I love ginger cake. It pairs so well with so many other flavours; chocolate, lemon or in this case pumpkin.

It’s obviously the right time of year to make this cake and it’s the perfect recipe for the leftovers of a pumpkin carving session.  Eat a large slice alongside a pumpkin spiced latte for the ultimate pumpkin fix!

As with any ginger cake, it’s best left for 24 hours wrapped in paper before eating to let the flavours develop.

Adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients

• 250g Pumpkin or squash flesh (the scoopings from your Halloween pumpkin are perfect)
• 25g black treacle
• 70g golden syrup
• 70g light soft brown sugar
• 100ml semi-skimmed milk
• 100g cold butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
• 225g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 medium eggs, beaten
• 8-10 chunks crystallised ginger, thinly sliced

Instructions

1. Put the pumpkin or squash in a microwave- proof bowl with a dribble of water. Cover with cling film, pierce with a couple of holes and cook in a microwave on High for 5-10 mins, or until the pumpkin is soft and mashable. Drain off the water and mash until smooth. Put the treacle, syrup, sugar and milk in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with a strip of baking parchment. Sift the flour, bicarb, spices and a pinch of salt into a bowl together. Tip in the diced butter and rub with your fingertips until no big lumps remain.
3. Whisk the mash and the egg into the lukewarm syrupy mixture, then stir everything into the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into the prepared tin, scatter with most of the crystallised ginger and bake for 45 mins until a skewer poked into the centre comes out with just moist crumbs attached. Scatter over the remaining sliced ginger to stick, then cool in the tin.