1. Place racks in lower half of oven, leaving plenty of headroom for the cake to rise. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Have ready an ungreased 9 - or 10 - inch tube pan.

2. Prepare the cake. Into a medium bowl, sift together flour, cornstarch, 11/2 cups of the sugar, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and baking powder. Whisk after sifting to make sure ingredients are well blended.

3. In a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, and vanilla. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones, mixing until they are fully combined.

4. In a separate large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high to whip egg whites for 30 seconds until foamy. Sprinkle remaining 2 Tbsp. sugar into whites and continue to whip them until whites form stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Fold about a third of the whipped egg whites into pumpkin batter. Gently fold remaining whipped egg whites into batter. Pour batter into tube pan.

5. Bake cake until surface springs back from a gentle touch, about 50 to 55 minutes. Immediately invert pan, either resting on its own feet, if the pan has them, or resting on the neck of a bottle. Cool for at least 3 hours in this inverted position. Remove cake from pan: run a table knife between cake and pan around the outer and inner edges. Turn cake out onto a serving plate.

6. Prepare the whipped cream. When cake has cooled, in a large bowl, use an electric mixer on medium-high to whip cream to soft peaks. Add mascarpone, honey, and cardamom and whip to just barely stiff peaks. Be careful not to overbeat.

7. Just before serving, either frost the cake with whipped cream or top surface with piped dollops. If desired, sprinkle with cardamom. An unfrosted cake can be kept tightly covered at room temperature for 5 days.

Source: Hannaford fresh Magazine, November - December 2014