Pumpkin and orange cake: A real winter dessert with a secret ingredient that doesn’t require eggs and will give the perfect creaminess

It seems that this winter, or at least its beginning, will be marked by sweets containing oranges and pumpkin . For the kuglof, the recipe of which can be found in the article ” Christmas pumpkin and orange kuglof – a true winter fantasy “, many of you told me that they had made it and that they really liked it. It smells to me that this could happen with the next recipe as well.

As I have already written on several occasions, most recently in the recipe for roll pie , I very often use orange sweet potato or hokkaido and kabocha pumpkin in desserts or creams that contain eggs (especially egg yolk) . Precisely because they perfectly imitate the egg yolk and, if you want, you can completely hide their taste and use their creamy texture.

This time I decided to use pumpkin in the cream, and orange in the biscuit and dressing . Also, in the recipe I offer you the possibility or idea of ​​how to play with the same cream and get three colors, but also three different flavors :

• orange cream , if you want at least a little taste of sweet pumpkin and peanuts
• light brown cream that for some reason tastes a little like hazelnuts and chestnuts (although there are no traces of them among the ingredients)
• dark brown chocolate cream .

The proportions depend entirely on your taste. If you want to completely avoid the taste of pumpkin , feel free to mix everything.

You can’t go wrong, no matter what you decide, because you make the decision anyway when the main part of the cream is ready and you just have to add chocolate and cocoa to it.

More details about it in the recipe, and you also have a choice with the biscuit – it can be with or without cocoa or half/half so you can mix it in the mold. Finally, you have a choice when it comes to cutting the cake . He is really grateful for all kinds of forms.

The ingredients are enough for a 24 x 30 cm mold.

Ingredients for biscuit:

• 150 g semi-white wheat flour
• 100 g of sharp wheat flour
• 50 g of corn flour
• 150 g of integral sugar
• 400 ml of squeezed orange juice
• 100 ml of vegetable oil
• grated zest of 1 – 2 oranges
• 1 baking powder (12 g)
• 3 soup spoons of cocoa (optional).

Ingredients for the first dressing:

• 2 packets of transparent cake topping based on carob gum (24 g in total)
• 500 ml of orange juice
• sugar according to the instructions for the dressing (about 4 soup spoons)
• 2 soup spoons of orange or tangerine jam (optional).

Ingredients for the second dressing:

• 50 g dark chocolate for cooking
• 3 soup spoons of vegetable cream for whipped cream
• sugar as needed.

Ingredients for the cream:

• 700 g of kabocha or Hokkaido pumpkin
• 100 g of dark chocolate
• 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder
• 25 g of vegan butter or margarine
• 2 soup spoons of vegetable cream for whipped cream
• 3 tablespoons of peanut butter
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• liquid syrup/sweetener as needed.

Preparation

1. To prepare the biscuit, mix all the dry ingredients separately and the wet ingredients separately and gradually add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix everything well. You can add cocoa immediately to the dry ingredients or only to half of the already mixed mixture, then when pouring into the pan, sprinkle it so that the biscuit has two colors.
2. Pour into a tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated oven at 180 °C .
3. You need to make a puree out of the pumpkin , the best way is to bake the pumpkin beforehand in the oven because it will lose the most water and the cream will ultimately be more velvety and compact. If you want to shorten the baking time, feel free to peel the pumpkin beforehand and cut it into small equal cubes. Bake at 200 °C for 10 or more minutes (depending on the size of the cubes). Remove all the water that comes out, and make a smooth puree from the roasted pieces. Use a stick mixer or blender and feel free to immediately add vegan butter or margarine and whipping cream to make it even easier to blend.
4. Add cinnamon and peanut butter to the puree obtained in this way and sweeten with maple or other syrup as needed to the desired sweetness.
5. Now you have two options . You can mix melted chocolate and cocoa into the puree and get one cream, or divide the puree into three parts (they don’t have to be equal amounts, but according to what flavors you want) and, for example, leave one orange, add a little cocoa and a couple of soup spoons of melted chocolate to the other , and in the third (for me it was the biggest part) add the most chocolate and cocoa.
6. Leave the resulting cream or creams in the refrigerator to cool and squeeze.
7. Pour the first topping that you make according to the instructions for a transparent gelatin-like topping onto the cooled biscuit, only yours will be orange and taste like the middle of a jaffa biscuit.
8. When the topping has cooled on the biscuit, pour over it the second topping that you prepare by melting chocolate with vegetable cream for whipping cream and sugar or other sweetener as needed.
9. After the second chocolate topping has cooled on the biscuit, decorate the cake with pumpkin and chocolate cream . Those who want a simpler approach to the cream can just pour it out and level it with a knife and sprinkle with cocoa if desired.
10. As for cutting, as you can see from the attached photos, the cake is ideal for whatever shapes you want – cutting with a larger round mold, cubes, rectangles, triangles or thin slices. It is very easy to cut and retains juiciness for up to several days without any problems. I guarantee for four days, beyond that I don’t know. 🙂

Enjoy!