Some flavours are so great to be paired together, that you just want to give it a try without giving any second thought. This is what happened when I was watching a cooking show on TV a couple of weeks back where a local home baker of Turkish origin was shown baking some pistachio orange syrup cake and then finally serving them with some greek yogurt. The flavour pairing sounded so exotic to me that I was almost drooling over it. I wanted to bake something similar very soon. And it had been ages, I baked a cake for my loved ones. Not that I baked it for myself either. I might have turned on my oven probably a month ago, when I baked these lovely grissini. This was quite a lot to trigger on the baker instincts and fire up the oven. This being the fall season and especially when you get to see pumpkin recipes all over the internet, you gotta think about them too. Pumpkin, orange, turkish apricots and pistachios sounded like the perfect concoction together. And I was ready to bake them into a cake. A cake which was meant to be shared with loved ones. And coincidentally, it’s the Thanksgiving weekend too. Though we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving largely here in India, but why not this just be a token of love, gratitude and thanks to my friends, family, and all those lovely folks who inspire me day in and out. And I was so glad that the cake came wonderfully moist, despite this being half whole wheat. Everyone loved it to the last bits.
- 225 gm peeled pumpkin, cut into thick wedges
- Finely grated zest and juice of 2 oranges
- 150 gm plain flour, sifted
- 100 gm whole wheat flour, sifted
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 200 gm butter, at room temperature
- 275 gm caster sugar
- 2 eggs
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 gm Turkish dried apricots, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup roughly chopped pistachios
- Icing sugar, warm honey and Greek-style yoghurt, to serve
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Wrap pumpkin wedges into aluminium foil and bake in a baking tray for about 20 minutes, or until cooked. Let it cool completely and then mash using a fork into smooth paste and set aside.
- Cook orange juice in a pan over medium-high heat for 8-10 minutes until syrupy and reduced to about 2 tbs. Allow to cool.
- Preheat the oven again to 180°C. Lightly grease a 9 inch round cake pan. Line the base with baking paper, then dust with flour.
- Meanwhile, place flours and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to thoroughly combine. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer on medium speed for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin, vanilla extract, orange juice, rind and milk and beat until well combined.
- Toss apricots in flour to coat, then fold the flour into batter. Pour into prepared pan, smooth top and scatter with pistachios.
- Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours until a skewer inserted in centre comes out clean. If the cake starts to brown too quick, cover loosely with aluminium foil after 45 minutes of baking.
- Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool completely. Dust with icing sugar, drizzle with honey and serve with Greek-style yoghurt.
The cake looks wonderful; so fluffy on the inside. Thank for sharing 🙂