INGREDIENTS
2 cups finely grated raw pumpkin (260 g)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
½ cup maple syrup
scant ½ cup oil (olive, coconut, avocado & macadamia oil all work)
2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda (bi-carb soda)
½ tsp flakey sea salt
¾ cup raw cacao (or cocoa)
¼ cup coconut flour

METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease an 8 inch (20 cm) baking tin and line base with baking paper.
Whisk grated pumpkin, eggs, syrup, oil and vanilla with a fork. Sift over dry ingredients and mix well. Scrape into prepared tin and smooth surface flat with a pallet knife.
Bake 35 – 40 mins, until edges pull away from the tin and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool cake in tin 10 mins, run a knife around edge and turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
Spread the vegan icing over top and sides before serving. Store in refrigerator until ready to serve.

BEST EVER VEGAN CHOCOLATE ICING
INGREDIENTS
1 cup mashed steamed cauliflower
1 Tbsp lemon juice
¼ cup coconut oil, melted
½ cup mashed avocado
¼ cup maple syrup
½ cup raw cacao, sifted
¼ tsp flakey sea salt

METHOD
Steam a head of cauliflower (broken up into florets) for at least 25 mins until very soft. Remove from pan so excess water evaporates while cauliflower cools. Roughly mash what you need for recipe, reserve remainder for another use (like soup?!).
Blend cauliflower and lemon juice to an impossibly smooth purée in a food processor. Add coconut oil and blend again until you see the texture change and the mixture becomes silky smooth and thick. Add avocado and syrup and blend again. Stir in cacao and salt then blend one final time and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight.
Before using lightly whip the icing to loosen slightly. Spread on the cake.

NOTES
If you wanted to make a deeper, multi layered cake or a larger cake, double or triple the cake recipe.
For our birthday cake we had a 10”/25cm round, 3 layered cake and I tripled the recipe and doubled the icing recipe.