Leftover Pumpkin Flesh Make a Pie or Cake
Here in the UK Pumpkin Carving is becoming a THING but what do you do with the leftover pumpkin? Firstly you got to get the pumpkin flesh out.
Pumpkin Carving
Bilbo, Nanny and Daddy carving pumpkins together
Ways to make Pumpkin Carving harder:
- Lose the carving tools
- Try to purchase carving tools 2 days before Halloween
- Attempt to carve a pumpkin with a vegetable knife and kebab skewer
- Carve a pumpkin with a 4 year old
Ways to enjoy Pumpkin Carving:
- Remember it is a fun task for your 4 year old so it doesn’t need to be perfect
- All pumpkins look awesome in the dark with a battery operated flicker tea light in them
- Save all the leftover pumpkin goodness to make lush pumpkin treats
Nanny’s Spider Pumpkin effort, wooden sticks added by Bilbo
Daddy’s effort, the teeth were a little tricky without the tools. Spikes added by Bilbo
If you’re going to engage in some pumpkin carving and you would like to make use of the leftover pumpkin flesh these are my tips for getting it out:
- Invest in a metal ice cream scoop
- Scoop out the seeds and stringy bit first
- In a second bowl scoop the flesh, I found tipping the pumpkin on its side was really helpful for this task.
Pumpkin Pie
It didn’t taste too bad and if I had managed to reduce the moisture it wouldn’t have had a soggy bottom.
Not my finest culinary hour I must admit. Mostly because i’m a baker who kind of makes it up as I go along. But this was the first time i’ve attempted a pumpkin pie so i’m going to wrack it up to experience and learn for next year.
I followed this recipe BBC Good Food recipe here is where I went off piste and my tips for next time:
I didn’t boil the pumpkin first
I’ve made pumpkin cake before and I blended the flesh, I figured adding water would make it harder to remove later. I think I was right to not boil it and just blend the flesh to a puree.
Strain the puree
And then strain again, I did strain the puree but I should have done it more. The excess moisture in the puree gave my pie a soggy bottom and no one wants a soggy bottom.
Use rice if you don’t have baking beads
I’m not a pie maker so not surprisingly I didn’t have those pie beads they recommend you use. Baking parchment and some rice works just as well.
I didn’t have baking beads so my mum told me to use rice, it worked!
Buy the pastry
There is a reason shops sell the ready made stuff, you’re Pumpkin Carving, baking and probably trying to complete 100 other jobs in a weekend so it is ok to cheat.
We have two boys so of course we had to carve two pumpkins, this left a lot of flesh. I enjoy making cakes so I decided to throw the rest of the flesh in a cake mix and hope for the best…
Pumpkin Cake
This cake is so moist from the yummy leftover pumpkin.
For the pumpkin cake I used a tried and tested recipe (i’ve made it once before but that counts as tried and tested in my book) again BBC Good Food have come up trumps and here are my hacks/tips:
Sugar
I ran out of the light Muscovado so I chucked in some dark stuff. It makes the mix darker (obviously) but I quite like it.
Spices
I didn’t have any mixed spice so I threw in Nutmeg and Cinnamon – it survived! (and was still yummy)
Orange
After the 2nd trip to the supermarket my husband wasn’t willing to go for a 3rd time. So a couple of tablespoons of pineapple juice replaced the orange and no zest – it survived! (and was still yummy)
Icing
Going to be brutally honest, after the carving, the pie and the cake I couldn’t be arsed with icing too. So this pumpkin cake is icingless but you know what – it survived! (and IS still yummy)
I hope you enjoy my tips for making the most out of leftover pumpkin flesh i’d love to hear how your baking and carving goes
