In our village is a soldiers memorial hall that was built after World War 1. It provides a focal point for the village, which doesn’t even have a pub! Most events in the village are held there. Over the weekend, we went to the annual fundraiser for the hall. It is always the same. An auction of cakes and produce, followed by a community dinner.
The local real estate agent volunteers his time to auction all the goods, and there is always some friendly competition to buy the sponge cakes (one, made by a 96 year old lady, went for $80). The cooking is always great and the prices high – all for a good cause. The local kids take turns to carry the produce to the winning bidder.
The menu for dinner hasn’t changed since the 1960’s, with the exception of the change to carrots from mashed pumpkin – which required a committee meeting. So we had our sweet and sour chicken casserole with carrots, peas, corn, and mash, followed by stained glass jelly (a triumph of gelatin), tinned fruit salad and ice cream. In true country style, there was sliced white bread on the table, and tea was the drink of choice. It truly felt as though time had stood still for the last half a century.
I would have loved to have taken some photos, but that would have totally marked me as city girl.
My contribution to the sale was some jars of fig jam, pickled cucumbers, home made tomato sauce, and these pumpkin spice cakes. They taste amazing, and best of all, they use pumpkin – which is an essential criteria in our house at the moment.
Bet you are wondering how much they went for! They went for $11 to $14 – I was pretty happy about it. And I also have one in the freezer for later.
Ingredient
1 1/4c brown sugar
100g butter
2 eggs
1c mashed pumpkin (approx 600g)
2c SR flour
1/2 t bicarb soda
1t cinnamon
1/2t ground ginger
1/2t nutmeg
1/4t cloves
1c icing mixture
hot water
Method
1. Cream the brown sugar and butter until pale.
2. Beat in eggs.
3. Stir in pumpkins
4. Sift together flour, bicarb soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg.
5. Stir flour into the wet mixture.
6. Pour into a lined loaf pan.
7. Bake at 170*c for 50 minutes.
8. Allow to cool.
9. Mix icing sugar with enough hot water to make icing.
10. Spread icing over cake, then sprinkle a little cinnamon over the top.
Try them, and I am willing to bet you would pay $11 too!
