To me, Halloween used to be about dressing up, going around peoples houses and getting as many sweets as I could and scoffing them. Now, Halloween is about carving a pumpkin, watching a scary film and eating. Even better, the eating part just got healthy ;). This recipe replaces 2 thirds of the oil for agave syrup. The benefits of using agave syrup include the sweetness without  using lots of sugar (agave syrups have a low GI which roughly means the sugars in them don’t turn into fat as much as other sugars, therefore great for weight loss). Agave syrup also gives the same texture as oil for binding together and moistness. I have 3 agave syrups at home, the dark natural one, a vanilla flavour and a maple flavour. I use them in baking, as a replacement for honey on porridge, I LOVE the vanilla one in coffee and I also love them on natural yogurt. I got these from a local food festival but you can buy the these flavours from amazon!I have noticed you can get the natural agave syrup from supermarkets now as well.

On the indulgent recipe I topped these little cakes with butter cream icing! (I know, very very naughty!!) but these are topped with one of my favourite all time products!! Quark! I have used quark before in my prawn tagliatelle recipe, which by the way is very yummy. But this naturally fat free cheese (and high in protein) can also be used for sweet things. They already sell lemon flavoured quark, be great if they did orange too! :). You don’t have to top the cakes if you don’t want to, but if you do eat them within 4-5 days or your Quark will go funny. For more info on Quark cheese see here 🙂

Recipe

Servings: 12  Prep Time: 10mins Decorate Time: 5mins Cook Time: 10-12mins Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

• 20g / 1oz Brown Sugar
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 2 Tablespoon agave syrup
• 1 Egg
• 1 Egg white
• 100g/ 2 & 1/2oz Wholemeal Plain Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1/2 Teaspoon Bicarb of Soda
• 1 Teaspoon mixed Spice
• Half Zest of Orange
• 220g / 5oz Grated pumpkin

For the Topping

• 125g / 3oz Quark
• 1 Dessert spoon of Icing Sugar
• 2 Drops Vanilla Extract
• Half an Orange (Zest)
• Half a squeezed juice of an orange

1.Preheat your oven to 180oc / gas mark 4. Line your bun tray with little cake cases.

2. Mix together the oil, agave syrup and sugar.

3. Add the egg, and the egg white and mix.

4. Add the flour, baking powder, bicard of soda and the mixed spice and mix well.

5. Add your grated pumpkin. The easiest way I found to prepare the pumpkin was to cut into it like you would a melon. Take your ‘melon’ pumpkin slices and scoop out the pips and ‘mush’. Peel away the orange skin and your left with the yellow flesh. Now grate the flesh the same way as you would a carrot. If any one knows any other ways to prepare a pumpkin please let me know! 🙂

6. Lastly add the orange zest (add the raisins too is your using them) and give it a good mix. Scoop your mixture into the cake cases and pop them in to the oven for around 10-12 mins.

7. When your gorgeous little healthy cakes are done let them cool down completely before you top them. For the topping mix the quark with the icing sugar, zest of the orange, orange juice and vanilla. Spoon the mixture on to your cooled cakes & enjoy.