October Clandestine Cake Club and my Halloween Graveyard Cake

Every October we have a Clandestine Cake Club with an Autumnal theme. This year I chose a cake with seasonal ingredients including squash and figs but gave it a Halloween twist too.

This chocolate cake recipe is one of my favourites; squash and fig sounds odd but works really well. You could also switch the squash for pumpkin which makes it a great way to use up pumpkin leftovers once you've carved your Jack O'Lantern.

Ingredients

100g squash or pumpkin

225g dark chocolate

175g margarine

3 eggs

175g dark muscovado sugar

100g light muscovado sugar

250g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

150g dried figs

For the ganache:

200g dark chocolate

100ml double cream

For decoration:

Gingerbread gravestones using my simple gingerbread recipe

100g dark chocolate

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC, 160ºC fan, Gas mark 4. Grease and line your baking tin (you can make a standard round cake but to make a graveyard I used a square tin).
2. Make the gingerbread gravestones in advance, melt the chocolate and pipe the names/dates on and leave to set in the fridge.
3. Grate the squash or pumpkin and chop the figs into small pieces and set aside.
4. Melt the chocolate and margarine together, either in a bain-marie or in the microwave is fine. Set aside.
5. In a large mixing bowl beat the eggs and the sugars, then add the melted chocolate mixture. Stir in 275ml cold water then sift in the flour and baking powder.
6. Finally stir in the squash or pumpkin and figs. Pour the mixture into into the tin and bake in the oven for 50 minutes.
7. Once the cake is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.
8. Prepare the ganache by melting the chocolate, then add in the cream and stir. Remove the cake from the tin and pour over the ganache. Before it dries add your gravestone biscuits and any other decorations.