Here’s my dirty little secret for when I bake with pumpkin. Have you ever noticed that baking with pumpkin puree can change the texture and consistency of a dish? Adding wet pumpkin puree can weigh down a mix and often it can lead to dense and chewy baked goods. But here’s my secret to avoiding that: Sifting. I recently started using this sifter from For The Chef and immediately noticed a difference! And my Pumpkin Chiffon Cake with Pumpkin Buttercream turned out light and fluffy because of it too!
What does sifting do?
Sifting takes flour and other dried goods that have been compressed and packed down and separates them, allowing air and for those ingredients to get “fluffier”. Sifting ingredients is also one of the most effective ways to mix them together too. By having more air and it being mixed better, you get a lighter and fluffier cake from the get go. And honestly it’s such an easy process I don’t know why I didn’t start doing this sooner!
What I really like about this sifter from For The Chef is that even when full of flour, it is so easy to turn and does not grind at all. It’s not making the work harder, it makes sifting a super easy step to follow. And the capacity of this sifter (8 Cups) fits all of the dry goods in this cake recipe, so there’s no need to sift in batches.
And as for the cake? It’s light, fluffy and delicious. Everything that you would ever want in a cake.
That being said this cake quickly disappeared from our house. I mean what can I say, other than the fact that it was delicious!
If you want to get a sifter of your own, For the Chef has this great one as well as many other great kitchen gadgets, bakeware and cookware.
Pumpkin Chiffon Cake with Pumpkin Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Flour
- 1 1/4 Cups Sugar
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tsp Ginger
- 1/2 Tsp Ground Cloves
- 1/2 Tsp Nutmeg
- 1 Tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Salt
- 4 Eggs Separated plus 5 Egg Whites
- 1 Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 2 Sticks Butter
- 4 Cups Confectioner's Sugar
- 1/4 Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 1 Tsp Vanilla
- 1 Tsp Cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325.
- Sift together flour, 3/4 cup sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
- In a smaller bowl combine the egg yolks and pumpkin puree.
- In a separate large bowl, mix the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy. Mix in 1/2 cup sugar and continue to beat until eggs have formed stiff peaks.
- Mix together the pumpkin puree and dry ingredients. Then fold in the egg whites in small batches.
- Pour mixture into a greased 11 x 7 pan.
- Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from oven and let cool for 5 minutes in pan. Then invert onto a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
- For Buttercream:
- Cream together butter and sugar. Mix in pumpkin, vanilla and cinnamon. Beat until light and fluffy then spread evenly on top of cooled cake. Next slice cake and enjoy!
****This is a sponsored post. I was compensated for my time but all opinions and recipes are my own****
Leave a Reply