Pumpkin and Pecan Cake

I cannot believe I have not shared a cake recipe on this blog yet!  I love my cakes, but do not love cakes that are bad for you.  I only cook cakes that are low-ish in butter/oil), low-ish in sugar and have at least some 'goodness' in them, i.e. some fruit/veg/nuts.  This one is just great and very yummy. I have 'tweaked' this recipe from a recipe I found on recipecommunity.com.au.  You can view the original recipe here.  I have cooked this cake before using wholemeal flour and it turned out great.  I would like to try cooking it using a different kind of flour (e.g. spelt) but have not done that as yet.  As it does not have much butter in it, it tends to be a bit crumbly and so I have found it works best in a ring cake tin rather than a rectangle cake tin.  My ring cake 'tin' is actually silicon and works perfectly.  Enjoy!


Ingredients:
250 g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda 

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
60g pecan pieces (I often add more that this coz I love nuts.  If you would like them to be chopped up a bit you can blitz them once on Turbo first, but I don't think it's necessary)
60g sultanas
60g butter
180g sugar
3 eggs
400g pumpkin cubed
600g water
¼ cup orange juice (you can use bottled juice or blitz up one peeled orange with some water)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.  
Place cubed peeled pumpkin into rice basket, add 600g water to TM bowl.  Cook on Varoma, 15 mins speed 4.  When complete remove pumpkin and set aside, rinse TM bowl and towel dry. 

1. Place all dry ingredients except for sugar into TM bowl and stir for 10 seconds on reverse, speed 3.  Set aside.
2. Add butter and sugar to TM bowl, cream for 20 seconds on speed 5.
3. Add eggs, pumpkin, orange juice and vanilla to TM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 5 till well combined.
4. Return the dry ingredients to the TIM bowl and mix for 20 seconds on speed 3 until thoroughly combined. 
5. Pour mixture into a greased ring tin.
6. Bake at 180 degrees for approximately 45-55 minutes until lightly browned.  
7. Ice cake with a simple icing and enjoy!