baking powder
     1tsp salt
     1tsp ground cinnamon
     1tsp ground ginger
     1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
     1/4 tsp ground allspice
     1 cup packed light brown sugar
     1 cup granulated sugar
     1 cup butter, melted and cooled
     4 eggs, lightly beaten
     1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (I used Libby's)

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and grease 3 regular sandwich tins.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and allspice; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter and eggs. Add dry ingredients and whisk until smooth. Whisk in the pumpkin puree,
• Divide the batter evenly between the tins. Bake until golden and the tops spring back when touched, roughly 25-30 minutes. Cool in the tins for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Chocolate ganache

     200g dark chocolate

     300ml double cream

     2tbsp golden caster sugar

• Chop the chocolate into small chunks and tip into a heatproof bowl.
• Heat the double cream in a pan, add the sugar and heat until it is about to boil.
• Take off the heat and pour over the chocolate chunks.
• Continue to stir until all chunks have melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pecan praline

(Recipe from Martha Stewart)

     vegetable oil, for baking tray

     1 cup golden caster sugar

     1 cup whole pecans, lightly toasted

• Lightly coat a baking tray with vegetable oil and set aside.
• Mix together the sugar and 1/4 cup of water in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. Cover and cook, without stirring, until an amber coloured syrup has formed, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and add the pecans. Pour mixture onto prepared baking tray and leave to cool completely.
• When the praline has cooled, coarsely chop. 

To finish, I sandwiched the three layers of pumpkin cake with lashings of chocolate ganache. Then, poured the rest over the top. Did a little tidying up and sprinkled over the chopped pecan praline.

There was enough praline left to cover one more cake...Martha advises to store in an airtight container at room temperature.