Cake of the Day: Gingery Pumpkin Cheesecake

Every day, Yahoo Food features delectable cakes. They taste good, they look good, and they’re made by good people — talented bakers from around the world. We’re doing a Halloween countdown of the most ghoulish, mouth-watering cakes out there. Today, Charlyne Mattox shares a orange and black cheesecake that’s lighter than air from her cookbook Cooking With Seeds.

A gingery pumpkin cheesecake baked with a dark chocolate pumpkin seed crust. (Photo: Arnold Finkelstein)

Gingery Pumpkin Cheesecake
Makes 12 servings

24 chocolate wafer cookies
11/4 cups toasted hulled pumpkin seeds
¼ cup packed light-brown sugar
Kosher salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 8-ounce packages cream cheese, at room temperature
¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated
sugar, divided
¾ cup pure pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
2 tablespoons plus 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature, divided
2 large eggs, at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place the cookies and pumpkin seeds in a food processor. Process
until finely ground. Add the brown sugar and ½ teaspoon of
salt. Pulse to combine. Add the butter. Process until the mixture
comes together. Press the crust into the bottom and three quarters
of the way up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Place on
a rimmed baking sheet.

Beat the cream cheese and ¾ cup of granulated sugar with an
electric mixer until light, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the pumpkin puree,
pumpkin pie spice, 2 tablespoons of sour cream, and ½ teaspoon
of salt. Beat to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well
between each addition to fully incorporate. Pour the mixture into
the crust.

Bake until the cheesecake has set around the edges but is still
slightly wobbly in the center, 55 to 65 minutes.

Combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 cup of sour
cream in a bowl. Spread over the cheesecake, leaving a ½-inch
border. Cook until set, 4 to 6 minutes.

Allow the cheesecake to cool for 5 minutes. Slowly release the
spring on the pan to release the crust. Cool to room temperature
then chill completely.

Reprinted with permission from Cooking With Seeds by Charlyne Mattox (Da Capo Lifelong Books).

More Halloween cakes to love:

Salted Caramel Apple Snickers Cake

Pi?ata Cake from ‘Sweet Envy’

Vanilla Coca-Cola Cake