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About the Recipe
This is a deceptively simple "Dump and Go" type of cake, so it's perfect for every skill level - the key things to watch out for are your oven temperatures and making sure you're not trying to bake too much in one tin, like I did during the episode...
This cake works well in a loaf tin, or can make an excellent moist sandwich cake, with vanilla cream cheese frosting between the sponges that lifts this cake and brings out the sweetness of the pumpkin.
Ingredients
300g self-raising flour
300g soft light brown sugar
3 tsp mixed spice or pumpkin spice
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
4 eggs, beaten
200g melted butter
zest 1 orange
1 tbsp orange juice
500g (peeled weight) pumpkin or butternut squash flesh, grated - (if you have a food processor this makes the whole grating thing so much easier)
Preparation
Preheat your oven to 180°C / 160° Fan / Gas 4
Line your baking tin(s) by smearing the inside with butter and then dusting with flour, ensuring everything is fully coated. For a cleaner release, cut a circle of greaseproof paper the same diameter as your tin and line the base of the tin.
Start with your wet ingredients - in a medium bowl, beat the eggs into the melted butter, then stir in both the orange juice and zest.
In a large bowl, sift in the flour, sugar, spices, bicarb and salt, and stir to combine.
Slowly add your Wets to your Drys, mixing until incorporated, then stir in the grated pumpkin.
This makes a lot of batter, so to ensure your cake doesn't take forever to bake we recommend splitting the batter between two tins. Pour the batter into each tin ensuring an even layer, then into your preheated oven to cook.
The cake is done when the top is golden and springy (not wobbly!). Timings will depend on the thickness of the cakes. Hannah's took 50 minutes total. If baking in a shallower tin, this will take 30 minutes.
Leave to cool in the tin while you make your cream cheese frosting - recipe here!
If frosting your cake, you have two options: One: wait for it to cool properly and ice it. Or, Two, if you want to eat some of this while it's warm, put a big old glob of frosting on top, and it'll absorb into the cake slightly as it cools.