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Original Recipe of the week: Pumpkin and Orange Cake

Original Recipe of the week: Pumpkin and Orange Cake

Vegetables are really popular at the moment in every shape and size, from smoothies to hot drinks and even cakes! Veg can really bring something extra special to your cakes that isn’t just about the vitamin content; the water in the veg alone adds ansoftness that will help even the driest cake recipe (although were not suggesting that you make a dry cake!). You can use lots of different vegetables in cakes (it isn’t just about the carrot), from courgette to beetroot and pumpkin. Depending on the application, vegetables are the next best thing to butter, just as tasty but way more healthy.

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Pumpkin and Orange Cake

Serves: 10-15
Prep Time: 10 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins 

What you will need:

300g self-raising flour
300g light muscovado sugar
3 tsp mixed spice
2 tsp bicarbonate soda
80g of pumpkin seeds
½ tsp salt
4 beaten eggs
200g butter, melted
Zest and juice 1 orange
500g of grated and peeled butternut squash
200g pack soft cheese
85g butter, softened
100g icing sugar, sifted
1 half orange, juiced

What you need to do:

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180°c and grease and line two sandwich tins.

2. Put the flour, sugar, spices, bicarbonate soda and salt into a large bowl and stir to combine, then add in the eggs and melted butter.

image 3. Stir in the orange zest and juice, then mix with the dry ingredients until combined. Stir in the pumpkin. Pour the mix into the tins splitting between the two and bake for 30 mins or until golden. Once the time is up, test the middle is cooked with a sharp knife.

4. To make the frosting, combine together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and 1 tsp of the juice until creamy. Leave in the fridge until the cakes are cool.

5. When the cake is cool you can fill the cake with 2/3 of the frosting. Place the second layer on top of the first and smooth a little frosting around the edge. Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds to the side of the cake and smother a little more frosting onto to decorate. Cover the top with anything you fancy (we used orange zest and rose petals to add some and zing).

Bethany Stone

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