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A Village Tale And A {Recipe} Pumpkin Spice Cake

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.

Pumpkin Spice Cake
 
Print
Prep time
15 mins
Cook time
50 mins
Total time
1 hour 5 mins
 
Author: Jo @ Country Life Experiment
Ingredients
  • 1¼c brown sugar
  • 100g butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 1c mashed pumpkin (approx 600g)
  • 2c SR flour
  • ½ t bicarb soda
  • 1t cinnamon
  • ½t ground ginger
  • ½t nutmeg
  • ¼t 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.
3.5.3208

Try them, and I am willing to bet you would pay $11 too!

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    May 21, 2012 at 2:50 am

    I've just made this cake and it is delicious! Thanks for the recipe!

    Reply
  2. Amy says

    April 29, 2012 at 9:09 am

    Another wonderful pumpkin recipe! I am going to need to start buying more pumpkins so I can try out all these fab recipes you are posting.

    Thanks so much for linking up.

    x

    Reply
  3. Melanie - A Welcoming Hearth says

    April 29, 2012 at 1:45 am

    That sounds like a lot of fun. Your cakes looked absolutely beautiful. I would have paid that much too! 🙂

    Reply
  4. CraftyMummy says

    April 29, 2012 at 1:00 am

    Oh, I think I've got some mashed pumpkin in the freezer… might have to bake this afternoon! Thanks!

    Reply
  5. Anne @ Domesblissity says

    April 26, 2012 at 5:53 am

    That sounds absolutely wonderful Jo and just my cup of tea. They are all the sorts of things I'd love to be involved with. Sadly the city life doesn't allow it although I'm finding some smaller organisations within my neighbourhood who do these sorts of things. I'd pay that much for one of your cakes too!

    Anne xx

    Reply
  6. Nat - Muddy Farmwife says

    April 26, 2012 at 3:23 am

    Looks good Jo. The fundraiser sounds like a long standing tradition, well done for making some auction donations, I'm sure they were enjoyed.

    Reply

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Hi, I’m Jo

I'm a city girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a A lovely, easy Christmas with family, good food, a few presents, an afternoon swim and dinner on the veranda as the sun set. Time to stop and be thankful for the many blessings of the year. I hope you had a lovely Christmas too!
We have been mulling over how to fix up the drivew We have been mulling over how to fix up the driveway and lead up to our house for a while. Currently it’s just a dumping ground for old bits of metal and a big pile of mulch, but C would like to create a turning area and put in a garden. First up though, there’s a huge old stump that needs to go. What better excuse is there to have a fire on Sunday afternoon? C and the kids jumped on the quad bike and trailer, and hauled back a big pile of sticks and logs to help the stump burn. Once the fire was going, marshmallows were found and roasted. No better way to spend time together.
Team work makes the dream work. We were asked rec Team work makes the dream work. 
We were asked recently whether we “make” our kids work on the farm. The answer is of course not. Having said that, all three love to help out whenever they can. They all work hard because they want to; because they take pride in working hard and contributing in a meaningful way to our family life; because they love living on our farm and don’t remember life before we moved here. Whether it be planting trees or doing sheep work or feeding animals, they all want to be involved. As a parent, nothing is better than watching them grow in skill and confidence as they work along side you. We’re so glad that we get to spend time with our three, working together.
We’ve had an unexpected addition to the family ☘️🐑. She is a lot easier to look after than the other family members but she does try to escape her yard and head butt people. Poddy lambs are super cute but they tend to think they are a human. Clover the lamb is sure that Meg is her mum. Can’t think why… 🤔🤣
The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: toge The perfect way to end a long winter weekend: together, cooking damper around the remains of the bonfire.
It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got It’s been a tough few weeks on the farm. We got through shearing without a hitch (thankfully 🙏) but we’ve had a run of the flu followed by Covid run through the family since then. The kids and I have tested positive (this is my second time getting it 🦠) though so far C has managed to avoid it. There has been a lot of lying on the couch feeling pretty ordinary. Han had to reschedule her driving test for a 4th time due to Covid, which is disappointing for her because she wants her freedom and for us because it would be so much more convenient if she could drive herself places. Just to add in to the mix, our hot water system has chosen now as a good time to die so we’re on cold showers until we’re all out of iso. This is not meant to be a whinging post but sometimes life just sucks a bit and it’s good to be real. Fortunately, the sight of the fire going with a stack of wood next to it cheers us up. Things will improve soon. Onwards we go…

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Hi, I’m Jo

City girl turned farmer's wife, school teacher, ideas woman, and mum to three country kids. Country Life Experiment is all about simple country living, growing and making our own food, and life on our family farm in rural Australia. Join me as I give country living a try. Read more...
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