Thanksgiving this week…

And today I have Pumpkin Sponge for you.

I haven’t got a lot of knowledge about this holiday but one thing I know is that I love pumpkins.  Round ones, skinny ones, ghost and grey ones, huge and small.  You name it I have probably seen it all.

As long as they are organic I will always have an idea to make something amazing.  Sweet or savory, main or a treat they are very versatile.

Pumpkins are not only delicious but also they are very good for you.  Pumpkins contain loads of vitamin C & A, potassium, zinc, are high in antioxidants and fiber.  Sadly we don’t appreciate this amazing fruit enough in the UK.  To start you slowly if you are not familiar with it give a try and make this super tasty Pumpkin Sponge.

Not just ordinary sponge. It’s Pumpkin Sponge.

My Pumpkin Sponge is not too sweet, velvety and moist. Can be eaten on its own as we found out pretty much straight away .

But if you have more patience than us you can top Pumpkin Sponge with many different creams.  Sadly I haven’t had a chance to make any toppings because the minute I took Pumpkin Sponge out the oven it was almost gone.

The next time I make Pumpkin Sponge I will top it with vanilla whipped cream or simple cream cheese frosting.  I think this would be the perfect combination for it’s delicious and delicate taste to compliment the pumpkin and aromatic aftertaste of the spices.

Ideally you can just cover the top, sandwich it or even stack a few layers deep together.  That is only if you can wait that long.

 

Method.

Turn on your oven to 155C fan, 165-170C without fan.

Prepare 8″ or 9″ round tin depending  how would you prefer to present it. I wanted this to be a little bit flatter as I was planning on one layer of cream and baked it in 9″ pan.

Grease the tin and line with baking paper. Set aside.

Prepare all the ingredients.

Melt in a cooking pan on a low heat stirring regularly:

  • 250g mascarpone
  • 250g white chocolate
  • 450g pumpkin puree (you can use canned or make your own – recipe to follow soon)
  • 400g sugar

Wet ingredients for Pumpkin Sponge

Sieve all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and stir evenly.

  • 150g self raising flour
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp bicarbonate soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp nutmeg
  • 1/4 – 1/2 tsp powder ginger depending on your taste

Check the cooking pan and if all the ingredients are combined and melted add a

  • dash of vanilla and

half of the dry ingredients.

Gently mix together Pumpkin Sponge.  Be careful don’t stir to vigorously or for too long as you don’t want to knock any air bubbles out.

Add the other half of dry ingredients, stir gently again and pour in the tin.

Bake for approximately 90 minutes.

Voila!

Happy baking.

Aggy xxx

 

Ghostbusters chocolate Slimer cake

Being a cake designer is a busy life and one where ultimately the customer has the final say on the look of the cake.

But, when given the opportunity to have totally free rain over a project I can take the ideas to another level. 
I very rarely get the chance to make something that I think of myself without consulting the customer. So I thought why not see what can be done within 24 hours or less in this case.

I didn’t have to think long! Who is the most famous ghost of all…?

You got it!

SLIMER!!Ghostbusters chocolate Slimer cake

 

One of my favourite characters from the amazing 80’s movie Ghostbusters.

As he is obviously a ghost the challenge was to make him as gravity defying and “floaty” as possible. I decided to make him stealing one of his favourite things, slice of pizza!

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We had to start somewhere so I did a quick sketch of the stand and showed it to Andy. Within a minute we have agreed the theory and started with the process. I got on with the baking delicious green white chocolate cake to match Slimers rather green appearance.

Andy disappeared into his workshop and after a lot of sawing, bending, cutting and screwing he emerged with a fully built stand.

Meanwhile the ganache filling was finished and also very green!

 

Sculpting time

One of the most important parts when sculpting is shaping the cake… And is also one of my favourites, because who doesn’t love a break with a cup of green tea and some (very green!) off cuts!

Ghostbusters chocolate Slimer cake inside

He was just a simple, straight forward shape. Almost like a giant green potato except all the fat rolls.

I know I know, you might be thinking I could of just added the fat rolls made out of fondant later. This would be quicker and easier but honestly who would want to munch on a huge piece of sugar paste.

 

Ghostbuster chocolate Slimer cake
Andy is the kneading machine and in a couple of minutes all the sculpting paste was green. Covering was very easy and I must admit I did enjoy shaping all those fatty bits.

Ghostbusters chocolate Slimer cake

As for his face I wanted Slimer to look sneaky and I just love his cheeky smile. I hope I have managed to achieved it.

 

Slimer traveled with us to one of London’s TV studios for an exclusive Halloween party and has been demolished in minutes.

Ghostbusters chocolate Slimer cake

In total this cake took us 8h of work. It is cakes like this that really keep my passion for it alive!

 

 

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Until next time, keep on baking.

 

Aggy, Andy & Zara

xxx

 

Halloween Moss cake

Halloween Moss cake… Spinach and a cup of tea…….?!

No, really!

Halloween Moss cake with spinach may sound like a crazy idea but trust me and try this delicious cake with natural colouring.

I remembered this Halloween Moss cake recipe recently while thinking about how to change the artificial edible dyes full of chemicals. But there will be more about this in a future blog post.  I wanted a healthy, natural and friendly mix that won’t send little people a bit crazy sometimes. What better time than around Halloween when they are allowed that little bit extra?

I got a basic recipe from a friend years ago and I was just as sceptical as you probably are right now. But trust me you will be surprised how tasty it is and how well it works with an afternoon cup of tea!

I adapted it to make it more ‘halloweeny’ (if that’s even a word) and made it easy and fun for the kids. They can get involved in the making and decorating as well.

Now, you are probably wondering about the flavours and especially how the spinach works. So the cake is nice and moist with no taste of spinach but almost like a shadow of green tea and works amazingly well with the fluffy orange filling. It’s topped perfectly with little bursts of fresh blueberries and sweet fruity, flowery nectar like sweet papaya.

This recipe is perfect to fill an 8” (24cm) round tin.

Halloween Moss cake

 

Recipe

To make it you will need:

For the cake

  • 600g when frozen spinach, set aside and allow to defrost
  • 4 large eggs
  • 280g of fine sugar
  • 250g margarine, melt in the microwave, leave to cool
  • 450g plain flour, sieve, mix with baking powder
  • 3,5 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tbs vanilla essence

Cream

  • 400ml double cream
  • 1 hipped tsp of powder sugar
  • 1 orange powder jelly sachet
  • 200ml fresh orange juice or water

 Additionally

  • box of blueberries
  • ripen papaya

 

  1. Heat the over to 165C fan or 180 without (350F).
  2. Line the sides and bottom of the tin with baking paper.
  3. Whip sugar and eggs till white.
  4. Squeeze very well liquid out of the defrosted spinach and blend to puree with a little bit of melted margarine. When ready add the remaining margarine and mix together.
  5. In the meantime on slow speed on your mixer add flour combined baking powder to the eggs and sugar mix. Incorporate well but be careful not to over stir it.
  6. Add the blended spinach. Fold it in.
  7. Put it in the tin, smooth over and place in the oven for 55min. Check with a skewer if cooked if not allow some additional time.
  8. The filling. Dissolve the jelly either in fresh orange juice or water as per sachet instructions. Set aside to cool. When the jelly starts thickening whip the cream to soft peak. Mix in the jelly.
  9. Fully cool down the cake and slice across through twice so you end up with 3 pieces.
  10. Fill in with the cream and decorate with fresh fruit as you wish.

 

Halloween Moss cake

 

Aggy, Andy and Zara.

 

Until next time keep on baking.

xxx

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