Spiced Pumpkin Cake

Heat the oven to 180°C(160°C Fan Oven /Gas Mark 4. Grease and line three 20cm loose-based cake tins. In a bowl, whisk together the oil, eggs, sugar and Vanilla Paste.

Fold in the sultanas, walnuts, pumpkin, orange juice and zests. Sift in the flour, Bicarbonate of Soda, Baking Powder and spices, and mix to combine.

Divide the mixture between the tins, bake for 40-45 mins, or until springy to the touch and a skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for a few minutes, then turn out onto wire racks until completely cool.

For the icing, pop the butter and icing sugar into a large bowl and beat together using an electric hand whisk or freestanding mixer with the beater attachment, until smooth and combined – make sure there are no lumps of butter. Pop in the Vanilla Extract and cream cheese and beat together until you have a lovely light and fluffy buttercream.

Once the cake is cooled, slice the tops of each sponge layer to level them. Spread a layer of Cream Cheese Icing onto the top of one layer of sponge, sandwich another sponge layer on top and cover with Icing and sandwich with the final sponge layer. Thinly spread a layer of icing on top and around the sides of the cake to create a crumb coat. Use a spatula to smooth round the cake to achieve a smooth finish.  

For the pumpkins gradually mix drops of Orange Gel Food Colour into 220g of Fondant until a desired colour level is achieved – you can leave some fondant white to achieve the different coloured pumpkins. Roll the fondant into various size balls and use the back of a knife to make indents into the sides of the ball shapes to create the pumpkins. Colour the remaining fondant Green and roll into tiny sausage shapes to and push onto the top of each pumpkin to create the stalks.