Pumpkin Cake with Burnt Orange Silk Meringue Buttercream (3)

So, it was the Pumpkin Cake this week for the Heavenly bake-through... Halloween is generally a pretty quiet event in Australia but having a Canadian husband and some Canadian friends here in the same city we usually take the opportunity to celebrate. Growing up I think I remember one child, just once, knocking on the door trick-or-treating and my Mum being embarrassed because she had nothing to give him! Having gone trick-or-treating with a group of young children for the last couple of years and seeing how much fun they have it is definitely an occasion we will continue to celebrate!

So, our friends were having the Halloween party this year and of course, I was to bring the cake. I couldn't get the 3D Pumpkin pan unfortunately, though it would have been very impressive I'm sure (not so sure about how my marzipan shaping skills would have held up)... it would not have arrived in time if I had ordered it online, so I used a 10-cup fluted tube pan instead as the recipe suggests.

I am not overly impressed with my efforts this week... I had all these grand visions of how I would decorate it but time kind of slipped away on me and I ended up just piping on some (badly formed) black bats and sprinkling it with some orange sugar. Oh, and I have to say now that I haven't even tasted it. Or seen a cut slice for that matter. I had to leave the party before the cake was cut and there was chaos in the house created by the 25 or so children running around and the hosts trying to feed everyone and calm down the kids after the post-trick-or-treat excitement/sugar-high... so I didn't feel it was a convenient time to ask them to cut me a piece. I wish I had a piece right now... though skipping the calories this week maybe makes up for last weeks Almond Shamah gluttony.

I had to make the Pumpkin puree as the canned stuff is not readily available here, though I did find an online source here. I might buy it for the cheesecake in a few weeks, though there was something satisfying about making it myself. Into the oven went a whole pumpkin until it was soft... I couldn't wait for it to cool properly so while still hot I peeled back the skin and scooped out the flesh. I pureed it up in the food processor and then decided that it was far too watery so sat it is some cheesecloth over a bowl and yielded quite a substantial amount of pumpkin water. I'm very glad I did this actually.

I toasted the walnuts and rubbed off their skins, resulting in this lovely mess in my dish towel:

Then mixed up the cake which is really quite a simple task, though I am worried I might have over-mixed it and caused it to be tough but cannot say for sure as, you know, I have not had any! Anyway, into the tin it goes:

And out of the oven (it took about 40 mins in a 160 deg C fan-forced oven):

So, with the cake-baking done I only had to make the buttercream and with my creme anglaise sitting pretty in my fridge I thought it would be a quick mix-up on Saturday before the party. I don't know why I thought this because although I am neither experienced or confident with buttercream I have made this recipe before (minus the orange) and it took a long time and I was not happy with the results (in fact, the cake ended up uneaten, in the garbage because of the buttercream... a very sad thing, I know, but it was inedible, like a greasy slick of solid butter). I'd already spent considerable time making the creme anglaise as my sugar crystallised the first time I made the caramel. But it is the Italian Meringue that has me a little perplexed and wondering what on earth is wrong with me that I can't get it right...I again managed to crystallise the sugar so had to start again with the syrup.... One egg white in the KitchenAid took a little while to get going and I had to adjust the height of the whisk to get it to whip up at all. I don't have a hand-held mixer but perhaps if I was to attempt this again it would be a good investment.

Anyway, once the sugar was the right temperature I poured it into a glass jug and then attempted to pour it only my little cloud of egg whites in the bottom of the bowl. Well, some of the syrup stayed in the saucepan. More stayed in the jug (despite desperate attempts with a silicone spatula to scrape it out) and what did go in the bowl hit the sides and went hard on contact. Because there was such a small amount of egg white it was virtually impossible to get the syrup to fall where it should... it either hits the side of the bowl or the whisk. So I highly recommend using a hand-held beater for this! I really don't know how much syrup went into the egg white or whether there was enough to cook it, but I was beyond attempting it again. So it would just have to do.

I beat up the butter (with a little fear over the temperature as the recipe is quite exacting when it comes to temperature of the butter and I don't have an infra-red fancy thermometer, though it's looking like another good investment), added my creme anglaise...

Then the italian meringue, followed by the orange concentrate (reduced in the microwave) and rind. I was a little unsure of how much to beat it at the end... it somehow felt as if it needed a good beating but it said in the recipe only until just incorporated so I tried to use a somewhat gentle hand. I had to refrigerate it for a few hours before frosting the cake and when I re-beat it once it came back to room temperature it seemed to loose a little something, it seemed less light somehow. Anyway, onto the cake it went, followed by hastily piped black bats (from a store-bought tube of black 'writing icing' I have to confess) and a sprinkling of hideously overpriced orange sugar. It is getting quite hot here so I was a little unsure of where to keep the cake before leaving for the party... it went in and out of the fridge a few times (didn't want the icing sliding off but didn't want a solid chunk of butter on cold cake either).

Again, didn't taste it so can't comment but was somewhat worried about the consistency of the frosting. I tasted that, of course, but it's hard to pass judgement without the cake. I might make it again just to be able to try it!

Someone send me a piece please!

Oh, and with the leftover pumpkin puree I made a pumpkin pie for my sister-in-law's birthday as she had told me days before it was her favourite dessert (very good timing I thought!) Here it is, acting as birthday cake...