Halloween Treats : Scary Pumpkinhead Carrot Cake

"I hate carrots but I love carrot cake".  Another gem from the Little Brother who was the happy recipient of this special scary Halloween cake.  I was browsing around TK Maxx last week, purely to help The Hubs buy a new wallet.  It's never that simple - I walked out with a set of Essie nail polish and a new pumpkin head cake tin.  I know, I'm a sucker...  Then, what cake to make?  With the changing weather from lovely to "holy moly, stick the electric blanket on", I reckoned a more substantial warming sponge would work best.  Add some spooky gel icing and you're all set for a Scary Pumpkinhead Carrot Cake.

This would actually be a great cake to decorate with kids - add lots of Halloween sweets and make up some black orange icing for full effect.  I used two tubes of Wilton icing which I have in the cupboard so my decorating was fast and furious.  My one tip to you is to grease any shaped tin to within an inch of its life.  I use Cake Release spray which is great, but I still brush it well into the corners and crevices as I know from experience what happens if you take shortcuts here.  Yes, cake that's only fit for trifle.  If you're looking for some more Halloween Treats, try my Toffee Apple Cake,  Chocolate Orange Marble Cake, Chocolate Spiced Cookies or Petrifying Puff Pastries. 

Scary Pumpkinhead Carrot Cake

175ml Vegetable Oil
3 Eggs
175g Soft Brown Sugar

140g Carrots, finely grated
Finely grated zest of 1 Orange
175g Self-Raising Flour
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Mixed Spice
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Preheat the oven to 180c / Gas Mark 4. Grease your cake tin thoroughly and set aside

Put the eggs, oil, carrots, sugar & orange zest into a large bowl & mix with a wooden spoon.

Add the dry ingredients into the mixture and mix until lightly combined - mix it too much & it will go tough which is not what you want. It will look really sloppy at this stage, but that's absolutely perfect.

Pour the batter into the prepared baking tin & bake for 35 minutes. If the sponge springs back & a skewer comes out clean, then the cake is ready. If not, give it another 5-7 minutes & check again.

Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before loosening around the edges with a spatula or palette knife and turning out onto a wire cooling rack. Allow the cake to cool completely before attempting to decorate.

Decorate the Scary Pumpkinhead Carrot Cake to the max.  Make it as spooky as you dare before cutting a very large slice.  Eating the head off somebody is always theraputic...