Pumpkin and orange cake

This pumpkin and orange cake is wonderfully moist, full of flavour and easy to make. Pumpkin, fresh orange zest, warming spices, walnuts and sweet dates make it a lovely autumn bake, perfect for the festive season too. It stays fresh for several days and makes a lovely homemade gift. You can easily adapt it to suit your taste: swap the walnuts for pecans, add a pinch of nutmeg or use roasted sweet potato purée instead of pumpkin. If you don’t have any dates, raisins work just as well. I like to simmer them briefly in orange juice first, which softens them and adds extra flavour. A drizzle of tangy orange icing finishes the cake beautifully. Definitely one to try!

Ingredients for the pumpkin and orange cake:

• 125 g butter
• 250 g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 250 ml pumpkin purée
• finely grated zest of 1 orange
• 60 ml freshly squeezed orange juice
• 250 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• a pinch of salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 60 g roughly chopped walnuts
• 75 g chopped dried dates

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and cream together until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the pumpkin purée, orange zest and orange juice, then mix until combined. The mixture may look curdled at this stage, but it will come together again when you add the flour, and this will not affect the finished cake. Sift the plain flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and cloves directly into the mixture. If the batter seems too runny (this will depend on the consistency of your pumpkin purée), add another tablespoon or two of flour. Add the salt and fold everything together with a spatula, mixing only until combined. Stir in the chopped walnuts and dates, mixing briefly.

Grease a 24 cm Bundt tin with butter and dust with plain flour, tapping out any excess. Spoon the batter into the tin and level the surface.

Bake the pumpkin and orange cake at 180°C for approximately 45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Drizzle with the orange icing.

Ingredients for the orange icing:

• 160 g icing sugar
• 3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
• finely grated zest of ½ orange

Place all the ingredients in a small bowl and mix with the back of a spoon until smooth. If the icing is too runny, add more icing sugar. If it is too thick, add a little more orange juice or water.

Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from food.com,