Maple Pecan Squash Traybake

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 50 ml maple syrup
• 1 tbsp maple syrup, plus extra for drizzling
• 200 ml sunflower oil, plus extra for greasing
• 225 g self-raising flour
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 100 g cream cheese
• 125 g icing sugar, sifted
• 150 g light brown sugar
• 300 g butter, grated
• 150 g butter, softened
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50 g raisin
• nutmeg
• 0 .5 tsp mixed spice
• 100 g pecan, chopped, plus extra for topping

Method

1. Soak the raisins in 100 ml of just-boiled water for at least an hour until plump and glossy, then drain well. Dry raisins steal moisture from the sponge — plump ones give it back.
2. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Grease a 20 x 30 cm tin and line with parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides so you can lift the cake out cleanly later.
3. In a large jug, whisk the brown sugar, 50 ml maple syrup, eggs, sunflower oil and a good pinch of salt for about a minute, until smooth and slightly thickened. The salt isn't optional — it lifts the spice and stops the sugar tasting flat.
4. Stir in the grated squash until every strand is coated in the wet mix.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, mixed spice and a few rasps of nutmeg. Toast your nose over the bowl — the spices should already smell warm and fragrant before they go anywhere near the oven.
6. Pour the wet mix into the dry and fold gently until just combined. Stop the moment you can't see flour streaks — overworked batter bakes tough and tight.
7. Fold through 75 g of the chopped pecans and the drained raisins until evenly distributed. Taste a smear of the batter — it should taste sweet, spiced and just-salted; adjust with another pinch of salt if it falls flat.
8. Scrape into the prepared tin, level the top with a spatula, and bake for 35 minutes, until deep golden, springy to the touch, and a skewer comes out clean. Wet crumbs mean another 5 minutes — tinned-tasting raw squash in the middle is the only way to ruin this.
9. Leave to cool completely in the tin. Don't rush this — warm sponge melts the icing straight off the top.
10. For the icing, beat the softened butter and icing sugar with electric beaters for 2–3 minutes until pale and fluffy. This is where the icing gets its lightness, so don't cut it short.
11. Add the cream cheese, 1 tbsp maple syrup and vanilla. Beat briefly, just until smooth and silky — overbeating splits cream cheese icing into a sad puddle. If it feels too soft to spread, chill for 30 minutes then beat for a few seconds to bring it back.
12. Lift the cake out using the parchment overhang. Swirl the icing thickly over the top in lazy waves, scatter the remaining chopped pecans across, drizzle generously with maple syrup so it pools in the ridges, and finish with a light dusting of cinnamon.