Dairy-free pumpkin spice cake with frosting

This pumpkin spice cake is dairy-free — including the frosting! It’s also nut-free and can be made suitable for vegetarians and vegans.

I found the cake to be so moist and beautifully flavoured. There’s a hint of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger, making it an ideal cake to whip up throughout the festive season. The creamy and tangy cream cheese frosting is smooth and delicious. It’s perfect for this cake.

Serves 12-16.

Ingredients

FOR THE CAKE

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (allspice is also great)
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 4 large eggs
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 1 cup oil
• 425g pumpkin puree

FOR THE FROSTING

• 1 1/2 cups raw cashews
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 cup coconut cream
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 cup vegan butter (Nuttelex or the like)
• 4 cups icing sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.
2. Grease and flour one glass 23cm x 33cm baking dish.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.
4. In a mixing bowl, beat together eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin.
5. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, and mix to combine.
6. Spread batter into the prepared dish.
7. Bake the cake for 25-30 minutes, or until a knife inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
8. Allow cake to cool completely before frosting.
9. To make your cream cheese, add cashews to a bowl, pour boiling water from the kettle over it, cover with a cloth and leave to soak for 1 hour. Then drain cashews and add to a blender with lemon juice, coconut cream, salt and white vinegar. Blend. If you have a stick attachment for your blender then use this to push the mixture down onto the blades as you blend for easier blending.
10. Weigh out 230g of the mixture and place it into a bowl. Add vegan butter, sift in icing sugar and add vanilla extract.
11. Mix slowly then gradually increase speed until frosting is thick and smooth.
12. Place bowl of frosting into the fridge to firm up slightly. Then spread on top of the cake.