Pumkin Bundt Cake

From my in laws this year I received a wonderful bundt pan. I adore the angles on it. We went out and visited them last week but I didn't manage to make a bundt cake for them using the pan, So here is one I made later! It is a pumpkin bundt cake, made using a whole smallish pumpkin (a common sugar pumpkin was cut in half, seeds removed, skin removed, cut into small peices and placed on a baking tray. A little water was added, and then it was all covered in aluminium foil and baked at 375F until soft. Finally it was all mashed in a blender until smooth). I used the recipe from the blog "From Scratch" (http://foodpluspolitics.com/2007/10/31/pumpkin-bundt-cake/) with a few little changes:

Ingredients
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cup freshly made pumpkin puree (see comment above)
3/4 cup vegetable oil
300g all-purpose flour
380g sugar
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup raisins or currants (160g)
1/2 cup chopped nuts, very optional
powdered sugar, for dusting

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.

In a large bowl, whisk the 3 eggs until blended. Add pumpkin and oil. Whisk until smooth.

Add flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and spices. Mix well. Stir in raisins (and nuts, if using).

Pour into pan, bake 65 - 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Mini Pumpkin and Apple Tarts

A mentioned in a previous post - I usually have left over pate sucre. I decided to use some the the sucre to make some mini-experimental tarts. I didn't grow up on pumpkin pie, in fact I've never had it before, so I'm not sure what it should taste like. But I was fascinated by the idea of having an essentially savory food inside something that is usually sweet. 

For this I simple made some apple sauce out of some amazingly good apples (Johnagold, Golden Delicious and whole bunch of others who's names I've forgotten) added my usual spices (cloves, cinnamon stick and some lemon peel) I put this on the base of the partially baked tart shells. 

For the filling, I bought a New Hampshire Pumpkin and roasted it with a bay leaf for around an hour until it was soft. I let it cool and then removed the skin, then I put it in a blender and pureed it. I placed the puree in a sauce pan, added some sugar, maple syrup, some ground down chai tea spices (ginger, orange peel, cloves and cardamon) and cooked it until a bunch of the liquid had evaporated. I mixed in an egg, some milk and some cream then added this on top of the apples. I baked them in a 350F oven for around 20-30 min until they looked well baked. 

They were ok. I do like the combo of apples and pumpkin, I just need to work on the pumpkin part - maybe I can add some burn - cayenne pepper perhaps?