Hello everyone,

It's been a while since the last time I participated in Steemit Culinary Challenge. It's good to be back in the contest again. I was so excited when I discovered the new theme for this week's SCC, it spoke to me and it just came at the right time. At first I wanted to make a pie because I've been wanting to play with the lattice so I found a good excuse to make a pie. But then, I was so indecisive, I also wanted to make Pumpkin Cake because I have some leftover of pumpkin purée after making a pumpkin brownies. I finally chose to make this Pumpkin Tiramisu Cake.

The recipe of the cake is adapted from here while the frosting is adapted from this blog. Both actually came from the same author. As @woman-onthe-wing suggested, I chose to replace the vegetable oil and granulated sugar called in the recipes with coconut oil and coconut sugar instead. I just bought a gallon of coconut oil!!! :-D Will use more coconut oil for my baked goodies from now on. As for coconut sugar, I can say that it gives another nice flavor especially to the frosting which I found interesting. It also has a nice smell. I love it.

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Pumpkin Tiramisu Cake with Heritage Mascarpone Frosting (Refined Sugar Free)

Coconut Sugar Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients

• 375 gr all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 210 ml coconut oil, melted and cooled
• 330 gr coconut sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 340 gr sugar pumpkin purée
  PS: The original recipe called for 450 gr of purée but I didn't have enough since I read the recipe incorrectly :-( But the cake turned out fine.

Directions

• Preheat oven to 175°C and spray with cooking oil and line two 8 inch (20 cm) baking pan. You may also grease and flour the pans.

• Mix together the dry ingredients: AP flour,baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt, cloves. Sift them and set aside.

• In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat the coconut sugar and coconut oil for about 2-3 minutes. Add in the eggs, one at a time. Stop the mixer and scrape down the bowl.

• With the mixer running on low speed, add in the dry ingredients in two batches then add in the pumpkin purée. Mix on high speed for no longer then 30 seconds. Dont overmix. Divide the batter equally into the two pans. The batter is thick.

• Bake for about 25-28 minutes. Let it completely cool before decorating.

Amarula Coffee Soak

Ingredients

• 60 ml Amarula cream liqueur
• 60 ml water
• 2 tsp instant espresso powder
• 100 gr coconut sugar

Directions

• Put all the ingredients in a sauce pan, bring to boil then simmer until the mixture is slightly thickened. Leave it cool completely before using.

Heritage Mascarpone Frosting

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp all purpose flour
• a pinch of salt
• 250 ml whole milk
• 170 gr unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
• 150 gr coconut sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 170 gr mascarpone, softened at room temperature

Directions

• In a saucepan, place the AP flour, milk and salt. Whisk until there are no lumps then put on the stove on medium heat. Keep whisking until the mixture is thickened and pasty. Transfer to a bowl then press a cling wrap on top the mixture to prevent a skin to form. Leave it to cool completely.

• In a bowl of a stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment, beat sugar and unsalted butter for about 2-3 minutes. Then add the flour-milk mixture. Beat until creamy, fluffy and light in color. Fold in the softened mascarpone. Dont overmix. PS: My frosting looks curdled but it's soft and creamy, no impression of curdled cream in my mouth when I tasted it. It's possible that I overmixed. Please watch out.

Assembling

• Brush the cake with Amarula Coffee Soak generously.

• Put the frosting into a piping bag and pipe on top the first layer.

• Repeat the process for the second layer and sprinkle with cacao powder.

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If you like spiced cake, this cake is perfect for you. The smell of the spices is just heavenly, especially when it's combined with the frosting. Yummy, I can have more than one slices :-D

Before signing off, I'd like to thank the host @woman-onthe-wing, the sponsors @gringalicious and @sirwinchester, the guest judge @ats-david and fellow participants to always support Steemit Culinary Challenge.

Thank you everyone for reading and have nice week ahead!

Cheers,

All content and images are mine and original. Photos were taken with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ1000.