Pumpkins

It’s Halloween next Tuesday, so time to buy your pumpkins! Chegworth Valley in The Pantiles is the perfect venue to secure your seasonal squash and ensure your home looks suitably spooky ahead of fright night.

But once carved, we often discard the fleshy feast that’s inside these spooktacular fruits. Don’t do it! Pumpkins are delicious inside a whole host of savoury and sweet dishes.

Halloween Pumpkin Cake

In this week’s blog we feature a Halloween Pumpkin Cake Recipe from BBC Good Food. As well as being moist and delicious, it’s the perfect accompaniment to any spooky soiree or devilish dinner!

Ingredients

For the cake
300g self-raising flour
300g light muscovado sugar
3 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
175g sultanas
½ tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten
200g butter, melted
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp orange juice
500g (peeled weight) pumpkin flesh, grated

For drenching and frosting
200g pack of soft cheese
85g butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
Zest of 1 orange and juice of half

Method

1. Heat oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and line a 30 x 20cm baking or small roasting tin with baking parchment. Put the flour, sugar, spice, bicarbonate of soda, sultanas and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine. Beat the eggs into the melted butter, stir in the orange zest and juice, then mix with the dry ingredients till combined. Stir in the pumpkin. Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 30 mins, or until golden and springy to the touch.

2. To make the frosting, beat together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and 1 tsp of the juice till smooth and creamy, then set aside in the fridge. When the cake is done, cool for 5 mins then turn it onto a cooling rack. Prick it all over with a skewer and drizzle with the rest of the orange juice while still warm. Leave to cool completely.

3. If you like, trim the edges of the cake. Give the frosting a quick beat to loosen, then, using a palette knife, spread over the top of the cake in peaks and swirls. If you’re making the cake ahead, keep it in the fridge then take out as many pieces as you want 30 mins or so before serving. Will keep, covered, for up to 3 days in the fridge.

Don’t forget to head to Chegworth Valley this week to pick your pumpkin!