Easy cake recipe – Quick Pumpkin and Spice Tea Cake (2024)

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour (maida)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg grated (use the finest grater you have)
• 1 tsp cinnamon powder (I use Keya brand)
• 1 tsp masala chai (I used ASA brand asaspice.com)
• 3 tbsps butter soft
• 3/4 cup castor sugar
• 1/2 cup butter milk (add 1 tsp vinegar to 1/2 cup cold -let it stand for 2 mins)
• 3/4 packed pumpkin puree (instructions at the end) cup
• 2 tbsps cocoa chocolate powder or drinking or Nesquick
• 3 - 4 tbsps milk
• Handful walnuts chopped

• Preheat oven at 180xb0C. Grease and flour a loaf tin.

• In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, chai masala. Using a fine grater, grate roughly 1/2 tsp of nutmeg into this. You can use readymade nutmeg powder, but freshly grated nutmeg will provide a far more intense aroma

• Cream together the butter and sugar. Whisk in butter milk. If buttermilk is cold, the butter will solidify somewhat, but this is okay

• In a blender/mixer, blend together the pumpkin puree, creamed sugar, and buttermilk mix

• Add this to the dry ingredients. Bring together gently with a spatula. Don't overmix

• Pour 2/3rd of this mix into the prepared loaf tin

• To the remaining batter, add the cocoa or Nesquick, thin it with 3 tbsp of milk until it is of cake batter consistency

• Add this over the top of the pumpkin batter layer. With a toothpick or chopstick inserted right into the cake batter, swirl the batter, poking it into the bottom layer in multiple places. This is what gives the marbling effect

• Sprinkle walnuts and gently press them down

• Place in the middle rack of a preheated oven to bake for 35-40 minutes, until a tester comes out clean

• After 2-3 minutes, carefully loosen the edges and invert over a wire rack, where you can let it cool for 30 minutes or so, before slicing

• Serve warm with coffee or tea.

How to make pumpkin puree at home

Take 500 grams pumpkin, with the seeds scraped out. Peel and dice. In a small pressure cooker, place the diced pumpkin, add 1/2 cup water. After one whistle, keep on sim for 10 minute. Once cooker is cool enough to open, remove the pieces and mash with a wooden spoon or a potato masher. If you don't have / use a pressure cooker, boil on stove top with 1/2 cup water on a low heat, keeping it covered, until it yields to a mush when pressed with the back of a spoon

You can make this in advance and keep it in an airtight container in the refrigerator

Note:

you can use 1.5 cups self raising flour instead of flour+baking powder+ baking soda +salt in the recipe

I'm sure the pumpkin puree can be easily replaced by a carrot or beetroot puree for a similar, beautiful coloured tea cake. Vegans can use soy milk instead of regular milk

(c) Nandita Iyer 2006-2015