Pumpkin Seed Cake

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Learn how to make the best pumpkin seed cake with this easy recipe. This moist pumpkin seed cake gets its intense green colour and nutty flavour from ground pumpkin seeds and roasted pumpkin seed oil, a light, sweet seed oil that is great in sweet recipes and desserts.

Prep Time30

Cook Time50

Total Time1 20

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 411kcal

Author: Janice Lawandi

Equipment

Ingredients

200 grams granulated sugar
1 Navel orange(s) zested
3 large egg(s)
5 mL pure vanilla extract
125 mL roasted pumpkin seed oil
108 grams pumpkin seeds plus more for garnishing before baking
125 grams bleached all-purpose flour
7.5 mL baking powder
2.5 mL Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
1 pear(s) Bosc or Bartlett, approximately 150–200 grams

Metric - US

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Grease a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. You can also dust the sides with flour to ensure the cake unmoulds easily. Set aside.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the granulated sugar with the orange zest. Mix on medium–low to extract the oils from the zest. The mixture should be very fragrant.
Add the eggs and whip the mixture on medium–high until very thick, glossy, aerated, and light in colour. This takes 3–5 minutes.
Mix in the vanilla, then drizzle in the pumpkin seed oil on medium–low speed, trying to avoid the whisk so it doesn't splash too much. The mixture should be thick and a vibrant green colour.
In a mini food processor, grind the pumpkin seeds to the consistency of ground almonds. Add the ground pumpkin seeds to the mixer and mix on low.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and salt).
Detach the whisk attachment and remove the bowl from the stand mixer.
Sift a third of the dry ingredients over the bowl of cake batter. Fold it in with a large spatula, then add another third, folding it in, and finish with the last of the flour. Fold until the flour disappears being sure to scrape from the bottom of the bowl.
Transfer the cake batter to the prepared cake pan.
Core and thinly slice the pear, arranging the slices on top of the cake. Garnish with a few extra pumpkin seeds.
Bake until the edges are golden brown and begin to separate from the sides of the pan. A cake tester inserted into the centre of the cake will come out clean. It takes about 45–50 minutes.
Let the cake cool for 10–20 minutes before running a knife around the edge between the pan and the cake before unmoulding it. Let it cool completely before serving plain or with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Notes

Soak the slices of pear in the orange juice to coat them if you slice them ahead of time so the fruit doesn't brown. Blot the pear slices with paper towels before arranging them over the cake batter.
You can replace the orange with lemon.
You can garnish the cake with sliced apple instead of pear or scatter a few berries like raspberries.
I've tested a gluten-free version with millet flour without the sliced fruit (as the cake lacks structure, the fruit would likely sink). I didn't find this worked well and suspect the mixing method would have to be modified for this substitution to work. I recommend using a gluten-free cup-for-cup flour blend instead, which contains xanthan gum.

Nutrition