Lean pumpkin-orange cake with dates and almond crust

Lenten cake with pumpkin and dates is an excellent pastry for a lean, and not only, table. The combination of pumpkin and orange makes the cake bright in every sense - the aroma, taste and color immediately fall in love. Juicy dates and slightly crunchy almond flakes that cover the cake perfectly complement and enrich the taste and texture of this pumpkin-orange cake.

Ingredients

• Pumpkin (peeled) - 150 g
• Refined vegetable oil - 50 ml + for lubrication of the form
• Sugar brown (or white) - 50 g
• Flour - 150-170 g (1 cup with a capacity of 250 ml)
• Baking powder - 15 g
• Orange - 230 g (1 pc.)
• or orange fresh - 60 ml and orange zest - 1 teaspoon with a slide
• Dates - 70 g (weight with pits)
• Almond petals - 20 g

Directions

1. Rub the pumpkin on a fine (or medium) grater.
2. Remove the pits from the dates and cut into small pieces.
3. From the surface of the orange, using a fine grater, remove one and a half teaspoons of zest (the orange part of the peel).
4. Then squeeze 60 ml of juice from the orange.
5. Turn on the oven to heat up to 170 degrees.
6. Mix pumpkin, vegetable oil, orange juice and zest.
7. Add sugar. We mix.
8. Add dates.
9. Mix again.
10. Add baking powder to flour. We mix.
11. Add flour with baking powder to a bowl with pumpkin and other ingredients.
12. We mix everything.
13. The dough should have a pasty consistency.
14. I needed 170 g of flour - this is 1 glass with a capacity of 250 ml with a slide.
15. We grease the form with vegetable oil (the size of the top of my form is 11x20 cm, it tapers downwards). Then sprinkle the bottom and lower 3 cm of the walls of the mold with almond petals.
16. Put the dough into a mold. My form is filled with about 3 cm of dough.
17. We put the form in an oven preheated to 170 degrees for 40-45 minutes. We check the readiness of the cake with a wooden skewer - after piercing the cake, it should come out completely dry.
18. Let the finished cake cool in the form.
19. Then remove the cake from the mold and turn it over onto a serving board so that the almond petals are on top. Wrap the cake in cling film and leave overnight.
20. Lean pumpkin-orange cake with dates and almond petals is ready.