Sticky Pumpkin & Pecan Halloween Cake
This is a lovely autumnal twist on a carrot cake, with sweet roasted pumpkin, crunchy pecans and warming spices. Dark and deliciously sticky, it makes a wonderful Halloween treat for you and your family, finished with cream cheese icing and a spooky chocolate cobweb.
The pumpkin and grated carrot help keep the cake lovely and moist whilst adding fibre, and the pecans bring a delicious crunch along with protein and healthy fats. Roasting the pumpkin brings out its natural sweetness, which works beautifully with the dark muscovado sugar and orange zest.
You can enjoy this cake all year round, and it tastes amazing without the icing too.
For dairy-free, gluten-free and nut-free swaps, please see the notes below.
Sticky Pumpkin & Pecan Halloween Cake
Ingredients
Cake
- 400 g Pumpkin (or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cubed)
- 1 tsp Olive Oil (or a little extra, as needed)
- 125 g Butter (unsalted)
- 200 g Spelt Flour (white, wholemeal or baker’s blend)
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- ½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
- 2 tsp Ginger (ground)
- 2 tsp Mixed Spice
- ½ tsp Sea Salt
- 140 g Sugar (dark muscovado or coconut sugar)
- 3 Eggs (large)
- 130 g Carrots (finely grated)
- 80 g Yoghurt (natural or Greek)
- 1 Oranges (zest only)
- 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 75 g Pecans (toasted and roughly chopped)
Icing and decoration
- 200 g Cream Cheese (full-fat)
- 50 g Butter (unsalted and softened)
- 50 g Icing Sugar (golden)
- 1 tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 40 g Chocolate (dark or milk)
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat the oven to 200°C fan, 220°C conventional.
- Put the prepared pumpkin on a baking tray. Drizzle over the olive oil and toss to coat. Roast for 30–35 minutes, until soft and caramelised at the edges.
- Mash or blend the roasted pumpkin until smooth. Weigh out 220g of purée and leave to cool slightly.
- Whilst the pumpkin is cooling reduce the oven temperature to 160°C fan, 180°C conventional. Grease a 23cm round cake tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Continue cooking for 4–5 minutes, gently swirling the pan, until the butter smells nutty and the little milk solids at the bottom turn golden brown.
- Pour the butter into a large mixing bowl, scraping in the golden-brown bits, and leave to cool for around 10 minutes.
- Put the spelt flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, ginger, mixed spice and salt into a separate bowl. Stir together.
- Add the muscovado sugar to the cooled butter and whisk until smooth. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
- Add the cooled pumpkin purée, yoghurt, orange zest and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Gently fold together with a large spoon until no dry flour remains.
- Fold in the grated carrots and two thirds of the pecans.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and smooth the top. Bake for 45–55 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. If the top is browning too quickly, cover it loosely with foil.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then carefully turn it out onto a wire rack. Remove the baking parchment and leave to cool completely which can take around an hour.
Icing and decoration
- Whilst the cake is cooling, prepare the icing. Beat the softened butter and icing sugar together until smooth and pale.
- Add the cream cheese straight from the fridge, followed by the maple syrup and vanilla extract. Beat briefly, for about 20 seconds, until just combined. Avoid overbeating, as the icing may become too soft. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
- Once the cake is completely cold, spread the icing over the top.
- Now make the cobweb. Break the chocolate into small pieces and put it into a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water. Stir until melted, then carefully lift the bowl off the pan.
- Leave the chocolate to cool slightly, then spoon it into a small piping bag or a food bag with a tiny corner snipped off.
- Pipe three or four circles onto the icing, starting with a small circle near the centre and making each one larger.
- Before the chocolate sets, drag a skewer from the centre of the cake towards the edge. Repeat eight times around the cake to create a cobweb, wiping the skewer clean between each stroke.
- Sprinkle the remaining 25g of pecans around the edge.
Notes
Nutrition
Per serving. Nutrition content in food is never consistent, so take these estimates with a pinch of salt! Also, our recipes tend to use low-GI carbs and sugars, so these values are not directly comparable with shop-bought UPFs.
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