Spiced Pumpkin Cake

This is a big cake – remember I was using all that pumpkin! So I have given measures that will make 2 x 2lb loaves or the one big cake. If you want you can just halve the amounts and make the one loaf. But these freeze like a dream!

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients
• 600g / 20 oz GF SR flour
• 420g / 14 oz brown sugar
• 1 salt
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp ginger
• 600g / 20 oz roasted pumpkin puréed in a food processor
• 250 ml sunflower oil
• 9 tbsp Agave Nectar

Instructions
Preheat oven to 350°F/180˚C/Gas4.
Parchment line a 24 cm spring form cake tin. Or 2 x 2lb loaf tins.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, salt, and spices.
In a jug whisk together the oil and agave.
Add wet mixture to dry with the pureed pumpkin then mix until well combined. This is a stiff batter, don’t worry, the pumpkin will make it a really soft cake 🙂

Pour into prepared pan and level it off.

Bake 45-50 minutes or until top is starting to brown and it feels firm to the touch. For the loaves allow 35-40 minutes 🙂
Let it to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then open the pan or tip them out and allow to cool on a rack.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

So here is the first dish I made with the pumpkin 🙂

It was eaten that night (as were all the dishes) and we felt we had seriously entered into an autumn state of being 🙂

I was aiming to make enough for 4 people, but I just made extra and popped the other half into the freezer. This is giving a good idea of how much food there is to be had from just one pumpkin.

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

serves 8 people

1 kg / 2 lb roasted pumpkin flesh
3 medium onions
5 medium carrots
3 sticks of celery
3 cloves of garlic
120g / 4oz creamed coconut
2 tbsp sunflower oil
4 tbsp tomato puree
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
(or 4 tsp Garam masala if you prefer a more curry flavour)
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tbsp brown sugar (optional)
1.5 lt / 3 pt hot vegetable stock or water

(Not the garlic!) Peel the raw vegetables and cut them all into a 1 cm chunk – not too small, this isn’t a soup 🙂

Chop the cooked pumpkin flesh to be about 2 cm chunks.

Heat the oil in a large heavy based saucepan.
Add the raw vegetables, keep the heat as high as possible and allow the vegetables to start to brown.
Turn the heat to low and add the pumpkin, spices, herbs, sugar and tomato puree.
Give it a stir, allow that it 10 – 20 seconds to open the flavours.
Turn up the heat and either chop or use a garlic press to process the garlic to a fine mince and add to the pan.
Add the hot stock. The liquid should not quite cover top layer.
Now add the coconut and to bring this to the boil.
Turn the heat down to medium low, cover with a lid and allow to cook for 10 -15 minutes.
If it looks too soupy after this then take the lid off and allow it to boil on a high heat for 5 minutes to drive off some of the liquid (you will also intensify the flavour).
Keep a check on it, give it a stir every so often to make sure it’s not catching on the bottom.
That’s it, it’s ready – but, as with so many tomato based foods – this is so much tastier if you allow it to cool and have it thoroughly warmed through the next day.

I served these with the Savoury Pumpkin Cakes 🙂

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes

This is probably my favourite of the dishes I made 🙂

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes
750g / 1lb 8 oz roasted pumpkin flesh
250ml / 1/2 pt milk ( I used soya)
4 eggs
450g / 1lb plain gluten free flour
1 tsp Sea salt
125 ml sunflower oil

I used the pumpkin I had roasted.
Pop it into a food processor.
Add in the milk and blitz to a smooth paste.

Tip into a mixing bowl and add in the flour, eggs and salt
Fold in the flour until you have a consistency like a firm cake batter, if it’s too firm add a little water and if it seems too slack add a little more flour 🙂
It needs to be able to hold it’s shape without being so hard that it cannot expand a little as it cooks.
Heat 1/2 cm of the oil in a heavy based frying pan over a medium heat.

Use an ice cream scoop (or a couple of dessert spoons) to make up the cakes, I use one heaping scoop per cake, formed as I add them into the hot oil.
Allow them 3-4 minutes to brown to a nice golden colour, not any faster as they won’t be cooked through, so you’ll need to turn the heat down a touch. Any longer and they will be heavy and greasy – so turn the heat up a tad.

Turn them and press them down to about 1.5 – 2 cm thick.
As they cook pop them onto a warm plate with kitchen roll on to absorb the excess oil.

These are so light and fluffy and do not take up loads of the oil, they are slightly plain deliberately as I wanted to use them to pick up the savoury sauce from the stew.

Daughter No2 ate about 8 extra-just on their own. And the next day there were plenty for me to be able to use to scoop up some of me fresh made hummus -ahhhh bliss 🙂

Pumpkins’ Are Enormous – And What To Do With Them

As you know, I do like a seasonal bit of produce and there are lots of enormous pumpkins around and most are bought (here in Blighty) just to make lanterns.

I have had an intrigue and fascination of pumpkins for way too long (considering I am an adult) and it is all down to Linus and his obsession with the Pumpkin Patch in Peanuts (I want to be Snoopy). But I am not exactly successful at growing them myself, however they are plentiful and cheap at the moment.

So I bought some and thought I’d make a sensible attempt at seeing what I could make to feed a family of 4 from one pumpkin.

There was more pumpkin than I could cook dishes with in the time I had but I did get 3 good ones 🙂

Preparing the Pumpkin 🙂

I wanted to cook it in a way that would get rid of some of the moisture and intensify the flavour, so I knew I would roast it.

Cut the pumpkin in quarters and take out the seeds.

Wash away the membranes and any sticky juice and allow them to dry on a tray. The seeds can be roasted with soy sauce or spices to make a tasty topping or snacking food.

I did cut away the skin, but I know some people like to leave the skin on as they roast. I can’t see any benefit to leaving it on unless you want to scrap the skins of all flesh once it has finished cooking.

As you can see, I got a lot of flesh from the one pumpkin. Put it in a single layer on the tray and roast at 425˚F/220˚C/Gas7 for about 20 minutes – until the flesh is tender.

Allow it to cool – ready for what ever it is you want to cook.

And here are the recipes 😀

Autumnal Pumpkin Stew

Pumpkin Savoury Cakes

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

RAW! Banana Dream Bar

I like to think of this a bit of a life saver when you want something that feels substantial but is not going to be requiring a nap 10 minutes after eating.

RAW! Banana Dream Bar

For the Banana filling:
2 medium bananas
3/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup agave nectar
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup coconut oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Cling film line a 1 lb loaf tin.

Zest and juice that lime mmmmmm

Gently melt the coconut oil.

Now add all the topping ingredients to the processor and process until very smooth.

Pour the mixture onto the base and smooth it with the back of a spoon.
To cut them put them into the freezer for 30 minutes, take them out and whilst still in the pan cut them to size (if it has gone super hard just leave them out for 5 minutes)

Now pop them back into the freezer for about 2 hours. These must be stored in the freezer.

Really lovely and fresh.

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.
All new customers will get a lovely washable cotton shopper as a ‘Thank you and please come again next week’ (Whie stocks last!)

Every Friday at about 6 pm GMT I publish photos of the items I have cooked for market. Have a look at the Facebook page.

email me scarletrositafood@btinternet.com
phone or text 0792 310 9170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
or follow me on Twitter

Tweets by ScarletRosita

Ginger Cake With Fresh Figs

A lovely tea time cake that everyone can enjoy

🙂

Ginger Cake With Fresh Figs

120g / 4 oz Muscavado sugar
200 ml/ 7 fl oz sunflower oil
420g / 
14 oz SR flour
½ rounded tsp baking powder

½ teaspoon salt
1 tbsp Ground Ginger
1 tsp lime powder (optional)

1 ripe medium banana (4 oz)
100 ml / 4 fl oz water
1/2 tsp ground flax meal
 (optional)
1 large can of figs
2 tablespoons of apricot conserve.

Parchment line 1 x 29 cm pans
Preheat the oven to 350˚F/180˚C/Gas 4.

Drain the figs and cut each in two.

Set to one side.
Blend together the banana and sugar.
As the processor runs add the oil, ground flax and water.
Pour into a bowl and sift in the mixed flour, ginger, lime powder and baking powder.

Mix very well.
Pour into the pan.

Arrange the figs in a pattern you like. Press down a little.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes until the centre of the cake is dry when probed with a skewer.
Allow cool on a wire rack.
Melt the conserve in a pan and then brush this onto the cooling cake.

Come and see me on Saturdays’ at Bermondsey Square Farmers Market in Southwark. It’s just off Tower Bridge Road, a short walk from The White Cube, Southbank and Borough Market.
All new customers will get a lovely washable cotton shopper as a ‘Thank you and please come again next week’ (Whie stocks last!)

Every Friday at about 6 pm GMT I publish photos of the items I have cooked for market. Have a look at the Facebook page.

email me scarletrositafood@btinternet.com
phone or text 0792 310 9170
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ScarletRosita
or follow me on Twitter

Tweets by ScarletRosita