If you’ve been on social media lately, you will have seen it awash with pumpkin, spice and everything nice. This is because the northern hemisphere is going into their autumn season or ‘fall’, as they call it. As our friends up north will tell you… this is the season of “sweata weatha!”. And, while we’re happily ditching our winter woollies in favour of spring dresses (in the Cape this is still touch and go, tbh), we couldn’t let them have all the fun.

Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake Pods

Nespresso has recently released their Pumpkin Spice Cake coffee pods – they make for a deliciously warming cup of coffee, with delicate spiced notes.  And, what’s better than cake-inspired coffee? Well, actual cake to go along with it, that’s what!

Inspired by the fall-pumpkin wave, we’ve whipped up this delicious cake made with roasted pumpkin purée and infused with some perfectly brewed Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake coffee. We made ours in a Bundt tin, but you can use any shape 20cm cake tin.

TIP: If you are using a Bundt tin, ensure that you grease it extremely well… and we do mean extremely well. Get every nook and cranny well-greased with butter (when you think it’s greased, grease it some more) and then still give it a spray of non-stick cooking spray. This will ensure that your cake slides out easily (Bundt tins are notoriously devilish).

Bake this Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake

This pretty-as-a-picture cake is full of the flavours of ‘fall’ with notes of clove, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. It has a layer of nutty streusel through the centre and also on the underside of the cake, which adds divine texture and crunch (literally, streusel is never a bad idea). The pumpkin makes the cake crumb tender and moist and adds a divine umami flavour, especially if you roast it until well-caramelised. We opted to blitz our pumpkin so that it was perfectly smooth when adding it to our batter.

Being Extra is never a bad thing

Because we love everything that’s a little over the top, we’ve added a peanut butter drizzle to our cake. To make this, you simply need to heat butter with smooth peanut butter and some sifted icing sugar. If it becomes thick, simply reheat to get it to a drizzling consistency. It will set on the cake once the butter in the mixture cools back to room temperature.

…pumpkin and spice and all things nice!

To decorate we’ve used whole pecans, as well as extra streusel that came loose when we removed it from the tin (trust us, this is too good to waste).

So, what are you waiting for? This weekend is the perfect excuse to make this delicious cake and enjoy it while the weather makes up its mind!

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RECIPE: Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake

Serves: 8
Prep time: 30 mins
Cook time: 35-40 minutes + 40 minutes to roast the pumpkin
Difficulty: easy

Ingredients

For the Streusel Topping

½ C (125 ml) light brown sugar
¼ C (60 ml)  cake flour
½ C (125 ml) finely chopped pecan nuts
1 tsp (5 ml) ground cinnamon
3 Tbsp (30 ml) unsalted butter, softened

For the Cake

1 C (250 ml) pumpkin purée (see method below)
2 C (500 ml) cake flour
1 tsp (5 ml) baking powder
½ tsp (2,5 ml) bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp (2,5 ml) salt
½ tsp (2,5 ml) ground cinnamon
¼  tsp (1,25 ml) ground ginger
¼  tsp (1,25 ml) ground nutmeg
½ C (125 ml) light brown sugar
½ C (125 ml) granulated white sugar
½ C (125 ml) vegetable oil
2 large eggs
40 ml brewed Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Coffee 

For the Peanut Butter Drizzle (optional)

½ C (125 ml) smooth peanut butter (no sugar PB works best)
¼ C (60 ml) icing sugar, sifted
¼ C (60 ml) butter

To Decorate

8 whole pecan nuts

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Spray the bottom of a 20-centimetre square pan with nonstick cooking spray. If using a Bundt tin (as we did), ensure that you grease very well with butter and a coating of non-stick spray as well.

Make the streusel topping

In a small bowl combine all of the streusel ingredients with a fork until crumbly. Set aside.

Make the pumpkin purée

Cut the pumpkin in half and roast for 45 minutes. Check on the pumpkin intermittently. Scoop out when softened and mash or blend with a stick blender if preferred. Measure out one cup of purée.

Make the cake 

In a large bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, brown sugar and granulated white sugar.

In a small bowl, stir together the pumpkin purée, oil and eggs. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, then pour in the wet ingredients. Add in the 40ml of already prepared Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Coffee. Gently stir until combined.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel over the batter and then spread the remaining batter over the streusel layer. Finish by sprinkling with the remaining streusel. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean (glass and ceramic pans may take longer to bake than metal to cook through). Cool completely before removing from the tin.

Make the peanut butter drizzle (optional)

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and microwave for a few seconds to melt. Mix together until smooth. If it’s still a little stiff, add a little more butter and reheat to achieve a drizzling consistency.

To Assemble

Once the cake has cooled completely, invert a serving plate or cooling rack over it and flip over to remove itfrom the tin. Drizzle with peanut butter drizzle and decorate with pecan nuts (we also added extra streusel that had come off the bottom of the cake when it came out of the tin). Best enjoyed with a cup of Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake coffee. Note: if you don’t use a Bundt tin, you could also opt to serve your cake bottom-side up, so that the streusel is on top.

Buy your Nespresso Pumpkin Spice Cake pods online here – Vertuo Pods | Original Pods

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