This week, new baking column Peckish gets to grips with a cake recipe fit for Halloween.

Ingredients for Carrot Cake

175g of light muscovado sugar

175ml of sunflower oil

3 eggs

140g grated zest of one orange

175g of self-raising flour

2tsp of cinnamon

1 tsp of ground ginger

1 tsp of ground cloves

1 tsp of vanilla essence

Vanilla Cake

175g of caster sugar

175g of butter

3 eggs

175g of self raising flour

2 tsp of vanilla essence

Frosting

100g of butter

300g of cream cheese

150g of icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange

1 tbsp of orange juice

1tsp of lemon juice

Handful of pumpkin seeds

Equipment

Mixing Bowl

Loaf tin

Pumpkin cookie cutter (or you can make one with cardboard and cut round it with a knife)

Whisk

Wooden Spoon

Sieve

Grater and Zester

 

Method

• Firstly make the Carrot Cake.  To do this preheat the oven to 180°C/ gas 4/ fan 160°C
• Line your tin, (I bought a silicone one which was perfect for this from Morrisons for £2) if you are using a silicone one, just grease it. If you are using another kind, I would recommend putting a bit of oil/butter and coating the tin like this and then dusting it with flour, as this will give you nice clean edges.
• Place the sugar in the mixing bowl and add the oil and eggs, then mix with a wooden spoon.
• Grate the carrots, zest the orange and add them both to the egg mixture.
• Sieve the spices (you can add more depending on personal preference) and the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into your pre-lined tin and bake for about 40mins, or until, when poked with a knife and it comes out clean. As you are going to put this back in the oven at a later stage it is better to under cook it rather than over cook it.
• Whilst this is cooking you can make your vanilla sponge mix. Whisk the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Next add the eggs one by one, mixing as you go, next add the vanilla.
• Sieve in the flour and stir with a metal spoon.
• Take the carrot cake out of the tin and leave it to cool.
• Once cooled, slice it width ways into 2-3cm slices and using your cutter (or cardboard cutout) stamp each slice with a pumpkin shape. Then line these up and place back in the same freshly lined tin.
• Pour your vanilla mixture on top of the carrot cake pumpkin shapes and bake at the same temperature for about 20mins, again the knife should come out clean.
• Once cooked, leave it to cool.
• Whilst the cake is cooling you can make your icing. Simply mix all the ingredients together. You may want to add more/less of the orange, lemon and sugar depending on taste.
• Once the cake has properly cooled put the icing on top and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds.

There you have it, your very own Halloween masterpiece.

Click here to read the Peckish recipe for Caramel Banana Blondies

Genevieve Levy

Photos: Genevieve Levy