This is a case of two classes one cake. It may have been half term in these neck of the woods last week, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t busy. If anything the scale of the commitments meant I was busier. A business meeting at a stunning private estate about something exciting coming to East Midlands in summer 2013, a trip to The Bulls Head, running a Halloween cake decorating for children, teaching baking in the evening to adults, being a pupil at the Brendan from GBBO Briliant Baking course at Seasoned and then finally making calzone for a local deli. It’s not surprising I fell asleep on the sofa this afternoon.
This cake merges the Halloween cake decorating and the evening baking class. These pumpking cakes are beautifully moist and you’ll struggle to realise the secret ingredient is pumpkin. Just like carrot cakes are sometimes topped with mini sugarpaste carrots surely pumpkin cakes can have the same decoration. Here I’ve made the pumpkin from sugarpaste icing, but they could easily be made from marzipan as that would work really well with the pumpkin. Obviously outside Halloween I don’t usually add the edible dirt (blitzed oreos).
I bought the pumpkin for these cakes weeks ago purely for the fact it was a pretty pumpkin. A sign of a food blogger who needs help as I now find vegetables pretty. No hope! To prep the pumpkin for this cake I just cut off the peel and bung it in the blender until it is in small pieces. It doesn’t need to be precooked.
Note: this raw cake mix is probably one of the most unappetising you’ll ever seen, but watch it transform beautifully in the oven. Ideally bake it in a muffin tin. The mixture is very liquid and need the support a muffin tin gives while it is baking.
Halloween Pumpkin Cakes
Makes around 9 cupcake sized cakes
70ml vegetable oil or rapeseed oil
1 eggs
100g soft dark sugar
150g grated uncooked, peeled pumpkin (I finely dice it in the blender)
50g raisins
35g walnuts, chopped
90g self-raising flour
1 tiny pinch of salt
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg or mace
¼ tsp ginger
25g cream cheese, chilled (Full fat works best)
25g butter, at room temperature
½ tsp vanilla extract
125g icing sugar, sifted
½ orange, zest only
1/2 packet of oreos blended for the edible dirt (optional)
Sugarpaste pumpkins
Orange sugarpaste
cocktail stick
black edible ink felt tip pen
cloves
4 comments
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laura_howtocook
October 28, 2012 at 8:46 am (UTC 0) Link to this comment
You are so creative with your cake decorating ideas. I love the soil and the cake batter sounds so goos. Like the idea of blitzing the pumpkin as I have been chopping up far too many recently!
Jules
October 28, 2012 at 6:55 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
I blitz carrots too for carrot cake. Far quicker and doesn’t really alter the texture of the cake.
bakecakecrumbs
October 28, 2012 at 6:12 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
They look great – I love the sound of the recipe – full of lots of interesting tastes and textures. I was wondering how you got that dirt – very clever!
Jules
October 28, 2012 at 6:57 pm (UTC 0) Link to this comment
Other chocolate biscuits, like bourbons, can be used, but oreos give the best colour and texture.