Spiced pumpkin cake: dairy free, egg free, vegan

This cake is deceptively normal - I don't feel like I need to preface it as dairy free, egg free and vegan, with the semi-apologetic caveat of 'that's why it's a bit dense'. You just can't tell - well M certainly couldn't. It's beautifully spiced with wonderful autumn flavours, in the shape of a homemade Pumpkin pie spice blend, courtesy of Happiness is homemade. I used sweet mixed spice instead of allspice as I didn't have any, and it's absolutely lovely. Of course you don't have to make your own spice and I've given an alternative in the recipe below.

Similarly I made my own pumpkin puree - what can I say, the pumpkins were being sold off a lot cheaper than a tin of puree and Harry had a good nap. It was deceptively simple, I just stabbed the pumpkin with a knife, 5 or 6 times so that any steam could escape. Then roasted it in the oven (whole) for about an hour at 160 degrees C. After that I let it cool, cut it in half, disposed of the seeds and scooped out the flesh which I pureed with a stick blender. Voila. But equally, you can buy a tin.

Spiced pumpkin cake
Dairy free, egg free, vegan
Serves 12

250ml pumpkin puree
125ml apple puree/ or 2 small ripe bananas
125ml vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g soft brown sugar
250g plain flour
3/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tsp Pumpkin spice, bought or homemade - or use 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/4 tsp ground cloves and a good grating of nutmeg

Grease and line the bottom and sides of an 8inch loose bottomed cake tin
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees C
Beat the pumpkin puree, apple puree/ mashed bananas, vegetable oil, vanilla and sugar together until well combined
Fold in the flour, bicarb, baking powder and spices until just combined
Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake in the preheated oven for an hour (keep an eye on it though)
Allow to cool in the tin

Serve with a cup of rooibos tea and your feet up - ideally under a crochet blanket as you work the borders. Just me then?

Snicker-pumpkin-doodle Blondies

Following the success of the Snickerdoodle blondies, and the Pumpkin and apple traybake I wanted to see if I could combine the best of both, and make a pumpkin based blondie, with a similar flavour combination to the blondies. 

I woke up today with that in mind, and spent the first hour or so this morning drinking tea and scribbling notes from other recipes to help with this. I was worried the recipe I ended up making would be too damp, not blondie-ish enough because of the wetness of the pumpkin, so I ended up cooking it for just that bit longer, to relative success. I say this having just taste tested the final result alongside a cup of tea.

Snicker-pumpkin-doodle Blondies

250g unsalted butter

125g white, granulated sugar

175g dark, soft brown sugar

1 large egg

2tsps vanilla extract

250g pumpkin puree

500g flour

1 tbsp sweet mixed spice

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

For the topping

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cake spice

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees

Grease a small roasting tin (mine's about 30cm by 23cm)

Beat the butter and sugar together until it's light and fluffy

Add the egg & vanilla and beat in until combined (add a tbsp of flour if you are worried about curdling)

Beat in the pumpkin puree

Fold in the flour, baking powder, salt and sweet mixed spice

When it's all combined tip into the roasting tin and spread out evenly

Combine the sugar and spice in a little bowl/ cup and sprinkle liberally over the top of the cake mix

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes.

Cool in the in and cut into 24 squares - well you could do bigger easily! 

The pumpkin makes these slightly denser than the original snickerdoodle blondies, but the flavours work really well together and I have to say they're the perfect accompaniment to a cup of strong tea. 

If you, like me, went a bit loony for the pumpkin puree, these make for a lovely, autumnal cake that works in packed lunches and at any other point you may need some cake. If this carries on I swear I'm going to rename this blog Penelope's pumpkin puree. I do have an idea for a sweetened pumpkin bread knocking around... so yes, maybe I should rename! 

October favourites

I've mentioned before that I have a not-so-secret love for beauty blogs - I think it's mainly due to my magpie tendencies, and the fact that whilst jeans may not do up, you never have that problem with nail polish. Also, see shoes. One thing that beauty bloggers seem to do on a monthly basis is pick out what products they've really been enjoying using over the past 4 weeks. 

I thought it might be a nice idea to try that here - it may or may not work with food, but sometimes you have to think "what the heck" and give something new a go.

So what have I been loving in the Pantry this month?

Pumpkin puree. This is a recent discovery of mine from Waitrose, and when I saw it on the shelf, I swiftly (and somewhat greedily I admit) picked up three tins. I've used one already in my Pumpkin and apple traybake, a seasonal recipe if there ever was one, and have my eye on a snickerdoodle and pumkin loaf for the next. 

Which takes me onto my other new love - which isn't a product per se, but Pinterest. Yes, I know I'm mahoosively late to this bandwagon, but I love it. If M's late home, or I'm having an afternoon in I can happily while away the hours on here. What I really like is that a lot of the recipes are American and so I'm getting to try new flavours and combinations as typically I tend to use very British bakes. 

And then of course we have my K-Mix. God I love this. It was a present from M, and I have used it for everything I possibly can, it really does make baking a breeze and it looks so pretty too! 

Ingredients wise, I also picked up some new chillis from the Newbury show last month, and used one in my last batch of chorizo, butternut squash and cannelini bean chilli. The smoked flavour gave such a nice contrast to the clean hit of heat that I normally get, adding a sweetness and a smoothness to the chilli. Definitely some to add into different recipes.

Finally, and again, I'm behind the times horribly on this too. But Jamie's 30 minute meals. I got the book for Christmas and have found myself reaching for it on a number of occaisions this month. And the minced beef hash was a firm favourite with M and I - although I'd definitely recommend cooking it a day in advance to give the flavours time to develop. I know that people seems to say that the meals take nothing like half an hour, but I found it wasn't too much longer at all. Especially if you start with things like the kettle boiling etc. But that may just be me, as we know I'm somewhat haphazard when I'm cooking non baking dishes. 

So there we have it, my October favourites. What are yours? Is there anything new or old you've picked up this month and really enjoyed using or trying out?

Let me know if you're interested in this kind of post and I'll consider making it a blog hop next month. 

Pumpkin soup? No, pumpkin and apple traybake

It's definitely that time of year again - there's a distinct chill in the air, it's getting dark earlier and the shops are filled with oranges, greens and blacks - offering you your opportunity to dress as a witch, wizard or goblin.

I love that pumpkins make much more of an appearance in the shops now, a short time spent in America as a child mean I have memories of those very traditional Halloween celebrations. There are photos of me and my sister, hand in hand in our nurse and cookie monster costumes. And no, you don't get to see them.

I've not tried my hand at pumpkin carving - I'm not entirely sure my knife skills are anywhere near good enough to create the kind of result that I want in my head. So, I'm going to stick with baking. I'd bought a pumpkin to roast and use for this recipe that I've been thinking bout for a while. My plan was to split and roast it, then scoop out the warm insides - but then... I found pumpkin puree in Waitrose! Hurrah! Quick and easy and now I can add pumpkin and ginger soup to next weekends cooking.

I'd a pumpkin traybakes with a cream cheese frosting on Pinterest. I wanted to make it slightly more British so decided to use an idea from an old Delia book and layer the sponge with raw, finely sliced Bramley apples. In the Delia book it's plums layered in flapjack mix but I wanted to try it with the pumpkin sponge. I was worried it would be too wet, so cooked it for an extra 10 minutes from what I thought, and then left it to cool in the hot tin.

Spiced apple and pumpkin tray bake

1 tin pumpkin puree - or 400g of cooked and blitzed pumpkin/ butternut squash
350g of Bramley apples (that's when weighed whole, before you skin and slice them)
1 tablespoon of ground ginger
225g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
275g caster sugar (if you wanted a more toffee-ish flavour, then use soft brown sugar)
4 eggs
350g self raising flour
2 tsps baking powder
2 tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees
Grease and line a small roasting tin (I used the same one as in the Snickerdoodle blondies)
Roast the pumpkin for about 45 minutes in the oven, until its soft enough to spoon out - blitz this in a food processor if you have one, if not then mash it with a potato masher
Peel, core and finely slice the apples - if you want to do this ahead of time, toss them in some lemon juice to stop them from browning

Using a mixer - or strong arms, beat the butter and sugar together
Add in the eggs, one at a time, with a spoonful of the flour each time
Add in the flour, ginger and baking powder
Beat in the pumpkin puree (this makes the mixture a beautiful colour, a soft orangey pink)
Spread half the batter into the tin, and cover with half the apple slices
Add the rest of the cake batter, smooth the top and then sprinkle the rest of the apple over
Sprinkle your sugar over the top and then put in the oven for 45 minutes

This is a beautifully soft sponge, the tartness of the apples cutting through the sweet, slightly moist cake. The top has a little crunch from the sugar - I might switch this out for a more granulated brown sugar to add some flavour as well as texture.

I've cut this into slices rather than squares, and that gives you 16, but you could easily make it into squares and double that.