Pumpkin spice cake 🎃🍁

This was the first time I’ve ever used pumpkin in cooking before and it was a massive success! ☺️Granted, you couldn’t actually taste the pumpkin but I guess that’s a good thing but that the cake wouldn’t be the same without it. It was really moist and delicious and it reminded me of Autumn/Christmas because of all the spices.  The orange frosting on top completed the taste without degrading it. 

Most recipes that use pumpkin actually used canned pumpkin and not fresh so I was delighted when this recipe in BBC Good Food allowed me to use the bits of pumpkin I’d put aside when carving with my brother. 🎃 As stated on the original recipe page, carrot cake lovers can’t fail to fall in love with this cake because of the similarities between the two (if you’ve ever made carrot cake you will notice this when looking at the recipe below!). 

  
I had to cook the cake for longet than the recipe asked for (comments on the bbc page suggested that this was pretty unanimous feedback). Being unsure when the cake would be ready I took it out a first time and found that it wasn’t cooked at all but the second time I took it out it was PERFECT; just about cooked so that it kept its moist and light consistency. 

Anyway… I’ll stop with my rabble and get onto the recipe! 😳😂

In order to delay the moment when we would have to admit that the cake was finished and that we had to start cleaning up the kitchen, my friend and I made a pumpkin with chocolate sprinkles!

  

Recipe (Original recipe here)

Ingredients: 

For the cake:

• 300 g self-raising flour
• 300 g light muscovado sugar
• 3 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 100 g sultanas (originally 175 g)
• ½ tsp salt
• 4 eggs
• 200 g butter
• Zest of one orange
• 1 tbsp orange juice
• 500 g grated/very finely chopped pumpkin

For the frosting

• 200 g pack soft cheese
• 85 g butter (room tenperature)
• 100 g icing sugar
• Zest of one orange
• Juice of half an orange

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Combine the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, spice, bicarbonate of soda, sultanas and salt.
3. Mix together the wet ingredients: eggs, melted butter, orange zest and orange juice.
4. Mix the two bowls together and add the pumpkin.
5. Pour the cake batter into a greased cake tin and cook for 30 minutes/ more like forty or  even fifty!
6. Make the frosting by beating together the cream cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and 1 tsp if the juice till smooth and creamy, then set aside in the fridge.
7. When the cake is cooked, leave it to cool for 5-10 minutes before removing it from the tin.
8. Drizzle the rest of the orange juice over it whilst it’s still warm.
9. Once cooled completely, spread the buttercream over the cake and feast!!!

(I grated extra orange zest for decoration and made pumpkin with chocolate sprinkles 😋👍🏻)