Forgive me for I have sinned.  I have been eating cake without the Sisters!!  Actually, I have been baking, which I do most weeks for the Hungry Husband, but just wanted to share this for anyone who is trying to think up different ways to use up all those leftover pumpkins from Halloween.  We’ve done pumpkin pie and soup so I decided to make my favourite Carrot Cake recipe but swap the carrot for pumpkin.  It actually tastes pretty similar apart from being a bit more dense and squidgy – definitely a fork cake!

Here it is:

• 3 cups pumpkin flesh
• 2 cups self raising flour
• 2 cups sugar (I only had white granulated but usually use light brown for this recipe)
• 1 1/2 cups oil (I use sunflower)
• 4 eggs
• 2 tsp bicarb
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon (heaped) – I also added a teaspoon of nutmeg as pumpkin can be a bit bland
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup of chopped walnuts/pecans/almonds – whichever you have in the cupboard!

1. I put the pumpkin flesh in the food processor on the regular chopping blade until it was in about the same size pieces as if it had been grated.
2. Bung in everything else, apart from the nuts and whizz it up until nicely combined.
3. Stir in the nuts.
4. Pour into your prepared tin – I used a 25cm square one.
5. Bake at 175 for about 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

Top with yummy cream cheese frosting:

• 200g tub of cream cheese (philly or supermarket own brand, whichever you prefer or is cheaper!)
• 1/4 cup margarine or butter
• 1/2 kg of icing sugar

1. Combine until smooth and spread over the cooled cake.
2. Sprinkle with some ground cinnamon if it takes your fancy.
3. Enjoy!