Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake With Coffee Frosting

Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake With Coffee Frosting

Tieghan Gerard, who runs the wildly popular Half Baked Harvest blog, posts a new recipe nearly every day, all year round, but her favorite season is (of course) fall, when she brings out the pumpkin-shaped pots, pumpkin-scented candles and toasted pumpkin seeds. Even if you don’t identify with the P.S.L. set, separating the pumpkin spice (cake) from the latte (frosting) makes this a delicious snack cake. Pumpkin purée makes it very moist, so test to be sure the batter is baked all the way through. —Julia Moskin

Yield: 1 (8-inch) cake

For the Cake

½ cup/120 milliliters coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing

1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée

⅔ cup/146 grams packed light or dark brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1½ cups/192 grams all-purpose flour

1¼ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground cardamom

¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

¾ teaspoon fine pink Himalayan salt or fine sea salt

For the Frosting

½ cup/1 stick salted butter, at room temperature

2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

1½ cups/185 grams confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon instant espresso powder

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper, leaving a 1-inch overhang on two opposite sides. Grease the parchment with coconut oil.

Make the cake: In a stand mixer, beat together the pumpkin, brown sugar, melted coconut oil, eggs and vanilla on low until combined, about 1 minute. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg and salt. Mix on low speed until completely smooth, 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake until the center is just set, 25 to 30 minutes. Carefully use the parchment paper overhang to remove the cake from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. Let cool for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the frosting: In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and cream cheese until combined, 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar, espresso powder and vanilla; beat until the frosting is fluffy, 2 to 4 minutes more.

Spread the frosting over the cooled cake. Slice, snack and enjoy! Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

TIP: The recipe makes way too much frosting. You could cut in half. And double the coffee. I used instant decaf. But the cake itself is so moist and wonderful, you could drop the frosting all together!

As some suggested, I added an egg. I also subbed 1/2 the coconut oil for buttermilk and my cake is not dense. Also halved the icing and used fresh brewed espresso so tweaked the frosting to accommodate the extra liquid.

I cooked the recipe exactly, other than slightly extending the cooking time. Cake is great IMO - actually the texture I expected and wanted, not too dense but not light and cakey, either. Exactly the right amount of frosting, also, and no need for extra liquid at all.

I made 12 cupcakes and with the leftover batter, I covered the bottom of a pie plate. No frosting. It's really good - reminiscent of ginger bread. My variations: 1/4 olive oil plus 1/4 room temperature butter instead of coconut oil, 1 cup of AP flour plus 1/2 cup of ground hazelnuts for the flour, 1/2 t of kosher salt instead of Himalayan pink salt.