Halloween Cake

Ingredients

Carrot Cake

• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 175ml sunflower oil
• 3 eggs
• 140g grated
• zest of 1 orange
• 175g self-raising flour
• 2tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp of ground cloves
• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Vanilla Cake

• 175g caster sugar
• 175g butter
• 3 eggs
• 175g self raising flour
• 2 tsp of vanilla essence

Frosting

• 100g butter
• 300g cream cheese
• 150g icing sugar
• zest of 1 orange
• 1 tbsp of orange juice
• 1tsp of lemon juice
• handful of pumpkin seeds

Equipment

• Mixing Bowl
• Loaf tin
• Pumpkin cookie cutter (or you can make one with cardboard and cut round it with a knife)
• Whisk
• Wooden Spoon
• Sieve
• Grater and Zester

Method

• Firstly make the Carrot Cake. To do this preheat the oven to 180°C/ gas 4/ fan 160°C
• Line your tin, if you are using a silicone one, just grease it. If you are using another kind, I would recommend putting a bit of oil/butter and coating the tin like this and then dusting it with flour, as this will give you nice clean edges.
• Place the sugar in the mixing bowl and add the oil and the eggs and mix with a wooden spoon.
• Grate the carrots and zest the orange and add them to the egg mixture.
• Sieve the spices (you can add more depending on personal preference) and the flour into the mixture and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into your pre-lined tin and bake for about 40mins, or until, when poked with a knife and it comes out clean. As you are going to put this back in the oven at a later stage it is better to under cook it rather than over cook it.
• Whilst this is cooking you can make your vanilla sponge mix. Whisk the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
• Next add the eggs one by one mixing as you go, then add the vanilla.
• Sieve in the flour and stir with a metal spoon.
• Take the carrot cake out of the tin and leave it to cool.
• Once cooled, slice it width ways into 2-3cm slices and using your cutter (or cardboard cutout) stamp each slice with a pumpkin shape. Then line these up and place back in the same freshly lined tin.

• Pour your vanilla mixture on top of the carrot cake pumpkin shapes and bake at the same temperature for about 20mins, again the knife should come out clean.
• Once cooked, leave it to cool.
• Whilst the cake is cooling you can make your icing. Simply mix all the ingredients together. You may want to add more/less of the orange, lemon and sugar depending on taste.
• Once the cake has properly cooled put the icing on top and sprinkle with the pumpkin seeds.
• And there you have it, your very own Halloween masterpiece!

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