Pumpkin "Tiramisu"

When your beloved one gives half the cake as a present to your dinner guests, without you having to time to take pictures of it, you have to think of ingenious ways to photograph the three remaining pieces of the dessert for the website.. But this is what I am here for. And if you are interested in food styling and photography in this recipe you can see some interesting pictures I think.

So! first recipe on the website after a long time and it sure it is time!

Autumn is here and and well it does not seem like Autumn... More like the end of summer both in Greece as well as in California.

And yes, tis the time of pumpkin. Pumpkin here, there, white, red, orange, yellow... And the pumpkin spice is all over your senses nowadays. Interesting fact that the sales of cinnamon, ginger, clove etc that make up this mix have more than quadrupled in the last ten years just because of a Starbucks drink.. People are weird..

I give you my recipe for it in which I add a bit of pepper for good measure and provide even more depth to the flavor of Autumn...

Anyway... I have this really cool recipe for a cake using artichoke that I plan to upload a bit later in the winter and thought to give it a try and see if it works with pumpkin as well. And it sure did...

I added a nice syrup to make the cake even more moist and it was almost as if I was having a tiramisu without the biscuits and this is why I named it as such..

Diffuculty: 2 out of 4

Duration:30 minutes, 20 minutes baking

Serves:12

Ingredients

For the spice mix

20g cinnamon

5g dried ginger

4g nutmeg

3g cloves

2g allspice

2g pepper

For the cake

120g all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

4 tsp of the spice mix plus a bit more for decoration

1/2 tsp salt

4 medium size eggs in room temperature

250g plain sugar

230g pumpkin puree

1 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanila extract

For the syrup

100g plain sugar

125g water

1 tbsp insta coffee granules

some coffee liqueur (optional)

For the frosting

480g heavy cream

250g mascarpone cheese

50-60g maple syrup or agave syrup

130g pecan chopped and some more for decoration

Method

For the spice mix

Just mix the spices and keep in an airtight container. (You are not going to use all of this for the cake)!!!

For the cake layers

Sieve the first four ingredients in a bowl.

In a large bowl beat the eggs for over 10 minutes till they become like a light yellow cream.

Add the sugar incrementally while beating some more.

Add the puree and the other 2 ingredients but not overmix as the mix ma deflate.

Add the flour mixture and mix with a spatula till just combined.

Divide the mixture in three 9 inch pans that we have prepared with butter and flour and added some parchment paper on their bottom.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 15 minutes or till the cake is ready. Remove from the oven and the pans and let cool on a rack.

For the frosting

Beat the cheese with a mixer till it gets fluffy and add the cream, beat till you get soft peaks. Do not overmix. Keep in the fridge.

For the syrup

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and boil till the sugar is dissolved.

Take off heat and let cool

For the assembly

Syrup each cake layer. Place the first one on a dish, cover with 1/4 of the frosting, scatter 1/4 of the nuts and continue with the rest of the layers and ingredients. On top scatter some more nuts and some spice mix