It’s almost Halloween and once again if you are out and about with friends it is nice to have something to offer them at home or take with you. I got the idea for this cake from my friends at Toast House, in Ilkley where I live who told me the sunken apricot cake by brilliant cook Harry Eastwood (Harry is a girl) is a best seller in their enchanting café. So I set to work adapting it for Halloween. I swapped the apricot for the pumpkin, re-jigged some of the ingredients and came up with these easy but stunning Halloween cakes which everyone will enjoy.
I loved making the mini pumpkins which I describe in too much detail below. Basically colour a lump of shop bought marzipan with a few drops of edible orange gel food colouring (I used Dr Oetker). Roll the marzipan into tiny balls and then, with a cocktail stick, mark the ridges of the pumpkin as if from the north to the south pole. I used physalis stalks to make the stem but you could use chocolate match sticks or crystallised angelica.
The other intriguing thing about this recipe is it contains no added fat. No butter, no oil, no margarine. Not a drop or a smear of oil or added fat anywhere. The only fat the recipe contains comes from ground almonds. Yet the cake is very moist because it contains finely grated butternut squash and eggs. It is also gluten free.
This cake can be made in a large cake tin, 23 cm across, or ten mini muffin tins. If you have to make the cake ahead of time it can be frozen without its icing. Just allow three to four hours to defrost and then dress it up for the ocassion.
Have fun on Halloween.
Joan x
Almond & butternut squash Halloween cake
Serves 10
Ingredients
- 3 free range eggs
- 180g caster sugar
- 200g peeled and finely grated butternut squash
- 1 tsp almond essence
- 100g white rice flour
- 200g ground almonds
- 2 tsp mixed spice
- 2 tsp baking powder
- pinch of salt
For the topping
- 400g icing sugar
- 60ml or 4 large tablespoons fresh lemon juice
For the mini pumpkin decoration
- 100g readymade marzipan
- orange food colouring gel
- cocktail sticks (to make the marks on the pumpkin)
- stalks for the pumpkin i.e. chocolate matchsticks, angelica, physalis stems
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/ gas mark 4. If you are using a large 23cm diameter cake tin line it with baking parchment. If you are making small cakes simply brush the sides of the muffin tins with a little oil.
Whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and fluffy. This will take about 5 minutes. Add the grated butternut squash and the almond essence and stir well. Add the flour, ground nuts, baking powder and salt and mix the ingredients well. Pour the mixture into the prepared tins and place in the middle of the oven for 45 minutes or 30 minutes for the smaller cakes. Insert a skewer to see if the cake is cooked. The skewer should come out of the centre of the cake clean.
Once cooked remove the cake from the oven, allow to stand for five minutes and run a knife around the edge of the cake tin. The cake(s) should then be easy to turn out from the tin.
To make lemon icing
Mix the lemon juice and most of the icing sugar together to form icing the consistency of a thick batter. It should coat the back of a spoon. If mixture is too thin add more sugar until desired consistency is reached.
To make mini marzipan pumpkins
Squeeze a few drops of the orange food colouring gel onto the marzipan and mix well. When you have the colour you like, roll the marzipan into a long cylinder about 2cm in diameter. Cut lengths of marzipan 2cm long and then roll each piece into a ball. Using a cocktail stick, mark the divisions of the pumpkin and then insert a stalk.
