vegan pumpkin cake with caramel apples and workshop recap

I made this cake for the workshop I recently held with Kimberly from the little plantation. we held the workshop at Kimberly’s home in London. she is plant based so I decided to make the cake vegan so she could enjoy it too. I adapted the recipe from one in aine carlin’s book the new vegan. the recipe in her book uses 60 ml of molasses but I decided to use golden caster sugar and just two tbsp of molasses. instead of olive oil I used softened coconut oil and whipped it with the sugar. I added grated nutmeg, ginger and cinnamon in the sponge and it was really yummy and tasted like autumn. I cooked the apples with brown sugar and cinnamon and left them to cool before using them to fill the cake layers. I made this for the first day of the workshop which was spread over three days. on day one we talked to the participants about camera settings, styling and styled a breakfast scene then let them style their own, then we photographed this cake and then Kimberly demonstrated how to photograph tricky food she made a delicious black bean stew which is hard to make look good as it’s brown. on day two we worked on a story board and talked ability visual story telling, this is my favourite day. Awe shot a dumpling story the recipe and photos for that are here. Then after a yummy lunch we briefly talked about editing, we where having so much fun photographing the dumplings we ran over a little. on day three we talked about dark and moody photography, usually you would think I would find this easy but Kimberly suggested we strip things back and just use one bowl and no props (see the noodle shots below) after lunch we talked about blogging and social media.

I love teaching with Kimberly as she is so great at it.

recipe

• 250g pumpkin puree (I roasted half a medium/large butternut squash to make this)
• 85g softened coconut oil
• 150g golden caster sugar
• 2 tbsp. molasses
• 260g self raising flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1/4 of a nutmeg grated
• 60ml water

peel and chop a butter nut squash into dice sized cubes then toss a little olive oil on it and bake at 180 for 25 minutes then puree, measure out 250g and set aside.

in a mixer whip the softened coconut oil and sugar together then add the molasses. , then add the water and puree and mix together. add the flours and spices and a pinch of salt and fold in with a spatula. line three small 10inch  tins and separate the layers between the tins and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. to assemble cake I drizzled some rosehip syrup on each layer. (I made this with some rose hips I forages and sugar I found a recipe on Pinterest) this step can be missed. I used vegan butter for the frosting mixed with icing sugar and cinnamon.

I peeled four apples and cut them into slices and cooked them in a pan with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/4 cup water until soft. once cool I used them in-between the cake layers with the buttercream and added them on top

here are some more photos from our workshop to see Kimberly’s photos go here

thank you to all of our amazing Sponsors: 

1. Daily Cultures porridge–@daily_cultures_

2. Primrose foods granola- @primroseskitchen

3. Factured Goods honey dippers – @facturegoods

4. Pip and Nut nut butter @pipandnut

5. JARR kombucha @jarrkombucha

6. Ayse Habibe Kucuk ceramic cups and plates @aysehabibekucuk

7. Nom Living plates and wooden spoons @nomliving

8. Chia Co chia @thechiaco

9. Mr Organic beans @mr_organic

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