Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Brown Butter and Bay Leaf

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

By Irvin Lin

This marbled pumpkin bundt cake has an added punch of autumnal flavor with the bay leaves and brown butter. Make sure to use fresh bay leaves as the dry ones are great for long simmering stews and soups but not so much for a cake like this.

Ingredients
Cake Batter
1 15oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
2 fresh bay leaves
1 cup (230 g) 2 sticks butter, unsalted
3 cups (420 g) all purpose flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups (400 g) white granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup milk
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Icing
4 oz (115 g or half a brick) cream cheese at room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
3 tablespoon whole milk

Directions
1. Preheat an oven to 350˚F and generously grease with butter a bundt cake pan then dust it lightly with flour. Place on a rimmed baking sheet or pizza pan. Empty the can of pumpkin into a large nonstick skillet. Add the bay leaves and cook on high heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon and scraping the bottom of the pan, until the pumpkin has been reduced to 1 cup. Set aside to cool.

2. Remove the bay leaves and wipe them off. Place them in a clean skillet with the butter and heat on medium high heat. Cook the butter, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, until it melts and the butterfat starts to brown a bit. Turn the heat off and let the residual heat continue to brown the butterfat. Once the butterfat is a rich brown color and there’s a nutty aroma coming from it, carefully remove the bay leaves (I use chopsticks as it’s hot and I’m Asian, but a fork or tongs will work) and pour the butter into a bowl for a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Be sure to scrape the brown bits into the bowl as well!

3. Turn the mixer slowly on, increasing the speed to medium high and mix for a minute or two to cool the butter. In the meanwhile, as the mixer is beating, place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Using a balloon whisk, vigorously stir the dry ingredients together until they are evenly incorporated. Once the butter has cooled a bit (it’s ok if the bowl is still warm to the touch) add the sugar to the butter and beat until blended, another 30 seconds. Add the eggs, one at time, beating between additions. Wait until the egg is incorporated before adding the next one. Stir the vanilla extract into the milk.

4. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the batter and mix to incorporate. Add 1/2 the vanilla milk and mix to incorporate. Repeat, alternating with the dry ingredients and the milk, ending with the dry ingredients. Spoon 2/3rds of the batter into the bundt pan, smoothing it out to make sure it is evenly distributed. Add the spices and the cooked pumpkin puree to the remaining 1/3 cake batter and stir to incorporate. Spoon the pumpkin batter over the vanilla cake batter. If you want, you can swirl them together with a butter knife, making figure eight shapes in the bundt pan. But I just decided I wanted more of a layered look this time round so I didn’t bother (also all my butter knives were dirty at the time).

5. Bake in the oven for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer or toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack for about 45 minutes then unmold onto a wire rack to cool completely. You want the pan to still be warm to the touch still but cool enough that the cake has set as a hot cake is fragile. If the cake cools too much it may be hard to unmold, so just place it back in the oven set at 350˚F for another 5 to 10 minutes or until the sides of the pan are warm again.

6. Once the cake is cooled, make the ice by placing the cream cheese in the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat the cream cheese until it is smooth, then add the powdered sugar. Sifting is important or the sugar will clump up and it’s crazy hard to get the clumps out of the ice. Beat until the sugar is incorporated then add the vanilla. Beat and add the milk, one tablespoon at a time. The icing should be thick enough to drizzle over the cake. If it looks too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it looks too thick, add an extra teaspoon of milk at a time. Spoon the icing over the top of the cake, letting it drizzle down the sides artfully and then let set for an hour before serving.

Makes 1 bundt cake, serves 12