Melanie Johnson’s Chocolate Bundt Cake is a perfect blend of indulgence and using up leftovers.
“Pumpkins are the perfect seasonal decoration and their flesh will never go to waste in my kitchen,” says our vegetable garden chef Melanie Johnson.
The easiest way to cook them is to cut them into half-inch cubes and roast them for 20 minutes – roast them with wedges of red onion and they make a wonderful pasta dish with chilli, garlic and fontina cheese.
Recipe: Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt with Maple Syrup Frosting
Ingredients
For the chimney pan
- 15g of butter
- 15g plain flour
For the cake
- 325g unsalted butter, melted
- 500 g golden caster sugar
- 5 eggs
- 120ml sour cream
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 325g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 30g cocoa powder
- 75ml boiling water
- 200 g pumpkin, cooked and mashed, or canned
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger
For the icing
- 225g icing sugar, sifted
- 50g unsalted butter
- ½tsp vanilla bean paste
- 180ml maple syrup
Decorate
Method
Preheat your oven to 160°C fan/180°C/350°F/thermostat 4.
Melt the butter and, using a pastry brush, brush it evenly over the inside of a tube pan, taking care to get into all the nooks and crannies. I find it easiest to brush from the base up to avoid any buttery buildup. Sift the flour, moving the pan from side to side to coat well. Turn it over and give it a final blow to remove any excess, then set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, sour cream and vanilla and mix until completely combined. Add flour and baking powder.
Place the cocoa powder in a small bowl and pour the boiling water over it. Mix into a paste. In another bowl, mix the pumpkin purée and the spices well.
Divide the cake mixture in half and add the cocoa mixture in one bowl and the pumpkin spice in the other. Mix the two until smooth. Pour half of the chocolate batter into the prepared pan, then add all of the pumpkin batter, followed by the rest of the chocolate batter. Use a skewer or toothpick to gently stir the pasta together. Bake for 1 hour 10/15 minutes or until a knife inserted into the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan on wire rack to allow air to circulate for 15 minutes, before inverting onto wire rack to cool completely.
For the maple glaze, whisk together the icing sugar, butter, vanilla and maple syrup. Place a plate under the bundt on the wire rack and pour the glaze over the cake. Pour the frosting collected on the plate over the cake again to completely cover it and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds. This bundt will keep well in an airtight container for up to five days.
From Bundt by Melanie Johnson (Ebury Press, £28)
Credit: Melanie Johnson for Country Life
