Happy Halloween!!

Well it’s finally here!! How bloody exciting!!

Our first cake recipe blog for you to enjoy and hopefully give it a whirl?!

Not only is it exciting that its our first recipe blog but I share it with my lovely foodie friend Sophie from @sophie_etc', our fav local food blogger that gives you a weekly guide to all the eateries & what’s going on in Milton Keynes via her social media, blog & news letter The Squeeze. Thanks to the wonderful world of the gram Sophie and I started chatting, bouncing ideas around and here we are collaborating putting some super tasty but simple recipe videos together for you.

Last week Tiegan (my eldest) and I went to visit @pumpkinpatchmk at Mount Mill Farm on stratford road, this was there first year opening their patch and they did not disappoint. So well organised, super friendly & family run, kept everyone up to date on their social media and had a great selection of pumpkins to pick from. They were absolutely inundated and rightly so they completely SOLD OUT the weekend before Halloween, so amazing. Luckily we got our pumpkins in time for our cake Friday & Sophie grab a couple which one of we are using in the recipe.

This pumpkin was amazing! so easy to cut, I literally had visions of us hacking at the poor thing, which is pretty much what I do to a butternut squash every time I think its a great idea to be fancy (lol squash is fancy in this household because its rarely eaten).

So we created two autumnal dishes for you to recreate, perfect for pumpkin season. We tried to keep the main ingredients similar in both recipes, pumpkin, a cheese option, fresh figs, walnuts & honey. Click the button below for Sophie’s blog where you can find the savoury pumpkin option.

Sophie_etc blog

Pumpkin Cake Recipe

PRE-HEAT YOUR OVEN TO 180c FAN OR 200c

Either use 3 6inch or 2 8 inch tins, grease with margarine & line with baking parchment cut to size.

SPONGE INGREDIENTS:-

400g Self raising flour
400g Caster sugar
400g Margerine
400g Eggs
Grated pumpkin
Grated orange zest
1tsp Cinnamon
1/2tsp Nutmeg
1/2tsp Ginger

BAKED FIGS:-

3-4 fresh figs sliced
Honey

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING:-

Note- please ignore my ratios on the video, it made waaaayyyyyy too much frosting! lol

150g Butter at room temp
150g Cream cheese
450g Icing sugar, sifted
Vanilla bean paste (we use Dr Oetker)

DECORATION:-

2 Fresh figs quatered
A few whole walnuts
Grated orange zest
Honey

DIRECTIONS:-

Add all your sponge ingredients in to the bowl of your mixer ( you can use and electric hand whisk if you don’t have a mixer) and start to mix on a slow speed until everything combines, then add the grated pumpkin (its totally at your discretion how much you would like to add) & orange zest, turn mixer to a fast speed and leave for 2 mins.
Divide your mixture between you tins, cover the tops with tin foil and place in to oven for 35-45 mins. A knife should come out clean in the centre of the cake.
In an oven proof dish place your sliced figs, drizzle honey all over & bake until soft and jammy.
In your mixer place your butter and cream cheese, start to beat together, it may start to look like cottage cheese but that’s fine, start to spoon in your icing sugar, once all beaten together add a squeeze of vanilla bean paste, turn off mixer and your frosting is ready to go.
Once you cakes are cool level the off with a knife and lets start to put your master piece together.
on a cake board place a small amount of frosting, lay your first layer of sponge on top then add a generous scoop of frosting. Even out your frosting with a frosting knife, layer your baked figs then add another layer of sponge repeat if you’ve baked 3 layers.
To finish off add your last scoop of frosting to the top of the cake, level out and decorate with you quartered figs, whole walnuts, grated orange zest and drizzle honey all over.
Refrigerate for 30 mins and serve.

And there we have it! a super tasty autumnal pumpkin cake. If you do give either of our recipes at try let us know how they turn out by tagging us on Facebook or Instagram and using our hashtag #cakecastrecipe we cant wait to bring you more to try.