PUMPKIN & GINGER TRAYBAKE

I first spotted this recipe in a lovely blog written by Snowy, called “Cookbooks Galore” and couldn’t wait to have a go at it myself.  When I was mixing it I suddenly decided to bake it as a traybake rather than in a loaf tin.  I called it “Halloween cake” and Nick took some to work to try out on his colleagues on October 31st, telling them it was made of pumpkin, toad and broomstick !! 

They were not put off and it was a big success !!

So  when Ruth announced that the Pink Whisk baking challenge in November was for traybakes to raise money for charity,  I decided to make it again for our annual cake stall for “Children in Need”.  Snowy made hers with butternut squash so I did too.  The recipe originally came from Good Food magazine and I found it on the website here.  (It’s also in the “101 cakes and bakes” recipe book.)

 

The butternut squash was such a glorious colour that grating it was a feast for the eyes.  The colour, combined with the warmth of the ginger, meant the cake looked and smelled lovely when it came out of the oven.  In fact the whole house smelled wonderful ~ mind you, I did bake seven cakes that day so the smell of baking was pretty much full on throughout the house !!

As I mentioned before, the cakes that sell the best at our cake stall are the ones slathered in loads of gooey icing and decoration, so I decided to drizzle a simple icing on it and decorate it with a few gold sprinkles to make it more appealing. 

It wasn’t the best seller but it was absolutely scrumptious.  The plus side of having cakes leftover is that I can take them home to enjoy myself or, as in this case, sell them to the milkman when he called to collect his money ~ more in the pot for Children in Need !!

Ingredients

175g butter, melted

140g clear runny honey

1 large egg, beaten

250g raw peeled pumpkin or butternut squash

100g light muscovado sugar

350g self raising flour

1 tablespoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons demerara sugar (optional for sprinkling over the cake)*

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/ 160°fan

Grease and line the base of a large traybake or roasting tin, approx 30x20 cm.  Make the lining paper long enough to overhang at each end to make it easier to lift out the cake when baked.

Grate the peeled pumpkin or butternut squash.  In a large bowl, mix the melted butter, honey and egg.  Stir in the pumpkin or squash.  Add the flour, ginger and muscovado sugar.  Mix until well combined.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the top.  If you are not going to ice the cake, sprinkle the demerara sugar on top*.

Bake for 40-50 minutes until golden brown and risen.  Leave to cool in the tin for 5 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack.  Sprinkle a little more demerara sugar on top whilst the cake is still warm if you like*.

When cool, cut into about 24 pieces or squares, depending on how big you like them.

*Alternatively, leave out the demerara sugar and when the cake is cool, drizzle over some icing made with icing sugar and water or lemon juice.  Add gold sprinkles or anything else you fancy to decorate.

Makes 24-30 squares