Tomato Passata and Pumpkin & Orange Cake

This morning I picked some more runner beans, which I will freeze for the winter and I dug up some more potatoes.

I also picked some patty pans so I will make some more soup at the weekend

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A couple of weeks ago my tomatoes got ‘blight’.  I wrote on my blog, that if you catch the ‘blight’ early enough, you can strip the tomatoes and ripen them on your window sill and still use them, which I did:

Tomatoes on 8th August

This is how the tomatoes looked this morning:

The same tomatoes today

I have used the tomatoes to make passata.  It’s not a ‘true’ passata as I don’t seive the seeds out, but I think life is too short for doing this and it really doesn’t matter if the seeds are there.  This is how I do it:

First I wash the tomatoes and cut them in half

Then I put them in a big pan with approximately an inch of water so they don’t burn

I cook them for approximately 5 to 10 minutes until they are soft and then I blitz them with a hand blender

I put the liquid into freezer proof containers, in 500 gram portions

When they are cool, I freeze them.

The passata can be used for spag bogs, pasta sauces, curries etc

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On Sunday, I made lots of cakes for ‘Afternoon Tea’ and I will be writing the recipes on my blog, over the next few days.

Today I thought I’d write the recipe for Pumpkin and Orange Cake.  This cake tastes very similar to carrot cake.  It really is a lovely tasting cake.

 The pumpkin I used was still in my freezer from last year and needed to be used up.

Pumpkin and Orange Cake

Pumpkin and Orange Cake Recipe

300g self raising flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon  ground cinnamon

125g margarine

275g soft brown sugar

3 eggs

300g pumpkin puree (just boil raw pumpkin in a little bit of water until soft and drain)

2 tablespoons milk

The Icing:

100g margarine

200g icing sugar

2 tablespoons of orange juice

grated zest of 1 orange

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Preheat the oven gas mark 4 / 180C /350F

Grease and flour two 8 inch loose bottom cake tins

Sift together the flour, baking powder and cinnamon

In a different bowl, beat the margarine and sugar until light and fluffy

Beat each egg one at a time, adding 1 tablespoon of the flour mixture in after each egg.

Mix in the milk

Fold in the remaining flour mix and the pumpkin.

Put into the cake tins and bake for 40 minutes

Leave the cakes to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling wire rack

When cold, make the icing by beating the margarine, icing sugar, orange juice and zest together, until fluffy

Use the icing to sandwich the cake together and to spread on top

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I used walnuts to decorate the top, but you could use some more orange zest.

Everyone certainly seemed to enjoy the cake on Sunday

Afternoon Tea

Thank you for reading my blog today