Pumpkin Honey Spice Cake for the New Year

September is Hunger Action Month! In South Florida alone, nearly 950,000 individuals don’t know where they will get their next meal. More than 296,000 of those individuals are children and over 150,000 are older adults.

During the month of September, both Flamingo Musings and Freakin’ Flamingo are going orange.  AND Freakin’ Flamingo is donating 25% of all sales (online or in person) to Feeding South Florida.

Judaism has a tradition of “tzedakah” or being charitable, particularly in the period between Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement).  This year, that period falls in the month of September, which makes Go Orange in September even more auspicious.  Freakin’ Flamingo is donating 25% of all September sales, whether online or in person at markets and events, to Feeding South Florida. So, if you want to start your holiday shopping early, or you’ve just got a yen for some Piña Colada Jam, now would be a good time to shop and help take action against hunger!

It also seems appropriate that for my first entry of September, I give you a Pumpkin Honey Spice Cake for the New Year! You might notice that there’s no sugar in this recipe – it’s sweetened only with honey. No oil or dairy, either. Pumpkin and a little bit of flax seed meal are used instead, and add a nice bit of fiber and actual nutrition.  But, look! It’s got orange sparkly sugar! You don’t have to use that, though. 🙂

Pumpkin Honey Spice Cake

Dry Ingredients:

• 2-1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 3 Tbs. flax seed meal (ground flax seed)
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 1 tsp. cardamom
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt

Wet Ingredients:

• 1 cup honey
• 2 large eggs
• 1 15 oz can of pumpkin
• 3/4 cup strong coffee (hot or cold)

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Optional Glaze:

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3 Tbs. cold coffee

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Grease and flour your favorite bundt pan.

Sift together the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Set aside.

With an electric mixer, beat together the wet ingredients in a large bowl until blended, about 3 minutes.

Beat in the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with coffee, until batter is smooth.  Stir in the chopped walnuts, if using.

Transfer batter to prepared pan.  Bake until cake is brown and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 -1/2 hours (start testing with a wooden skewer at the 1 hour 15 minute mark).

Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn out onto a rack; cool completely.

Whisk together the powdered sugar and coffee. If you want to avoid a big puddle of glaze, drizzle over the cake while it’s still on the rack, which you have first set over a large plate (a dinner plate will do nicely).  You can then scoop up the glaze on the plate and drizzle again over the cake to make a thicker glaze. Repeat until you have the thickness you like or until you run out of glaze, whichever comes first.

This is a dense, moist cake, reminiscent of holiday spice or fruit cakes, but without the weird green cherries.  Have a slice with a cup of hot coffee or cocoa, or even your favorite tea, and get into the fall spirit!