High Altitude Chai Pumpkin Sheet Cake with Coffee Buttercream
Incredibly moist pumpkin sheet cake full of warm spices and brown butter, with fluffy coffee buttercream, decorated with cocoa powder stencils.
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Equipment
- Stand Mixer with Paddle Attachment
- 9x13 Baking Dish
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- ½ cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup whole buttermilk (or whole milk +1 tsp apple cider vinegar)
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- 2 cups + 2 tbsp all-purpose flour, fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp ground cardamom
- ½ tsp ground allspice
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Buttercream
- 1 ½ cups unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp meringue powder, optional
- ⅛ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 tbsp cream or whole milk
- 2 tbsp instant espresso powder
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder, for stenciling
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and position a rack in the center of the oven. Line a 9x13 inch baking pan with parchment paper, and lightly spray the paper with non-stick baking spray.
- In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Continue to cook the butter, swirling the pan occasionally, for about 10 minutes, until the water has evaporated, and the butter is forming nutty, fragrant golden brown solids at the bottom of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and let the butter cool for 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the browned butter, pumpkin, brown sugar, granulated sugar, eggs, buttermilk and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and whisk for about 15-30 seconds until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for about 28-30 minutes, until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean.
- Set the pan on a wire cooling rack, and cool completely before frosting.
Buttercream
- In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter for one minute.
- With the mixer on low, add the powdered sugar, meringue powder and salt, mixing until combined but clumpy.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the cream, espresso powder and vanilla until the espresso powder is dissolved. Add the espresso mixture to the buttercream.
- Increase speed to medium, and whip for 4-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally, until light and fluffy. Turn the speed down to "stir" and mix for 1 minute.
Decorating
- Turn the cooled cake out onto a serving board. Frost the cake all over with the buttercream; you should have at least 1 cup of buttercream leftover. If decorating the cake with stencils, smooth the top of the cake the best you can, keeping it level all over.
- Carefully arrange the stencils on top of the cake, then use a small sifter to lightly dust the cocoa powder over the stencils. Carefully remove the stencils.
- Fit a piping bag with tip #18, and fill with buttercream. Pipe shell borders in between the stencils and around the edge of the cake.
Notes
This cake will stay moist and fresh-tasting for days, stored in an airtight container at room temperature.
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