Pumpkin Tea Cake

Pumpkin Tea Cake

Fall is here. Yesterday, it was still summer - the weather was in the mid-80s and sunny - but today, clouds are in the sky, the ground is slightly damp (rain!), and none of the street lights are working on Wilshire. Fall has officially arrived in L.A.

Fall means pumpkins! Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread - and Tartine's Pumpkin Tea Cake. I slept in until 6:00 this morning, and since the only other person awake at that hour was my cat, Izzy, I decided it was a good time to bake some bread. (Truth be told, I actually thought it was a good time to make a pumpkin pie, but then I thought about making a crust and got depressed and quickly changed course to a quick bread.)  

Good Izzy.

Tartine's Pumpkin Tea Cake is full of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. It goes perfectly with a latte and if you're lucky, a dollop of bourbon sauce. This recipe claims to yield 6 to 8 servings that last up to 4 days; in fact, this won't make it past tomorrow.

So many spices. So many.

Pre-bake.

Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp + 2 tsp ground cinnamon

2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1 cup + 2 tsp pumpkin puree

1 cup vegetable oil

1 1/3 cups sugar

3/4 tsp salt

3 large eggs

2 tbsp sugar for topping

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9-by-5 loaf pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves into a mixing bowl and set aside.

In another mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin puree, oil, sugar and salt on medium speed or by hand until well mixed. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition until incorporated before adding the next egg. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. On low speed, add the flour mixture and beat just until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then beat on medium speed for 5 to 10 seconds to make a smooth batter. The batter should have consistency of a thick puree.

Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with an offset spatula. Sprinkle evenly with the sugar. Bake until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for about 20 minutes, and then invert onto the rack, turn right side up, and let cool completely. Serve the cake at room temperature. It will keep, well wrapped, at room temperature for 4 days or in the refrigerator for about 1 week.