Pumpkin Spice Latte Cake
A soft pumpkin cake soaked in spiced coffee, finished with an espresso cream cheese frosting that tastes like the drink itself.
Ingredients
Method
Heat the oven to 175°C and grease and line a 23×23cm (9×9") pan.
Whisk the flour, pumpkin spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt together.
Cream the butter and sugar until fluffy, then beat in the eggs and vanilla.
Mix in the buttermilk and pumpkin purée — it may look a little curdled at this stage, but trust the process.
Fold in the dry ingredients until smooth.
Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely.
For the latte soak, whisk the espresso, milk, pumpkin spice and vanilla together.
For the frosting, beat the butter for 5 to 10 minutes until pale, then add the cream cheese and beat until smooth. Add the powdered sugar gradually. Dissolve the espresso powder in the vanilla, then beat it in along with the pumpkin spice, until fluffy.
Poke holes all over the cooled cake and slowly pour over the latte soak, letting it absorb. Frost generously, dust with a little extra pumpkin spice, and cut into 16 squares.
The batter looking curdled once the pumpkin purée goes in is completely normal it bakes out fine, and the poke-and-soak step afterwards is what actually keeps this one moist.