June 3rd
2009
Some ingredients have a leased line to my heart, if they show up in a recipe’s ingredient list or – even better – in the recipe’s headline, I’m sold and on my way to the kitchen. Chorizo certainly is one of them, poppyseeds of course are another one and every rather unusual ingredient can be, too. The smallest green glass bottle in my little team of oil bottles belongs to this family – it holds a dark green liquid, that the Austrian region Styria is well-known for: pumpkin seed oil. And no, Lou Ferrigno has not been involved – at all. It’s a happy cake.
Pumpkin seed oil with its unique nutty taste is my personal cherry on top: just a drizzle can refine soups (pumpkin! potato!) and salad dressings. And it lends one of my top three all-time favorite desserts (semifreddo with roasted pumpkin seeds) an irresistible flavor. So how could I have missed out on another Styrian classic – the pumpkin seed oil cake? Having raved about ARTE’s food documentaries in the past, I occasionally surf their website for inspiring recipes and this is what I found. The pictured cake showed a slightly greenish yellow color, nothing too far from the ordinary, so the color alone wasn’t the initial and compelling reason for me to get started in the first place. A fortiori I was pleased with the final result: starting to slice my first baked loaf, the color had turned out much deeper than I would have remotely hoped for, in fact is was the brightest green I have come across in non-artificially colored baked goods (the pictures don’t do the real thing justice). Even greener than my pistachio cake!
The cake was a big hit with everybody (I made a few changes to the original recipe, e.g. omitted the water and used butter instead), Oliver even asked for it two weeks in a row, something he usually only does with apple cakes. Yet some of my guinea pigs where having trouble detecting the color-giving ingredient. Matcha powder? Sencha tea? Ground pistachios? In my opinion this loaf has a distinct nutty, maybe a little hay-ish flavor note, so all three guesses are not too far from the truth. Anyway, if your looking for a different kind of coffee cake with a wonderful moist crumb – pleasing to the eye and highly seductive – this may be your recipe.
Preheat the oven to 180°C (355° Fahrenheit). Dry-roast pumpkin seeds in a large pan over medium heat until they start to make cracking sounds and gain some golden color. Pour into a bowl and let cool down, then grind them finely in a food processor.
Prepare the loaf pan (or any other cake molds): Grease the pan with 1 tbsp butter, then dust it with either breadcrumbs, flour or finely chopped pumpkin seeds – whatever you have at hand. Set aside.
Beat together soft butter, sugar and the pinch of salt in a large bowl, then add the pumpkin seed oil and continue for some minutes (I used my KitchenAid, level 4, for about 3 minutes). Separate the egg yolks and whites (set aside the whites for later use), then add the egg yolks to the batter and beat for two more minutes or until most of the sugar has dissolved. Add the ground pumpkin seeds to the bowl, then sift in the flour and baking powder and mix together on low speed just until evenly combined (the batter will be rather thick).
In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until stiff, then add one third of it to the batter and stir it in with a rubber spatula (the batter is still to thick to fold it in properly). Now carefully fold in the rest of the egg whites until just incorporated.
Fill the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven (middle level) for 50 to 60 minutes (this cake usually rises beautifully, but may collapse a little during the last 15 minutes – however, I didn’t recognize any negative impact, neither visual nor concerning the cake’s flavor). The cake is done when an inserted wooden skewer comes out clean. Take out of the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before releasing it from the pan. Dust with powdered sugar or glaze with white chocolate once the cake has cooled down completely.
Pumpkin seed oil cake
Recipe source: adapted from this recipe
Required time: prep. 20 min., baking 50-60 min.
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Ingredients (for one loaf cake):
100g pumpkin seeds
150g soft butter, plus 1 tbsp extra for greasing
2-3 tbsp breadcrumbs (or flour or finely chopped pumpkin seeds)
4 eggs (M)
250g sugar
a pinch of fine sea salt
100g pumpkin seed oil
250g all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
finish: dust with powdered sugar or glaze with melted white chocolate
I have always been curious about pumpkin seed oil, but the price tag has always deterred me. This post has inspired me to go for it and buy some next time I'm at the specialty shop! Even if I don't make this cake, I'm sure my soups and salads will thank me!
The cake looks very intriguing! I love pumpkin seeds too and as I couldn't find a pumpkin seed oil in south of Spain, where I live now, I brought it all the way from Poland:) So there's a bottle waiting on the shelf, and I'm happy to find a new way to use it.
Thank you for wonderful and inspiring recipes!
I was SURE that this was a matcha cake :) (My matcha loaf has exactly the same colour). But pumpkin seeds? I would never have guessed. Clever!!
Very unusual! That recipe is really interesting! A delicious looking cake...
Cheers,
Rosa
Hm, irgendwie ist mein erster Kommentar verschollen. Jetzt schreib ich aber auf Deutsch... Erst gestern hab ich überlegt, was ich mit meinen Kürbiskernen anstelle. Das leckere Semifreddo wieder mal machen? Und jetzt das hier - super! Am liebsten würde ich jetzt gleich mit Backen loslegen. Die Zutaten hab ich alle daheim. Aber ich muss noch arbeiten und somit warte ich jetzt sehnsüchtig auf den Feierabend, damit ich mich in die Küche stürzen kann! Danke für das Rezept!!!
ha! i tried that one last year and was a little disappointed that it wasn't that green. I have been thinking of food clour ever since... Looking forward to seeing you guys, Erika
ps: oh, and by the way i have made scones 3 times within the last week and the bulgur salad twice. yum!!!
I never even tasted pumpkin seed oil and now I want to bake this cake!
ah i was wondering what's the green cake before i read, I thought it will be pistachio. heh
I`m so much into your fotos! Even though my sweet tooth is not that big I´ll have to try this one. The cakes´ colour is too tempting.
What a beautifully coloured cake! I love it and I haven't even tasted it. There must be a hefty dose of goodness in there too from the seeds.
Sehr schöne Farbe, wird bestimmt bald nachgemacht
Looks fabulous...and may I say how gorgeous your eggs are!
The cake looks delicious!!
helpful note: if you ever get pumpkin seed oil on your clothes, just lay them out into the sunlight! The stain won't wash out, but the sun will pull it right out!
Ich wusste gar nicht, dass man Kürbiskernöl auch für süße Speisen verwenden kann. Der Kuchen scheint das beste Testobjekt für mich zu sein ;)))
That looks delicious!
I'd love to slather a layer of a spiced pumpkim butter over a few warmed slices of this cake. Num, num...
I love pumpkin seeds and the cake is perfect.
Regards
Moira
Danke, danke, danke!!!! Endlich weiß ich was mit der Flasche Kernöl anzufangen. Bei uns wird das Öl fast nur für Suppen verwendet und die sind im Sommer rar gesät.
What a magnificent colour! I haven't seen pumpkin seed oil around, but I'll have my eyes out for it now. I'm curious about your pumpkin seed semifreddo too.
mhh the cake looks delicious! as I am from that area (well next to styria but we also produce a lot of pupmkin oil) - avery easy dessert. buy good quality vanilla ice and drizzle a bit of pumkin seed oil on it. if you have more tim add some pumpkin seed brittle for decoration.
try pumpkin seed oil on vanilla ice!
I am so temted to try this... as soon as my oven is fixed :-(
Merci beaucoup! Beautiful cake, exactly what I'd like to eat with my tea this afternoon! Never tasted pumpkins seeds like this... I'll try
So unusual. I can honestly say I would never, in a million years, have thought of this recipe... which is what makes it so damn delightful!
My little pumpkin seed lovin' family is going to love this! I'm going to try it this weekend. yum!
Sounds like my kind of cake! Love the colour too.
Hi Nicole, the cake is sitting in my oven...am totally curious...
Great cake! I love pumpkin seeds. Some months ago I made a zucchini cake - and it had almost the same colour.
hi, i've just baked this cake! taste is amazing but the colour is very disappointing!
EDIT Nicky: Hi Fiona, Sorry to hear you were disappointed with the color, did you use a good quality pumpkin seed oil as well as ground pumpkin seeds? My friends who just baked the cake were all amazed by its deep green color, so I'm not really sure, why your results weren't satisfying.
I tried the cake and really liked it. To my astonishment I got the same reaction of my boyfriend as you discribed Olivers.
But why did you took butter instead of water? I would think, the pumpkin seed oil covers the amount of fat needed. I didn't quite understand, so I followed the original recipe... but I would reallly like to know!
EDIT Nicky: We call this kind of cake "Eischwerkuchen", which means you have to weigh the eggs and use the same amount of flour, sugar and fat. That's why I disregarded the water and used butter instead to add the equal amount of fat. But that's only my personal preference ;)
sounds delicous! I love pumkin seeds and I have to try this one! I usually do a kind of brownies, just that I use instead of the nuts chopped pumpkin seeds :-)
oh and it is very difficult to find good pumkin seed oil, even in Austria! many producers buy the seeds from china, but call it a Styrian product!
Hi Nicky! Thanks a lot for this great recipe! I already made this cake twice and everybody (my boyfriend, family and friends) is enthusiastic because of the great taste and the unusual color! I already wrote the recipe in my own book with all my favourites! THANKS!!! A great, moist taste, also juicy after 3 days (there was only one piece left!), and it is really enough to spread only some powdered sugar on the cake!
[...] The Incredible Green Cake from delicious days certainly looks incredible. I’m going to be baking this for brunch one [...]
Hello Nicole!
It is the first time I am writting to you, but I could not resist is after baking this cake. It is one of the best I have ever baked. The pumpking seed oil was quite expensive (13 euros for 250 ml) but was worth every cent. Thank you for your very accurate recipes, they make it impossible to go wrong. Sorry for any english mistakes. I am from Portugal so my english is the same as heard on tv ; >) Best of luck,
Sonia
niceey i loved them
Yum! Pepitas in a cake! I think pricking this cake then drizzling it with sweetend condensed milk+evaporated milk+heavy cream would make for a unique rendition of TRES LECHES. Especially because pepitas are so common in the Indigenous/Authentic Mexican culinary tradition. Thanks for the inspiration!
Your lovely photos have inspired me to try this gorgeous looking cake, pity I don´t have pumpkin seed oil at home or I´d start straight away :o(
As a big fan of all kind of food made of pumpkin I righ away took on the challenge. The greenish color and the unusual taste of the cake was the highlight at the coffee table. Thanks for this great recipe!
I'm a big fan of anything made with pumpkin, but I have yet to use pumpkin seed oil. The color and texture are beautiful. What a unique and savory cake!
wow, it looks fantastic and i think it tastes like that too. :)
At first I thought it was Macha or green tea but NO.. all the more better and all the more fabulous, me too a big fan of anything made with pumpkin. Iurv the snaps too.
Yummi !!! This cake tastes incredibly good ! What a clever idea to use pumpkin seed oil !
I love the nutty taste of pumpkin seed oil and I can very well imagine it in a cake!
By the way, just a scoop of vanilla ice cream with a dash of pumpkin seed oil on top makes a wonderfully quick and simple dessert...
yeah, kernöl, das beste, was wir steirer zu bieten haben :)
You should have seen the faces of my mom and sister when I let them cut the cake... They totally adored it. This is gonna be an all time favourite, I can feel it in my bones. Thank you for this very inspiring blog!
ps: I'm more of a lurker, but don't feel left out. I'm here two to three times a week, just to see if you've posted something new ^^
Looks wonderful. I've had pumpkin seed butter before which was nice so am now longing to try this.
I love the flavor of pumpkin seeds! A friend from Slovenia just gave me a liter of oil. Apparently she has some family friends who produce the stuff. I'm in heaven!
The recipe looks great. (Someday when I own a mixer, a scale, measuring cups, mixing bowls, pans, or any of that stuff I will be sure to try it out.)
[...] and epazote. The comments I leave on my fellow food bloggers’ recipes say things like, “Yum! Pepitas [pumpkin seeds] in a cake! I think pricking this cake then drizzling it with sweetened [...]
thanks so much,shz u really relieved the stress coz it was something big and i think i can move on with our project.great ,incredible.the green colour was so much discouraging so thanks so much 4 the support.think we a going to make it sweetheart .pliz are there no any colour enhancers to turn it brownish but sweetheart cool as it is green.reply me pliz.need information about preserving the butter coz ours was continous and so much good like peanut butter,everything was coolthe flavour even the green colour is so much good ,any food tests on our green pumpkin butter.post sweetie
Under the kitchen lamplight, the cake seemed to be brown. The cake showed its otherwordly green colour only in daylight. A metameric cake! And hey, what a colour! And the nutty taste I love so much is all over the place. Thank you for this fabulous recipe.
this recipe sounds amazing! Will definitely try to cook this cake on weekend! Thank you very much for sharing!
What a great recipe! Love the colour and definitely going to give this a try :)
Hey, I love your website! Do you think it would work if I just chopped the pumpkin seeds instead of grinding them? Thanks!
Hi Ann, I'm not sure, I can only offer a guess. Try to chop them as fine as possible, then it might work. Otherwise the dough could turn out too heavy and might not rise at all...
[...] The incredible green cake » delicious:days http://www.deliciousdays.com/archives/2009/06/03/the-incredible-green-cake – view page – cached ...living the good life with a blog so pretty you could eat it. venus zine no.29. one of time's 50 coolest websites. — From the page [...]
I just made this cake yesterday and am quite intrigued with the flavour - by far the most interesting coffee cake I have had in quite a while. And the colour is beautiful!
Of course I like the more traditional flavours too, but this one is reallys special.
I also really like your brussel sprouts recipe, though I prefer to make it with strong, coarse mustard instead of dijon mustard - it gives an adiitional touch, to acutally taste the mustard when you chew on the individual grains. And then only half a chili.
I do adore your blog - so many interesting tips, yummy recipes, and your style and wit is fantastic :-)
[...] (veganized from this recipe) [...]
miam,miam!!!!!