Spiced pumpkin cake with orange drizzle

For a girl living in Italy, this recipe must look suspiciously American. As much as I confess that yes, it really is, my reasons for making it were very Italian... and it's in an Italian ciambella cake tin!

One thing I love about living in Italy, is the way generosity seems to come as standard. I don't think I've yet met a new person without being invited to go for a coffee, and they never let me pay - on one particular occasion I was physically pushed away from the till, so eager was my new found friend to treat me to the drink! So following this vein, one of our neighbours popped round yesterday with a gift of two pumpkins from her garden. I was, once again, amazed by all this generosity, but this seemed completely normal in the eyes of my adopted Italian family... oh how I love Italy! Guiseppina promptly set to work on a pumpkin risotto (recipe coming soon) but, as I've mentioned before, Italians simply don't do food waste, so I was put to the task of using pumpkin in a dessert.

Even if I say so myself, this is rather wonderful. Incredibly moist, slightly citrusy and beautifully autumnal thanks to the warming spices. You can of course make this with a can of pumkin purree, but it kind of ruins the story, so go in search of that kindly neighbour. Or, if you want to really go all out, you could be that kindly neighbour!

To keep the generosity circle going, I dropped round a big piece of this cake to the lady with whom I cycle to school each morning (she was one of the many people who took me out for coffee). This was all well and good, but there was one problem: when I dropped it round, she refused to let me leave without staying for another coffee, so I'm once again behind on the generosity game. Looks like I'm going to have to bake more cakes!

Recipe adapted from The Girl Who Ate Everything blog

425g raw pumpkin (peeled and seedless weight)
100g light soft brown sugar
200g caster sugar
4 eggs
225g sunflower/corn oil
250g flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
Zest and juice of 1 large orange
6 tbsp. caster sugar

• Chop the pumkin into chunks (about 1 inch thickness) and boil/steam until cooked.
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees c.
• Oil and flour your cake tin (ideally a ciambella, but it would be fine in a different type, you might just find it needs a little more/less cooking time.
• Drain and leave to cool, then blitz to form a smooth puree.
• Whisk the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Continue whisking as you gradually add the oil and then the pumkin.
• Fold in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest.
• Pour into your cake tin and cook for 35 mins until a skewer comes out with just the lightest smear of moisture and a couple of tiny crumbs.
• Cool in the tin whilst you make the drizzle.
• Combine the orange juice and caster sugar and, one the cake has cooled for about 10 minutes, turn it out (if you're using a ciambella tin you'll want to serve it bottom up, don't worry if the top has risen, this is fine. Equally, if you're fussy, levelling the top is a great excuse to eat the offcuts!)
• Prick it all over with a spaghetti strand and spoon over the drizzle to ensure it's all covered. It will seem like a lot of drizzle but just keep going, don't worry if it spills over the side.