This recipe is suitable for a 26 cm spring-form tin. I used pumpkin which had been roasted in the oven for an hour. The pumpkin flesh should be soft, pliable and easy to mash into the other ingredients.

Ingredients

For the cake

500 gr. plain flour

400 gr. dark sugar

250 gr. butter

4 eggs

300 gr. roasted pumpkin

100 gr. decimated coconut OR

100 gr. crushed walnuts

1 tsp. cinemon

2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda *

1 tbs. balsamic vinegar

Pinch of salt

For the topping

Approx. 300 gr. home-made cream cheese  *

2 tbs. honey

Walnuts for decoration

Directions

Blend all the ingredients together until well mixed. It helps if you have a food processor. If not try with a hand-hold mixer. If not the only alternative, I’m afraid, is elbow power.

Line the bottom of the tin with greased baking paper before adding the mixture.

Place the tin in a pre-heated oven on 180 degrees centigrade for half an hour. Then take out of the oven and cover the top with tin-foil to prevent the top from burning. Place in the oven for another 30 minutes at 180 degrees centigrade. For the last 30 minutes turn the oven down to 150 degrees centigrade. The cake is ready when a knife comes out clean with no sticky mixture clinging to the blade.

While the cake cools mix the honey with the cream cheese. Paste over the top of the cake and decorate with walnuts and any other pretty things you have growing in the garden (non-poisonous of course!) or lying around the kitchen.

* The bicarbonate of soda will react with the balsamic vinegar when the cake heats up in the oven allowing the cake to rise. If you don’t have any vinegar use the juice of a lemon instead.

* It goes without saying that you can use a commercial cream cheese but making your own has a more tangy, satisfying, flavour. For good results the yoghurt needs only to strain for two hours rather than over night.