Devilishly Chocolatey Chocolate Orange Pumpkin & Potato Cake

Well the aim was for the cake to have pumpkin in it and I bought an 'edible' pumpkin especially for the purpose. First of all I was surprised that the flesh was so pale when I cut it open and then once I'd roasted it in the oven and scooped it out it seemed very watery, more of the consistency of a marrow than a pumpkin. Instead I decided to use some butternut squash and potato mash that I had leftover after making gnocchi. You need the mash to be quite firm so don't add any milk or butter to it.

The topping (I can't really call it icing as it doesn't have any icing sugar in) is perhaps the easiest think I've ever made - it was one of those moments when you look in your cupboard and say 'ahh that'll work'...and thankfully it did.

Devilishly Chocolatey Chocolate Orange Pumpkin & Potato Cake

225g Potato/Butternut Squash/Pumpkin mash
150g Butter, softened
225g Soft Brown sugar
4 Eggs
225g Self Raising Flour
30g Cocoa powder
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
Zest of 1 large orange and juice of half

Topping
200g Full Fat cream cheese
120g Chocolate spread
20g Cocoa Powder

• Beat the mash, butter and sugar together - don't be concerned it it looks a little curdled at this point
• Beat in the eggs one at a time, along with a tablespoon or two of flour with each egg
• Sift in the remaining flour along with the cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda
• Stir in the orange zest and juice and mix until everything is fully combined
• Pour into a greased and lined 24cm springform cake pan and bake in a preheated 180° C oven for approx 30 minutes
• Leave for 10 minutes before turning out and cooling on a wire rack
• Beat all of the topping ingredients together and spread over the cooled cake

I decorated this cake with chocolate tombstones made by melting Silver Spoon orange flavoured buttons and piping them onto a sheet of greaseproof paper. My writing leaves much room for improvement!

I have entered this into Mummy Mishaps I love Cake & One Ingredient Challenge at Franglais Kitchen and also We Should Cocoa at Hungryhinny and Chocolate Teapot /  Chocolate Log Blog