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