Stuff to do with pumpkins! And a hedgehog!

This is the best use I've found for all the pumkin left over from the jack-o-lanterns!

Spiced Pumpkin Waffles
Ingredients:

285g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
Pinch of salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 eggs
55g brown sugar
250g cooked pumpkin or squash (fresh or canned)
375ml milk
55g melted butter or vegetable oil
Zest of 1 orange

Method:

1. Put eggs, sugar, pumpkin, butter and orange zest into a bowl and mix well.
2. Add dry ingredients. Mix well.
3. Leave batter for 5 minutes while waffle iron warms up before using.

Enjoy!

Tip: If you use fresh squash or pumpkin; grate it, and use a clean cloth or sieve to squeeze out any excess juice. This will stop the waffles being too heavy.

Or, you can make:

Spiced Pumpkin Cake


For the cake
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ tsp ground cloves
75g dried currants
75g walnuts, chopped
125g unsalted butter, softened, plus little extra to grease
280g molasses cane sugar (or light brown sugar)
2 large free-range eggs, lightly beaten
300g tinned pumpkin purée
50ml whole milk

For the cream-cheese frosting
125g unsalted butter, softened
200g cream cheese
45g icing sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
Finely grated zest of 1 orange

1 Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Line the bases of two 20cm round cake tins with baking parchment. Lightly grease the sides of the tins with butter.
2 Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground spices together into a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the currants and walnuts with a tablespoon of the flour mixture.
3 Using an electric mixer, beat the butter until light and fluffy. Whisk in the sugar. Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little at a time. If the mixture threatens to curdle, mix in a tablespoon of the flour. Fold in the flour mixture alternately with the pumpkin purée in two batches. Finally, fold in the milk, followed by the currants and walnuts.
4 Divide and spread the batter equally between the prepared cake tins. Do not worry if the batter only comes up to half the height of the tin. Bake in the middle shelf of the oven for about 25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cakes comes out clean. You can also tell that the cake is ready when the sides begin to separate from the edges of the pan.
5 Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes, then invert on to a wire rack and peel off the baking parchments. Leave to cool completely.
6 For the frosting, beat the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth and creamy. Add the orange zest and vanilla and mix well. Place one cake on a serving plate, bottom side up. Spread half the frosting over with a spatula or a palette knife. Sandwich with the other cake, bottom side down, then smooth the remaining icing on top. Cut into slices to serve, and chill leftovers in a covered container.

And also:

Hedgehog Recipe

This is a family recipe that my mum used to make for special occasions. We've always called it hedgehog, but it's a bit like an English version of tiramisu! It's very rich so you only need a small piece.

Serves 4
• 1 packet of chocolate chip cookies
• 1 small tub of double/whipping cream
• strong black coffee (2 tsp of instant coffee with about 50ml of boiling water)
• 1/2 pack of flaked almonds or a small bag of chocolate buttons
Make the coffee up and allow to cool, then pour into a shallow bowl.
Whip the cream in another bowl.
Take one cookie and dunk into the cold coffee, so both sides are coated. Lay the cookie on a serving plate. Spread the cookie with a small blob of cream.
Dunk the next cookie into the coffee and sandwich it onto the first one.
Repeat until all the cookies have been dunked and stuck together, so you have a long roll of cookies all sandwiched together with cream.
Cover with cling film or foil and put into the fridge for a couple of hours, so that the cookies can absorb the coffee.

After a couple of hours, completely cover the cookies with the rest of the whipped cream.
Then decorate the pudding by sticking in the flaked almonds or chocolate buttons, so that they look like the prickles of a hedgehog! (alternatively you could sprinkle it with crushed chocolate flake).
The pudding can be chilled for a further couple of hours before serving.
Serve on its own or with extra cream.

Variations

For a larger hedgehog, double the ingredients and put the two rows of cookies side by side, before covering with the cream.
For an adult’s version, you can put a tbsp of Tia Maria or Amaretto into the black coffee.