How does an autumn inspired vegan pumpkin cake (also known as vegan pumpkin bread) topped with a luscious cloud of pecan frosting sound this weekend? Good? Good, as that’s what I have for you today. It’s a simple one bowl cake studded with crunchy pecans and topped with a dreamy frosting with a pronounced roasted pecan flavour. It makes a mean afternoon treat and it comes together in a cinch. Let’s go.

MORE ABOUT THE INGREDIENTS

PUMPKIN PURÉE: If you don’t live in the US where pumpkin purée is a baking and cooking staple, it’s easy to make one yourself. Simply steam cubed pumpkin until a skewer goes in easily and then turn it into a purée in a food processor. You can also blend it in a blender, but for that you’ll need to add some liquid – add 120 ml (½ cup) of plant milk allocated to this recipe (if fact this is what I did for this recipe).

SILKEN TOFU: this custard-like tofu is perfect for making desserts and here I used it as a base for my simple pecan frosting.

COCONUT OIL: I used some fragrance free coconut oil in the batter to keep this cake nice and moist (you could use other oil, like grapeseed) and a bit in the frosting to stiffen it.

SUGAR: In the cake, you could use any sugar you have – I went for demerara sugar. In the icing, I recommend using icing sugar (also known as confectioners’ sugar) as it needs to be able to dissolve easily and not to add any moisture to the frosting. If you want to keep this cake refined sugar free, coconut sugar ground up finely or a few soft dates added to the icing would be my suggestion.

PECAN BUTTER: I made my own pecan butter by processing toasted pecans in my food processor until creamy and drippy, as pecans are quite fatty, it took only a few minutes. Alternatively, you could use walnut butter (but it does tend to be bitter so you may need to increase the amount of sugar to taste) or cashew butter for a more neutral flavour.

FLOUR: I used plain flour for the regular version and a combination of a good gluten-free flour mix and a touch of xanthan gum for the gluten-free version.

SPICES: I used a combination of a few dry spices for this cake, you could also use ready made pumpkin spice mix if you have it.

In a large mixing bowl combine all of the wet ingredients. If making your own pumpkin purée, make sure it’s no longer warm.

Mix everything well with a spatula until you get a homogenous mixture. Place a sieve over the bowl and and sift in half of the flour, both baking agents, dry spices and salt.

Using a spatula, start incorporating the dry ingredients into the wet ones by making small circles in the middle of the bowl first (to minimise lumps), gradually extending the circles to incorporate more and more flour. Be slow and gentle! Sift in the second half of the flour and proceed in the same way. Finally fold in chopped pecans.

Transfer the batter to a greased and paper lined baking tin and bake until a toothpick comes out clean – about 45-50 minutes.

Frost cooled off cake with pecan frosting, decorate with chopped pecans and Enjoy!