Making a pumpkin cake

Sometimes I do some baking — cakes, cookies, or breads, mostly — but Walt is the expert when it comes to pie doughs and tarts. Anyway, we are trying to use up things we have in the freezer to make room for things we plan to put into the freezer over the next month or two. Pumpkin, for example.

There was a cup of frozen pumpkin pulp in the upstairs freezer that I had my eye on. I thought I'd make a pumpkin cake. Instead of using our standard recipe (which is good) I decided to look for a new one — a batter using yogurt rather than oil or butter — on the internet. I found a good one which is funny because it's a translation of an American recipe. The woman who posted it on her blog translated it but she didn't convert the measures from American to metric. She must have sets of American measuring cups and measuring spoons. Here it is.

Gâteau au yaourt et au potiron

¾ de tasse de sucre brun

2 œufs

1 tasse de purée de potiron

3 c. à soupe d’huile

½ tasse de yaourt nature

1¾ tasses de farine

1 sachet de levure

1 c. à café de cannelle

½ c. à café de muscade moulue

½ c. à café de bicarbonate de soude

½ c. à café de sel

Préchauffer le four à 180°C.

Mélanger les oeufs et le sucre jusqu’à ce que le mélange blanchisse. Ajouter la purée de potiron,

l’huile, et le yaourt. Mélanger. Le mélange doit être homogène.

Dans un autre saladier, mélanger la farine, les épices (cannelle & muscade), le bicarbonate de

soude, et le sel.

Verser les ingrédients secs sur les ingrédients liquides et mélanger doucement jusqu’à ce que le

mélange soit homogène. Ne pas trop mélanger.

Verser dans un moule à gâteau beurré et fariné (si le moule n’est pas en silicone). Enfourner 50

minutes. Vérifier la cuisson à l’aide de la pointe d’un couteau. Si elle est sèche, le gâteau est cuit.

Sinon prolonger la cuisson d’une dizaine de minutes et vérifier à nouveau. Laisser le gâteau

refroidir 15 minutes avant de démouler sur un joli plat.

Some details: a c. à soupe is a tablespoon and a c. à café is a teaspoon — the c. stands for cuillère (spoon). If you're not American, you need to know that a standard U.S. cup is 8 fluid ounces and a U.S. pint is 16 fl. oz. (not 20 as in England.) If you want the recipe in English, let me know in a comment. By the way, I made the cake with farine semi-complète, which is probably the equivalent of 50% all-purpose flour and 50% whole-wheat flour. It occurs to me that it might be the French version of what we call bread flour. The glaze on the cake is cream cheese, confectioner's sugar, and a tablespoon of Triple Sec for flavor.