Flower of Life's Pumpkin Pound Cake

[bluejeans07]

I was put in charge of desserts this year for Thanksgiving and Mom suggested I make something with pumpkin. After thinking about various ideas (pies, pumpkin cream filled cream puffs, etc), I realized that Fumi Yoshinaga has a recipe for a pumpkin pound cake in her manga 'Flower of Life.' I've made some of her recipes before (from 'What Did You Eat Yesterday') and they've always turned out really delicious so I think this recipe might do well. I think I'll try making a test version tomorrow but anyway, here's the recipe.

BTW! All foodies on my journal (I'm looking at you copperbadge and you never_ender), PLEASE look over this and tell me if it sounds okay! XD

Edit: The amazing theangrystar was kind enough to look it over and tweaked my measurements to make it work, plus added vanilla which should make it a lot more flavorful! I can't wait to try this!


Originally, the measurements were all written in grams and milliliters so I converted them. The original recipe can be found in 'Flower of Life' Volume 2.

I used the Gourmet Sleuth Gram Conversion Caluculator and then checked with Recipe Gold Kitchen Chart for the specific ingredients. It makes a fairly small loaf sized cake so I'm probably going to have to make 2 for my family.

Pumpkin paste
120G (1/2 cup) pumpkin
20G (1 1/2 tbs) butter
20G (1 tbs) sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla

Pound cake batter
100G (1/2 cup) butter
100G (1/2 cup) sugar
100G (1 cup) flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
20cc (1/8 cup) milk
1 tsp teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2-1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven 338 F (170 C).

Pumpkin Paste
Can use frozen or fresh pumpkin. If using frozen or fresh, the measurements are the same. Remove the peel of the pumpkin first for a prettier color (this step is optional). Place the pumpkin in a microwave safe bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap, then place the bowl in a microwave set for about 5 minutes (keep an eye on it). When the pumpkin is soft enough for a skewer to slide easily through it, add the butter, sugar and vanilla and mix.

(Yoshinaga notes that the amounts are approximate so make the taste to your own liking.)

Pound Cake Batter
First, soften the butter. Place it in a microwave safe bowl and set it to defrost about 30-50G of meat. The time will vary from oven to oven so keep a sharp eye on it so that the butter doesn't completely melt into liquid. The butter should be just soft enough to be able to push your finger into it.

Place the butter in a bowl and whip into a cream consistency. Add sugar and blend thoroughly. Then, whisk the eggs and add slowly to the butter mixture, then add milk and vanilla and continue stirring.

Finally, combine the baking powder and the flour together, and then fold into the butter mixture gradually with a spatula, in 3-4 separate pourings. Add cinnamon to the flour if you like. Here is the important part! Be sure to mix until all the flour is incorporated into the batter. You don't have to sift the flour or anything as long as you remember to mix it in properly.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured 6x7x24 cm pound cake baking pan. Place the pumpkin paste on top and swirl with a spoon to make the marble texture. Place it in the oven and bake for 45-55 minutes. If you insert a skewer into the cake and it comes out clean, the cake is done. Let it cool for a bit and then remove from the pan. The cake tastes the next day to about 3 days.

In the winter, you can stew old apples (1-2 apples per cake) in butter, sugar and lemon juice and add it to the cake too.