Sweet Pumpkin Cake - butter

Method

• Take the skin, seeds and fibrous part off the kabocha squash, cut up and microwave until tender.
• Pass through a sieve, and measure out 160 g. Mix in 15 g of sugar.
• Put the butter in a bowl and bring to room temperature.
• Bring the egg to room temperature too.
• If needed, line the cake tin you'll be using with parchment paper.
• Start preheating the oven to 180C.
• Sift the ingredients together.
• It's just a small amount so a tea strainer is handy for this.
• Cream the butter until smooth with a whisk.
• Add the remaining 30 g of sugar and cream together well.
• When its light and fluffy, add in the salt.
• Add all the ingredients in the order listed, then add the kabocha squash from step 1 (in 2 to 3 batches) and mix in.
• If you want to omit the rum, substitute a little milk.
• Mix in the almond flour.
• Add the egg, and mix well again.
• You don't have to beat the egg in a separate bowl, just break it straight in.
• Next, sift in the ingredients and mix.
• You can just use a whisk for this.
• Pour the batter into the cake tin, level out the surface, and bake in the preheated oven for about 30 minutes.
• This is how it looks when it's done baking.
• The baking time is a guideline, so please adjust it to your oven.
• Leave the cake covered until it settles and becomes easy to cut.
• When it has cooled down, it will shrink a bit as shown.
• Cut into easy to eat pieces and it's done.
• In the main photo above, I topped each piece with a mixture of cream cheese, heavy cream, and a little sugar, plus raisins etc.
• Bonus: This is the same cake baked in a 15 x 15cm square tin.
• Baking time is 20 minutes.
• I added pumpkin seeds on top at step 7.
• You can use honey instead of the condensed milk.
• I didn't use much butter, so I added the condensed milk to make the cake easier to cut into slices.
• Use whichever you like.
• However, if you use honey, the cake will brown a little faster, so be careful not to let it burn.
• This is one I made with honey, by the way.