Unexpected, sophisticated and delicious, Pumpkin Sage Cake is a wonderful addition to your pumpkin baking repertoire. Affiliate links have been used in this post to link to items I am discussing.
I was of 2 minds about whether to share this cake. I made it at a particularly busy time, when the only moment I could find to photograph it came at night. So the photos are the not the best. But the cake itself is completely worth sharing. And you might be looking for last minute Thanksgiving desserts, for which this would be perfect as it comes together quickly with pantry ingredients (I always have canned pumpkin and sage grows well into the fall outside) but is elegant, unique and comforting all at the same time. I found the Pumpkin Sage Cake in Lauren Chattman’s always reliable and inspiring Cake Keeper Cakes: 100 Simple Recipes for Extraordinary Bundt Cakes, Pound Cakes, Snacking Cakes, and Other Good-to-the-Last-Crumb Treats
. At the time, I was looking for a quick bread to make as a thank you gift for a colleague of John’s, so I split the cake into 2 loaf cakes.
Chattman makes the cake with walnuts, but I decided to leave the nuts out. If I were making this as a dessert bundt cake, especially for an occasion like Thanksgiving, I might choose to add some sort of glaze, maybe even with sage leaves infused into it. But since I was serving it as more of a snack or tea cake, I left the cake unadorned. My kids devoured our loaf for breakfast over a day or 2, and John told me his colleague really liked the cake as well. Because I barely changed anything in the recipe, I am linking you to it at Fine Cooking.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Such a lovely loaf cake! I pair pumpkin and sage together so much in savory foods but often forget about it for sweets. But it sounds perfect.