Healthy Fresh Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin cake slices with chocolate drizzle and more cake in background, with pumpkin and melted chocolate in white bowl in top right.

This delicious healthy pumpkin cake is made using fresh pumpkin and a moderate amount of sugar. It light, fluffy and comes with a simple chocolate drizzle.

Course Dessert

Cuisine vegetarian

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 50

Total Time 1 5

Servings servings

Calories 179kcal

Author Monika Dabrowski

Equipment

23 cm (9.5'') pan
Electric mixer

Ingredients

⅔ pound pumpkin fresh, see *Notes for preparation
2 cups+1tbsp all-purpose/plain flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
½ cup vegetable oil
¾ cup+1tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
Zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch of fine sea salt

For the chocolate drizzle:

⅓ cup dark chocolate chips or chocolate broken into small pieces
1½ teaspoons salted butter

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F/ 180 C/ gas mark 4. Grease a 23 cm baking pan with a little oil (I spread 1 tsp of oil around the pan using a small piece of paper towel) . Line with parchment paper and set aside.
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and soda, ginger, pinch of salt and orange and lemon zest. Set aside.
In another bowl beat together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla for a couple of minutes until thick and fluffy.
Add the grated pumpkin and stir thoroughly.
Fold in the flour mixture and stir until the dry ingredients are no longer visible. Pour the batter into the prepared baking pan and bake in the centre of the oven for 50 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean).
Remove from the oven and allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Then lift out of the pan and place on a rack or large plate.
In the microwave heat the chocolate chips until almost melted completely. Stir in the butter and drizzle the mixture over the cake. Wait for the drizzle to set then serve.

Notes

Use sugar/culinary pumpkin, NOT carving pumpkin.
*To prepare the pumpkin cut it into thick wedges. Place each wedge on top of a cutting board and cut the peel off slicing downwards. Then finely grate the pumpkin and make the cake. Weigh the pumpkin flesh after grating it.
Use good quality vegetable oil. I used cold pressed (bright yellow) rapeseed oil which added more colour to this cake but you can use another oil.
Do NOT overstir the batter.
For best results use good quality dark chocolate (approx. 70% cocoa solids).
Use either salted or unsalted butter in the chocolate drizzle. I like my chocolate with a hint of saltiness.
Ginger: you can also add cinnamon and/or replace the ginger with pumpkin spice/mixed spice (approx. 1 tsp).
This pumpkin cake tastes delicious with the chocolate drizzle, but you can also enjoy it on its own, with a dusting of powdered sugar or cream cheese frosting.
Keep covered, refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Nutrition