pumpkin, olive oil and grapefruit cake with salted whipped chocolate ganache

Whoever's homeless now, will build no shelter;

who lives alone will live indefinitely so,

waking up to read a little, draft long letters,   

and, along the city's avenues,

fitfully wander, when the wild leaves loosen.

Maria rilke 

Whenever I think of  September,  it always takes me back in time to Houston as if it was yesterday.

two years ago, the first time I landed in Houston with my parents to nurse my dad when he was diagnosed with  terminal gland cancer.

One autumn evening when the sun used to seep her golden ray through red maple leaves as they whisper by a fitful gusts of wind in our living compound garden.

I was holding my dad,s hands as we sauntering our way to the closest grocery store next to our apartment.

My dad always captivated by the diversity of Americans products, he was astonished by the pumpkin varieties lined up in front of the grocery store interface.

Ugh!! What is that ?!? ...it looks so sick!!he started itching himself, disgusted by the look of galeux d'eysines pumpkin

You know dad we can roast one and make a delicious soup or a gluten free pancakes out of the flesh.

Really? With the disgusting one ?

Hahahaha..yes!! Absolutely I’m sure you will enjoy it.

We are going to roast the pumpkin in the oven and the flesh will soften.

Then, I’m going to purée it to make so many goodies out of it.

Suddenly remembered our conversation while flipping through zaytoun cookbook by yasmine khan

a recipe caught my attention and brought back the bittersweet reminiscences of Father,s last days in Houston.

So I thought of sharing this recipe with you spiced pumpkin orange olive oil.

It’s warm, fresh & vibrant just like late summer, early autumn.

With orange sugar glaze topped with pistachio.

I really recommend using fresh pumpkin purée instead of canned ones( I personally dislike metallic canny taste )the method is so easy and quite effortless.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees, cut pumpkin in half; scrape out seeds.

Drizzle pumpkin with a little olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. (Omit pepper if using in sweet dishes.)Place cut side down on a baking sheet. Roast until very soft, about 35 to 45 minutes.

Adopted from Martha Stewart

So here’s the recipe

1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon / 125 ml olive oil , plus more for the pan

3/4 cups / 150g granulated or caster sugar

1/4 cup 50g dark brown sugar

finely grated zest of 1/ 2 organic or unwaxed grapefruit.

3 eggs

1 2/ 3 cups/ 200g all-purpose flour

1 1/ 2 teaspoons baking powder

1/ 2 teaspoon baking soda

1/ 2 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/ 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/ 2 teaspoon ground ginger

pinch of ground cloves

1/ 4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup/ 250g cooked pumpkin purée, canned or home-made.

1 teaspoon grapefruit juice

Preheat the oven to 350 ° F/ 180 ° C. Lightly oil a 8 1/ 2 × 4 1/ 2 in./ 22 × 11cm loaf pan and line it with parchment paper. In a stand mixer or hand one fitted with whisk attachment , beat both sugars, olive oil and the grapefruit zest until combined and smooth. Gradually beat in the eggs, one by one, until the it's well incorporated and and the batter becomes light . Sift all the dry ingredients and gently stir them in. Finally, fold in the pumpkin purée and lemon juice gently. You don't want to lose the air by over folding otherwise you will end up with dense cake.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the center of the oven for around 50 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then tip it out onto a wire rack. When the cake is completely cool.

FOR THE SALTED WHIPPED CHOCOLATE GANACHE.

250g good quality of milk chocolate bar (finely chopped)

250ml heavy cream.

1 or 2 tablespoon of sea salt.

Place the main the chopped chocolate in a large bowl or stand mixer bowl ( if using ).

In sauce pan over medium heat warm the heavy cream until you see the first bubble.

Pour the hot heavy cream over the chopped chocolate and let it stand for 30 seconds. Stir the mixture to make sure the chocolate is completely dissolved.

Cover the bowl, and place it in fridge for at least 45 minutes.

In stand mixer fitted with whisk attachment on a medium whisk the ganache for 3 minutes or until it becomes creamy and fluffy.

Frost the cake with whipped ganache and sprinkle sea salt, slice & serve.