As weird as it might sound, I am so looking forward to cold weather and rain. It’s been incredibly hot and dry this past couple of years in California so we are all ready for some rain.
With Fall comes the inevitable wave of “pumpkin spice” everything so let’s try to mix it up a bit, shall we? Today’s recipe bring a new twist on spiced desserts by using a chai tea blend. While typical pumpkin spice combines cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and allspice, Chai also includes cardamom and cloves. It’s a slightly more rounded flavor than good ol’ pumpkin spice and it will keep your friends guessing.
To shape these bit-sized cakelets, I used NordicWare’s Fall pan. It’s a gorgeous pan that’s coated with a nonstick bronze finish. Pretty and functional! It has 4 shapes: acorn, pumpkin, maple leaf and a turkey. I’m not a huge fan of the turkey shape but the other 3 sure make up for it.
To make sure your creations come out of the molds intact, here is a foolproof method: brush some melted butted into all the nooks and crannies. The pan is already nonstick so a little goes a long way. Then dust with flour and tap out all the excess. Works every time!
The recipe itself is really easy and only requires 2 bowls to prepare. Yay! Fewer dishes! One bowl for your dry mix of flour and spices, one larger bowl for your wet ingredients. That’s it. It takes about 10 minutes to put together and bakes in 16 minutes. What’s not to love?
Enjoy!
- 1¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoons ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
- ¼ teaspoon cloves
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ¾ cups pumpkin puree
- ⅓ cup water
- ½ cup vegetable oil
- 1½ cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- ⅕ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prep your cakelet pan by brushing melted butter into each well. Dust with flour and tap out any excess flour.
- In a bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, water and oil until combined. Add the sugar and combine. Continue with the eggs and vanilla extract.
- Using a spatula, sprinkle a third of the flour/spice mix over the pumpkin base and fold to combine. Continue with the rest of the flour mix, a little bit at a time. Fold only until just combined.
- Fill each well about ⅔. This batter is enough for 2 batches or 32 cakelets.
- Bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick inserted into one of the cakelets comes out clean, about 16 minutes.
These are the cutest!!!! It’s already cool here in Toronto so these will be so yummy for our morning walks!
These look so cute and delicious! Nice non stick tip, I have a spooky Halloween pan just like yours but I’ve had things stick in the past I’ll have to give the butter and flour dusting a try.
glad I could help =)