At the end of October we will celebrate Halloween - well, some of us do, though it's mainly for younger ones. Regardless, Halloween conjures up pumpkins and Jack-o'-lanterns. For us, here in the south end of the world, it's not pumpkin season - that's autumn, and we are in the middle of spring. Also we do not have an abundance of squash (all pumpkins are squashes, but not all squashes are pumpkins... I know!). It is the softer squash that is used to carve the Jack-o'-lanterns - our pumpkins are far too hard to carve. In many places, the last of this year's pumpkin harvest is on sale, and so with these two things in mind, I've posted this delicious recipe. Made with apple sauce, and no fat, the texture is denser but moister. The cake is finished with a layer of cream cheese icing, but this can be omitted altogether. Great sliced and spread with butter or accompanied by a slice of cheese.

Ingredients

• 2 cups wholemeal flour
• ¾ cup sugar (white or brown)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp grated nutmeg or ground mace
• ¼ cup oil or use melted butter or margarine
• ¼ cup milk
• 1 cup apple sauce (see Cook's Tip)
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup mashed cooked pumpkin
• 10-12 figs diced (or use prunes)

Cream Cheese Topping

• 125 grams cream cheese
• 2 tblsp icing sugar or use a sweet yoghurt like apricot yoghurt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Set the oven rack in the middle. Grease the base and sides of a 20cm cake tin with butter and line the base with baking paper.
2. In a bowl, stir together the wholemeal flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and nutmeg or mace. Make a well in the centre.
3. In a large jug or bowl, whisk together the oil, butter or margarine, milk, apple sauce, eggs, and pumpkin. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together gently with the figs.
4. Turn into a well-greased and lined 20cm cake tin.
5. Bake at 180ºC for 50-60 minutes, until a cake skewer inserted comes out clean. Stand for 10 minutes before turning out to cool
6. Serve with cream cheese topping and decorate with grated orange rind if wished.

Cream Cheese Topping

1. Beat cream cheese with icing sugar or apricot yoghurt.

Cooks Tips

I used canned apple sauce in this recipe, but you can easily make a similar product by cookign up cooking apples - Ballarats, Granny Smiths or Gravensteins - with only a touch of water and then mashing with a potato masher. Alternatively buy canned apples and puree.