Pumpkin fruit cake with pumpkin and mascapone icing

 Pumpkin fruit cake with pumpkin mascarpone icing

Now Halloween is over, there are a lots of cheap pumpkins in the shops or you may have some left over from decorations. The less starchy ones used for carving are quite good for this recipe. This is a moist fruit cake which is actually quite light. I think its best to make the cake first and then leave it in a tin for a day or so before you ice it though it will still taste great the first day.

(Recipe by Sarah Wasserman)

For the cake:

200g Wholemeal self raising flour (I'm not saying this to be super healthy. The wholemeal tastes better in this particular cake and improves the texture because it it doesn't soak up as much moisture as white flour and so avoids becoming stodgy. )

175g Dark soft/Muscavado sugar

120ml sunflower oil

2 free range eggs

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

grated zest of one orange

200g grated pumpkin

175g mixed dried fruit

100g chopped nuts

For the Syrup:

juice of the zested orange 

2 tbsp dark soft/muscavado sugar 

optional- few tablespoons of bourbon if you're feeling cheeky

1) Mix together the sugar, eggs and oil

2) Add in all the other ingredients and fold through.

3) Grease a 9 inch (23cm) tin and line the bottom with baking parchment.

4) Put everything in and bake in a preheated oven at 175 c (325 f) for 35-45 minutes (so that it feels firm to the touch and a knife inserted into the center comes out clean) 

5) While it cooks make the syrup by boiling together the ingredients till the sugar dissolves. 

6) When the cake is cool, stab it about five times with a thin knife and drizzle over the syrup slowly

7) Put in a cake tin

For the Icing: 

200g Mascapone

200g Cubed Pumpkin

1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon

(optional) 2 tbsp Maple syrup

1 Tsp Good quality vanilla essence 

Icing sugar

This icing comes out a gorgeous orange and because of the roasted pumpkin, its much lower in fat and sugar than most butter-cream icing. Now I cant be too exact with this because the proportion are will kind of depend on how starchy your pumpkin is and how sweet you want your icing. You might have to adjust as you go.

1) Put the pumpkin in a baking tray, sprinkle with the cinnamon and if you wish drizzle over some maple syrup (if you don't have it just add more icing sugar at the end). Cover the tray with foil and roast for about 20minutes in an oven preheated to 175 c (325 f)

2) When the pumpkin is cooked till very soft, put it in a bowl with the vanilla essence and puree with a stick blender.

3) When this puree is cool, fold in the mascarpone. This is where you might have to play around a bit. If your pumpkin puree is a bit wet you will have to use more mascarpone than pumpkin. Don't be tempted to whisk it as the mascarpone will loosen up too much and you'll end up with a soupy mess. I did mine in the Kenwood mixer with the rubber K attachment on the slowest speed.

 

 4) Taste it and carefully fold in as much sifted icing sugar as you wish. 

5) Cut your cake in half and slightly less than half the icing in the middle and slather the rest on the top.