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Pumpkin Maple Sourdough Cake

November 9, 2011 by Nicole 81 Comments

Sourdough Pumpkin-Maple Cake

I created this delicious pumpkin maple sourdough cake by replacing part of the flour and liquid in a simple pumpkin cake with sourdough starter. It’s a great way to use up sourdough discard from feeding your sourdough starter. You’ll find a printable recipe at the bottom of this post.

Welcome back to Doughvember! This week, Linda and I are giving away sourdough-related prizes, so keep reading if you’re interested in today’s giveaway. 

Have you had any sourdough adventures yet this month?  I’m saving my bread baking for the second half of the month, but this week I decided to experiment with using sourdough starter to replace part of the flour and water in a simple pumpkin maple sourdough cake.

The great thing about keeping a sourdough starter is that you can experiment with using it in all sorts of recipes. As long as you know the percentage of flour to water in your starter, it’s easy to figure out how much flour and liquid to replace in a recipe. 

I keep my sourdough starter at 100% hydration. That means that I feed it with equal parts flour and water (by weight). If you’ve followed my instructions for creating and maintaining a sourdough starter and have been feeding it with one cup of unbleached all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup water at a time, yours should be very close to 100% hydration because one cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water are close to the same weight (about 4 oz).

If you’re interested in keeping your starter at 100% hydration and you’d like to be exact, you should start weighing your ingredients when you feed your starter.

Maintaining a Sourdough Starter at 100% Hydration

In order to keep your starter healthy, you should be doubling the amount each time you feed it. Since you don’t want the starter to take over the kitchen, you need to use or discard a portion of the starter before feeding it. 

A good amount of sourdough starter to keep on hand at any one time is 16 ounces (which is about 2 cups by volume). To feed the starter by weight, measure out 8 ounces of your starter and use or discard the rest. Feed the 8 ounces of sourdough starter with 4 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of filtered water (water should be at room temperature or lukewarm – never hot to the touch). 

Now you have doubled the amount of starter and you’re keeping it at 100% hydration. If you need to increase your amount of starter for a recipe, just keep doubling the amount until you have what you need for the recipe (plus extra to keep on hand). If you’d like to keep a smaller or larger amount on hand, that’s fine, too. Just remember to always double the amount (by weight) when feeding.

Using Sourdough Starter in Recipes

By keeping your starter at 100% hydration, you know that it is always half water and half flour by weight. So 8 ounces of 100% hydration sourdough starter is always equal to 4 ounces of flour and 4 ounces of water. This makes it fairly easy to use discarded sourdough starter in any recipe that uses flour and liquid, especially quick breads. 

For example, If you want to use one cup of sourdough starter in a muffin or quick bread recipe, you just need to remember that you’ll be replacing 4 ounces of flour (about 1 cup by volume) and 4 ounces of liquid (1/2 cup by volume) in the recipe. 

Of course it’s not exactly that simple. Sourdough starter is acidic, so if you want to swap it in without changing any of the leavening amounts, it works best in recipes that would normally have an acidic liquid like buttermilk.  But don’t let any of this scare you. Experiment and have fun!

One thing to keep in mind is that when using sourdough starter in a quick bread or cake recipe, it’s not necessarily going to make your baked goods taste like sourdough bread. 

The “sour” flavor in sourdough bread is developed over the long, slow fermentation times that most of those breads require. In quick breads, the starter will add an extra bit of flavor and the texture will be a bit different, but it’s usually very subtle.

On to the pumpkin cake. Since I’m still trying to avoid refined sweeteners as much as I can and because I thought it would be a great flavor combination, I used maple syrup in place of sugar to sweeten this cake. 

As cakes go, it’s not especially sweet, but after sampling a few slices Phil and I both decided that it was just sweet enough. If you’d like to increase the dessert factor of this cake, a smear of cream cheese frosting would be just perfect.

Doughvember Roundup

Now I’d like to share a few of my favorite things I’ve seen around the web so far this Doughvember.

Sourdough Beef Wellington

Linda, my partner in sourdough this month, has created yet another Doughvember masterpiece. She wrapped a seared beef tenderloin with comte cheese and sourdough and then baked the whole thing.

She then served the Sourdough-Comte Beef Wellington with Port-Fig Compound Butter.  Head over to Salty Seattle for the recipe and another chance to win a Mavea filtered water pitcher (remember, sourdough starters prefer filtered water).

Sourdough Brioche from Tartine Bread

Sara from Three Clever Sisters decided to combine her loves of sourdough and brioche by making this beautiful Sourdough Brioche using the formula found in Tartine Bread (a book that is on my Christmas wish list).

Framed Sourdough Arrangement

Kerrie from Serves Four has been keeping us updated on her sourdough baking via Instagram and I love this photo arrangement she created that shows her process of baking a gorgeous loaf of sourdough bread.

Cabbage Sourdough Starter

Brandon from Kitchen Konfidence has been writing about his adventures in creating a sourdough starter from scratch using a slightly different method than the one I’ve written about here. 

His starter begins with whole wheat flour, water, and a red cabbage leaf. It might sound strange, but it’s actually a great way to get a sourdough culture started, especially if you’ve had trouble getting one going in the past. The white film that is usually visible on red cabbage (and on grapes) is actually wild yeast.  Check out his progress on Kitchen Konfidence.

Dried Sourdough Starter

And finally, here’s a photo of what I’ve been up to with my sourdough starter lately. I dehydrated a bunch of it to take with me to the International Food Blogger’s Conference in Santa Monica this weekend. 

I powdered it and divided it into 20 packets to hand out to anyone who wants one. If you’ll be at the conference and are interested in some starter (plus instructions for bringing it back to life), find me! 

If you’re interested in dehydrating some of your own starter for long-term storage or for mailing to friends, you can find good instructions at Chocolate & Zucchini.

We have been following and communicating with the growing community of Doughvember bakers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  If you’re talking about sourdough on twitter and/or posting photos of your creations on Instagram this month, please use the hashtag #Doughvember so we can all see what you’re up to. 

If you write a blog post this month featuring sourdough, send Linda or I the link (or post it in a comment). I’ll continue sharing links and photos throughout the month and we’ll hopefully come up with a big Doughvember roundup at the end of the month.

If you’d like to create your own sourdough starter from scratch and play along with us, you can find detailed instructions here.

Pumpkin Maple Sourdough Cake | pinchmysalt.com

Pumpkin Maple Sourdough Cake

Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup pumpkin or squash puree (canned or homemade)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 egg, lightly beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup "fed" 100% hydration sourdough starter
  • 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat flour)
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • heaping 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and move rack to center position. Butter an 8-inch round cake pan (or coat with baking spray).
  2. Start with all ingredients at room temperature. In a mixing bowl, whisk together squash puree, maple syrup, egg, and vanilla.
  3. Fold sourdough starter into squash mixture until well combined.
  4. In a separate small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
  5. Add dry ingredients to squash mixture and stir just until incorporated. Stir in melted butter.
  6. Pour batter into the greased 8-inch round cake pan.
  7. Bake at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched.
Nutrition Information:
Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 215Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 39mgSodium: 189mgCarbohydrates: 35gFiber: 3gSugar: 13gProtein: 5g
© Nicole Cross

Filed Under: Adventures in Baking, Breakfast/Brunch, Desserts, Doughvember

Previous Post: « Welcome to Doughvember
Next Post: Favorite Recipes of 2011 »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kathy says

    November 18, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    Sourdough scares me. I like toasting it and slathering it with peanut butter though.
    Reply
  2. Kris Myers says

    November 19, 2011 at 11:37 am

    I have been raised on Sourdough, as it is a regular staple in Alaska. but I can honestly say I have never had sourdough cake. I'm looking forward to trying this recipe. Thank you very much for the post.
    Reply
  3. Ana @ eggies says

    November 25, 2011 at 11:06 am

    This made such a great desert yesterday for Thanksgiving, thanks for making it available! - Ana
    Reply
  4. the tasty tRuth says

    November 28, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    This cake sounds SO fall-y and delicious! I'm loving Doughvember; thanks for sharing.
    Reply
  5. Mrs C says

    November 29, 2011 at 11:25 am

    Oh this is a perfect recipe for the fall! And of course following on FB!! Yum!!! I've got a simple recipe for baked cinnamon apple chips!!! Perfect for entertaining! Would love to know what you think!!! www.TheBabyGoat.com
    Reply
  6. Colette says

    November 29, 2011 at 9:18 pm

    I made sourdough sweet potato pancakes after Thanksgiving with the leftover mashed sweet potatoes. They were the best! Thanks for teaching me to make my own sourdough starter! Love it!
    Reply
  7. Kausambi@Coloredgrains says

    December 7, 2011 at 2:54 am

    Oh my look at that!!!!!!
    Reply
  8. Jules says

    December 7, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    I <3 Doughvember!! I'm loving all the sour dough info. I was inspired to try it for the first time because of you. I'm shocked at how easy it was to catch a yeast and grow it;) I considered getting a pet but I've had so much fun taking care of my starter I've decided to hold off on the pet and I've been baking bread like a crazy lady!!
    Reply
  9. Kelly says

    December 9, 2011 at 3:19 am

    I maintain a sourdough starter, but haven't done much experimenting with it beyond regular breads and waffles. I will have to start playing some more!
    Reply
  10. Lynn at Southern Fried French says

    December 10, 2011 at 12:32 am

    Nicole I haven't visited your site in a while (so many great food blogs, so little time!), so now I see I've got to get cooking. Baking especially. So photography is so beautiful that everything is tempting. Off to the kitchen!
    Reply
  11. Annie says

    December 11, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    This Doughvember is something! Please keep up the good work, love the pictures!
    Reply
  12. Ryan says

    December 16, 2011 at 8:26 pm

    Just about getting cold here in NC. Can't wait to heat up the house with some baking!!!!!
    Reply
  13. Jenny @ Savour the Senses says

    December 17, 2011 at 11:57 am

    All of this sourdough stuff is making me jealous!
    Reply
  14. UnwittyKitWew says

    December 17, 2011 at 12:16 pm

    ?????????? ????????????? ??? ? ????? ?????? ?????????, ??????????? ????????? ? ???????? vkontakte.ru/club26344850
    Reply
  15. Alicia says

    December 27, 2011 at 8:12 pm

    Loved this one; we should share this with our crowd of foodies :) Alicia Weir Relationship Manager http://www.myfoodrecruiter.com 'The world's leading site for Food Jobs and Careers'
    Reply
  16. umer says

    February 22, 2012 at 2:37 am

    looks very perfect, and i also like your creativity ...
    Reply
  17. thelma helms says

    April 16, 2012 at 2:34 pm

    The pumpkin maple cake looks great! My husband loves anything pumpkin - throughout the year, not just around autumn. We moved to Florida 3 years ago and the baking here just isn't the same as home (New York). If you love pumpkin cake, I recommend you check out CrumbCakeCreations for New York Style Crumb Cakes. To die for! We order around the holidays and enjoy thoroughly. This recipe looks really easy - I'm going to give it a shot and see what the grandkids think!
    Reply
  18. Jonell Galloway says

    August 1, 2012 at 5:17 am

    I love the way you discuss sourdough in such a professional way, and what a whopping flavor combination for the cake! I can't wait to try it as soon as we have pumpkin on the market.
    Reply
  19. Mitsuko says

    September 28, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    I realize this is an old post. But I happened upon this recipe when I had a pumkin craving and went searching for pumkin baked goods. Quick breads just wouldn't do, and nor would pancakes or lattes. I've been harvesting this craving for 30+ years. So I wanted to go all out...And no better way to do such than with cake. I also combined this with another recipe for pumkin coffee cake with strusel topping and maple glaze. So this cake, the other recipe's topping. It came out well. Just to speak on this cake though, I don't think it needs a topping. it's really good on its own. The pumkin and pumkin spice are subtle. And the sourdough is just barely barely there. It was excellent. Next time I will do the strusel and forgo the glaze. And call it coffee cake/breakfast. Haha! Thank you so much for the recipe!
    Reply
  20. Bethann says

    October 27, 2018 at 12:06 pm

    I know this recipe was originally posted several years ago, but I just found it this morning and wanted to let folks know the cake is fabulous! I made a few changes, but the cake was perfect. Changes were: used only 2 Tbsp butter (added 2 Tbsp applesauce), added one honey crisp apple, peeled and diced, and increased pumpkin pie spice to 1 1/4 tsp. Baking time was closer to 30 min. Next time I think I’ll reduce the butter to 1 Tbsp because the cake is plenty moist. Don’t pass up this recipe—it’s a keeper!
    Reply
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