Pumpkin Ginger Cake with Salted Maple Glaze

It’s coming on Halloween, and we all know what that means: ill-fitting outfits and candy hustling.  Also, more romantically, monster mashing and pumpkin carving, costume making and apple bobbing.  I prefer the latter, though candy hustling is something I think I could get into.

Halloween!  I find myself oddly excited about this holiday.  I think it’s because, since I’m well out of college, I don’t have to worry about finding a slutty costume to wear or avoiding that sickly orange frat house jungle juice.  This year I can just focus on watching spooky movies (like Hocus Pocus and Practical Magic, of course), and making creepy-crawly-themed baked goods.  Getting older is fantastic.

Are you ready for Halloween?  Do you have your costume picked out?  Your snack-sized Snickers bars stocked?  Do you have a spider-webbish pumpkin cake made and ready for spooking?  I mean, snacking?

I do.

I have the cake, I mean.  I’m still working on my costume (I’m thinking I’ll go as a foulmouthed June Cleaver.  What better chance will I have to show off my collection of aprons and heels and say things like “Ward, I’m worried about the goddamn Beaver?”), and the odds of any form of Snickers being held unwrapped and unbitten in my apartment from now until Halloween are slim to none.  I’ll buy those on October 30th (and, let’s be honest, again on November 1st, when they’ll be two bags for one at the local drug store.  …What?  I know a good deal when I see one).  Until then, though, there’s always cake.

Pumpkin Ginger Cake with Salted Maple Glaze

Adapted from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for the pan
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin puree (1 3/4 cups)
• 3 large eggs
• 6 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, and butter and flour your favorite bundt pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, ginger and 1 tsp salt.  In a larger bowl, whisk butter, granulated and brown sugars, and pumpkin puree until smooth.  Add eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated, then add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir gently until combined.

Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 40 minutes to 1 hour.  Cool cake completely.

To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioner’s sugar and 1 tsp salt in a small bowl.  Pour maple syrup on top, and whisk until completely smooth.  Immediately drizzle the glaze atop the cooled cake.  The glaze will set up pretty quickly.  Serve cake as soon as possible!  If you must wait to eat it, the cake will keep for about three days in an airtight container – I’d suggest storing the cake on it’s own and then drizzling with glaze just before serving.

Makes 1 large bundt cake.