Recipe: Autumn Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Since I'm home from work yet another day, I thought I would try this delightful recipe given to me by a dear friend.

Celebrate the new season with this rich and wholesone vegetable cake, full of kumara, courgette and walnuts

Ingredients:
350g Kumara, peeled and chopped
1 corgette (160g)
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1 cup caster sugar (again - I used plain white sugar)
2 eggs
125 unsalted butter, melted, cooled
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Cream Cheese Frosting:
65g cream cheese, at room temperature
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups icing sugar

Method:

1. Grease a 20cm ring cake pan.  Line base and sides with baking paper.
2. Boil, steam or microwave kumara until soft.  Drain.  Mash until smooth.  Cool
3. Grate courgette.  Squeeze out any excess moisture and discard liquid
4. Sift flour, spice and sugar into a large bowl.  Stir to combine.  Whisk eggs and butter in a medium jug until combined.  Stir into flour mixture.  Stir in kumara, courgette and walnuts.  Spoon into prepared pan
5. Cook in a moderate oven (180oC) for about 50 minutes, or until cooked when tested.  Stand cake in pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool.
6. To make cream cheese frosting, beat cream cheese and butter in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Slowly add icing sugar.  Beat until smooth.
7. Spread cream cheese frosting over cold cake.  Decoratewith extra chopped walnuts.

You will need 1 cup of mashed kumara for this recipe.  To give the autumn cake a different flavour, add finely grated lemon or orange rind to the frosting.