Recipe: Spiced Pumpkin Bundt with Cream Cheese Frosting

There's only so long you can go without making a bundt. 'Almost' the most easygoing and fuss-free cake going (only trumped by a loaf cake). You give the ingredients a little mix then let it do its thing whilst it basks in the oven. I love that I can even fit some washing up and a browse through Instagram with a coffee in whilst its baking!

And, if you haven't seen enough pumpkin recently, then here's some more!

Super moist with warming spices and not too sweet. The cream cheese frosting is my favourite too. The perfect 'grown-up' cake that you can get away with having generous slices...pumpkins are vegetables after all. 

Spiced pumpkin bundt cake with cream cheese frosting
(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Spiced pumpkin bundt cake:

275g unsalted butter, softened

600g soft light brown sugar

4 eggs

560g plain flour, plus extra for the bundt tin

4tsp baking powder

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp salt

2tbsp speculoos mix (recipe here, alternatively use a mix of cinnamon, nutmeg & ginger)

200ml buttermilk

1 tin of Libby's pumpkin puree

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease a bundt tin, dust with flour and shake off any excess.
2. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and creamy.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. In a separate bowl, add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and spice mix and give a quick shuffle with a whisk to get rid of any clumps.
5. Back to the batter! On a slow speed, continue to mix alternating between a few dollops of buttermilk and the flour mix until everything is incorporated.
6. Gently fold in the pumpkin by hand.
7. Pour into the bundt tin, two thirds of the way up the tin and bake in the centre of the oven for 50-55 minutes. A skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean.
8. Leave on a wire rack to cool.

Spiced cream cheese frosting:
(yields enough to frost at least a dozen cupcakes or one bundt cake)

200g cream cheese, room temperature

50g unsalted butter, softened

350g icing sugar, sifted

1tsp vanilla extract

1tsp speculoos spice mix (recipe here, alternatively use cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger)

1. In a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth. This will ensure there's no lumps in the finished frosting. 
2. Continue to beat whilst adding the cream cheese and icing sugar, a little at a time on a low speed.
3. Finally add the vanilla and spice and beat until incorporated. The mix will be nice and thick for frosting, but add a splash of mix if you want to be able to drizzle over the bundt a little more.

To finish, tip the bundt out onto a serving plate. If the bundt isn't flat on the bottom, you may want to slice a little off with a serrated knife to level it. I decorated mine with a big drizzle of the frosting and blitzed the chopped off bottom pieces to crumbs and scattered on top.

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