Sourdough Pumpkin Spice Cake

Fall is not here yet but, I am already seeing fall around. Color of the leaves has started to change. Some of the trees have already started to shed the leaves. The vegetable stands have started putting up the signs of 'pumpkins for sale'. And there are mums everywhere for sale. And the temperature has started to cool down a bit too. I love fall of all the seasons. One of the reason it is my favorite is due to nice temperature and the other being so many activities for kids. Halloween followed by Thanksgiving and that means abundant opportunities for me to bake.
I had an opened can of pumpkin that needed to be used up soon. It was feeding time for my sourdough starter which was a perfect opportunity for me to use up starter and the pumpkin to make this cake. This is based on many sourdough cakes I have baked. I used a bundt pan to make it fancy looking and added a glaze.

Ingredients:
Sourdough starter - 1 cup room temperature not fed
All purpose flour - 1 1/2 cups
Sugar - 1 cup (See Notes)
Baking Soda - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Egg - 1 large
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 cup
Buttermilk or thinned yogurt - 1/4 cup
Pumpkin puree - 1 cup
All Spice - 1/4 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/8 tsp or a big pinch
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Cloves - 1/2 tsp
Ginger - 1/2 tsp

For the Glaze: (optional)
Butter - 2 TBSP melted
Confectioner's Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 1 - 1 1/2 TBSP

Method:
Preheat the oven to 350 F. (I used 325 F since my bundt pan is a dark non-stick pan) Grease a bundt pan (12 cup capacity). Set aside. You can use 13 X 9 pan if you don't have a bundt pan. In a 4 cup measuring cup, measure 1 cup of sourdough starter. Add pumpkin puree to the same cup till the combined total is 2 cups. Add oil to the cup to make it 2 1/4 cup. Buttermilk to make it 2 1/2 cup. Crack an egg to the same cup and whisk with a whisk till everything is mixed well.

In another larger bowl, take all purpose flour. Add salt, spices, baking soda, sugar to the same bowl. Whisk together. Add the contents of the measuring cup to the bowl and stir till just combined. Pour to the prepared pan and bake for 40 - 45 minutes in case of a bundt pan. If using a 13 X 9 pan, bake for 35 - 40 minutes or till a toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for about 10 minutes. Turn it on to wire rack to cool completely. Prepare the glaze. In a bowl, mix melted butter with 1 cup of confectioner's sugar. Slowly add enough milk to make a smooth, flowing glaze. Stir vigorously to remove any lumps. If you want to add spices, this is the time to add them. When the cake is completely cool spoon the glaze over the cake. You can make the glaze a little thicker if you want to pipe it in a decorative way.


Notes:
You can add some spices of your choice to the glaze. If you like orange, make glaze using orange juice instead of milk. I didn't want to overwhelm the flavor with spices. I just sprinkled some cinnamon sugar on the top of the glaze. This cake is not a very sweet one. If you like it to be sweeter, increase the sugar to 1 1/3 cups - 1 1/2 cups. If you are not a fan of glaze, just dust with confectioner's sugar and serve. Or you could serve it plain.

I am sending this cake to Susan's Yeastspotting.

Happy Baking!!

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