Yes, yes,I know, it is not so-called pumpkin season. But, through the wonderment of canned pumpkin, and the sweetness of my boyfriend’s mother, who gifted us with four cans, in my house it is pumpkin season right now!

I’ve made this recipe from Kris Holechek’s vegan baking book The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes before (with a few changes), and think it’s really good.  Pumpkin-y, moist and with a zing of cinnamon, it is excellent with a cup of tea.

The Ginger Powdered Sugar came about entirely by chance.  My original intention, when thinking about how to make the cake look pretty for pictures, was to dust it with powdered sugar.  And then, lo and behold, there is none in the house (how it that possible?!).  I went through all the cupboards and the refrigerator trying to conjure up a new idea.  I discovered some crystallized ginger and remembered how, for a cookie recipe awhile ago, I had blended it and then mixed it with sugar to make a coating.  I had never blended the sugar and ginger together, knowing it would break down the sugar too much for the cookie recipe, but it might work perfectly for powdered sugar.  And yes, it did.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Cake

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon + 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 15oz can pumpkin puree
• 1/4 cup oil
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 2 tbl brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Lightly grease a bundt pan. [note: this makes a small bundt cake – you can double the recipe to make a bigger bundt or keep this recipe amount and use a 9×5 loaf pan]
2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, 1 tablespoon cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin puree, oil, and almond milk.
4. Add the wets to the drys and mix well.
5. In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and 1 teaspoon sugar.
6. Pour 1/2 of the batter into the prepared bundt pan and spread out evenly.  Sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar mixture evenly over the batter and use a knife to swirl it through to make patterns.  Pour the remaining batter on top.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
8. Cool for 8-10 minutes, then flip cake out of the bundt pan.

Ginger Powdered Sugar

• crystallized ginger (a few pieces…see pic)
• 2 tablespoons cane sugar

I used a bullet-type blender to make this.  I’m not sure if it will work in a regular size blender or food processer because it is such a small amount.  It could possibly work in a coffee/spice grinder.

The ingredients and blender.

This is how much crystallized ginger I used – just a few pieces.

Add the sugar.

This is how it looked in the blender.

The end result.  You will still have some big chunks of ginger in there which you can remove – the blender doesn’t break down every piece of ginger completely.  Use it to dust cakes and desserts.