Pumpkin apricot and orange cake

A proper hallowe'en recipe this one - roasted pumpkin and soaked dried apricots are puréed with clementine juice to form the basis of this cake, drizzled with fresh orange juice when baked and then topped with zesty orange mascarpone icing.  There was loads of roasted pumpkin left over too, so I turned it into a pumpkin soup, and roasted the seeds with salt, pepper, paprika and olive oil to serve instead of croutons.  Happy hallowe'en!

Ingredients

500 g pumpkin

200g dried apricots

100ml clementine juice

4 eggs

450 g caster sugar

125 ml vegetable oil

450 g self-raising flour

1 ½ tsp baking powder

1 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon salt

Juice of half an orange

For the icing

250g mascarpone or cream cheese

85g butter, softened

100g icing sugar, sifted

Zest of 1 orange

Juice of half an orange

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C and grease two 23 cm (9 in) round cake tins.
2. Cover the apricots with boiling water and leave them to plump up for at least 30 minutes. Drain them and reserve 4-5 tablespoons of the liquid.
3. Deseed the pumpkin and chop it into 8 wedges.  Place the wedges on a baking tray, splash with a few tbsp water and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until tender.  
4. Cool slightly and then cut the skin off the pumpkin wedges and chop flesh into 1 inch chunks.  Leave to cool completely.
5. Once cooled, place 500g pumpkin and the drained apricots into a blender with a slosh of clementine juice and blend to a purée.  
6. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil, apricot and pumpkin purée.
7. Sieve the flour, baking powder, bicarb, cinnamon and salt into the pumpkin mix and beat to combine.
8. Pour the mixture into the cake tins, smooth the tops and bake for 30-35 minutes, rotating the tins half-way through, until the cakes have risen and a skewer comes out clean.
9. When the cake is done, place the tins on cooling racks.  While still in the tins, prick all over with a skewer and drizzle with the juice of half an orange while still warm.  Leave to cool completely.
10. To make the frosting, beat together the cheese, butter, icing sugar, orange zest and juice till smooth and creamy, then set aside in the fridge until ready to ice the cake with a palette knife.