As part of our next café with Martha Collison, you’re invited to enter our very own Bake Off challenge!

Why not have a go at baking one of Martha’s recipes and letting her judge the results during our café event on Sunday 22nd October.

You have a choice of 2 of her recipes, a pumpkin spice bundt cake, or a triple chocolate biscotti.

If you’d like to enter, please let Josh know by Thursday 19 October at the latest (there are a limited number entries available).

See recipes below:

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

INGREDIENTS:
Butter, for greasing
500 grams plain flour
1×425 grams tinned pumpkin purée
4 eggs
200 ml vegetable oil
150 ml whole milk
250 grams caster sugar
250 grams light brown sugar
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp ground cloves
TOPPING
200 grams icing sugar
1 tbsp water
Ground cinnamon & nutmeg to dust
You will also need a 1.5 litre Bundt tin

STEPS:
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas 4 and grease and lightly flour a 1.5 litre Bundt tin. As this cake has a high sugar content, it is more likely to caramelise and stick to the tin, so the layer of flour helps prevent this.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the pumpkin purée, eggs, oil, milk and both sugars until they are well blended.
3. Using another bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and mix until smooth, with no large lumps of flour remaining.
5. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool for 10-15 minutes, or until the pan is cool enough to touch.
6. Use a plastic spatula or knife and run it around the edges of the tin if the cake looks like it might be stuck. Invert onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.
7. For the topping, mix the icing sugar with 1 tablespoon of water to make a thick paste. Transfer to a piping bag, cut a medium sized hole in the tip, and pipe a thick ring around the top of the cold Bundt, then tap the cooling rack firmly on the work surface to encourage the icing to start spreading and to drip down the edges.
8. Dust with a little nutmeg and cinnamon before moving the cake to a cake stand to serve.

Triple Chocolate Biscotti

METHOD:
1. Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5 and line a large baking tray with baking parchment. In a small bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt.
2. Beat together the 2 eggs, sugar and vanilla extract using a wooden spoon in a large bowl for a few minutes, or until well combined. Gently stir in the dry ingredients, chopped almonds and white chocolate chunks until a thick dough forms.
3. Shape the dough into a log shape about 20cm long. Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with granulated sugar, then bake for 30 minutes until firm.
4. Allow to cool at room temperature for 10 minutes, then stick the dough into the freezer for 20 minutes to solidify the chocolate chunks. Turn the oven down to 170°C, gas mark 3.
5. When the dough is cold, use a serrated knife to slice diagonally into 1 cm thick slices and arrange on a baking tray. Bake the biscotti for a further 20 minutes or until crisp.
6. Transfer the biscotti to a cooling rack to cool completely, then drizzle with melted milk chocolate and allow to set.