Michelle Darmody: How to bake perfect spiced pumpkin buns

A lot of our baking and decorating for Halloween is aimed at children, but these mini pumpkin filled cakes have a simple grown-up elegance.

You can keep these mini cakes for two or three days in an airtight container, but they are best eaten on the day they are baked.

Autumn, with its rich bounty and russet leaves, is one of my favourite times of the year and the fact that it is topped off with Halloween is a huge plus. This ancient Celtic tradition marked the end of the harvest and the onset of winter. On this night of All Hallows’ Eve people believed the boundary between the living and the dead blurred and offerings were left out for their ancestors who roamed the darkened countryside. Before pumpkins, jack-o-lanterns were carved from old turnips, swedes or sugar beet. These were far creepier than the friendlier orange pumpkin.

At times, it feels like we have re-imported Halloween from across the Atlantic with giant pumpkins and bright colourful costumes. Pumpkins are now synonymous with Halloween and while some are not that tasty, and grown to be carved rather than eaten, others are delicious and can be used in baking or cooking. I like to make a large batch of pumpkin purée; it is useful in many baking recipes. It can be frozen and used later if you like.

Prep time is 15 minutes and allow an extra 45 minutes if making your own puree.

Spiced Pumpkin Buns

recipe by:Michelle Darmody

If you would like to make an egg-free version, you can use a flax mix in place of the egg. To do this, mix 4 tablespoons of very finely milled flaxseed with 8 tablespoons of water. Allow to rest for 5 minutes until gloopy and egg white-like in texture.

Servings

12

Cooking Time

 18 mins

Total Time

 18 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 220g self-raising flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp mixed cake spice

• ½ tsp nutmeg

• 120g light muscovado sugar

• 120g butter

• 200g pumpkin purée (cooked

• and liquidised pumpkin flesh)

• 2 eggs, lightly whisked

• 1 tsp vanilla

• For the icing

• 100g cream cheese

• 50g soft butter

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 50 icing sugar

• Zest 1 orange

• ½ tsp mixed cake spice

• Berries to decorate

Method

1. Grease and flour a 12-hole sandwich tin.

2. Preheat your oven to 180ºC/gas mark 4.

3. Sieve the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cake spice and nutmeg together.

4. Stir in the sugar, breaking up any lumps. Set aside.

5. Melt the butter over a low heat.

6. Stir the pumpkin puree, eggs and vanilla together.

7. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the melted butter and the pumpkin mix.

8. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

9. Scoop into the mini cake tin.

10. Bake for 18 minutes until risen and golden on top.

11. Allow to cool until cool enough to handle, then remove gently from the tin.

12. Place on a wire rack to cool completely.

13. To make the icing, whisk all of theingredients until light and fluffy.

14. Pipe the top of each mini cake with a swirl of icing. Top with a berry.

Baker’s tips

To make the pumpkin puree, cut a large edible pumpkin in half then scoop out the seeds and stringy parts. Cut each half in two and place the four pieces onto a tray with the skin facing up. Bake for about 45 minutes at 200ºC/gas mark 5. Once cool, scoop out the pumpkin flesh and blend the flesh until it is a soft paste.

You can get silicone tins that work well for this shape of cake, as you can peel back the silicone casing. Otherwise, you can use loose-base mini cake tins called mini sandwich tins. They make lovely little cakes with straight sides and come out quite well once the sides of the tin are well greased and floured.

When making the icing, depending on how soft the mixture is, you may want to put it in the fridge for about twenty minutes to firm it up before piping.

You can keep any leftover cream cheese icing in the fridge in an airtight container for up to four days.

The mini cakes will freeze well, uniced. Defrost at room temperature then ice.

Three delicious variations

Golden raisins and mixed nuts

A mix of 50g of golden raisins and 50g of chopped mixed nuts is a lovely addition to the recipe.

Stir them both in once the batter is made and you are ready to scoop it into the tins.

You can make a loaf cake instead of mini cakes but would need to extend the baking time for about 15 minutes and bake the loaf at 170ºC/gas mark 3.

Ginger and lemon zest

Adding the zest of two lemons and replacing the cinnamon and nutmeg with 1½ teaspoons of ground ginger makes a very nice version.

You can also add about 20g of stem ginger, chopped finel, and then reduce the ground ginger by half a teaspoon.

Chocolate chip buns

A simple chocolate chip bun is great here.

I use dark chocolate chips as they work best with the flavours. 100g of chocolate chips mixed into the batter before it is scooped into the tins.

You can top them with chocolate cream cheese icing.

Make it by adding 1 tablespoon of cocoa powder to the icing in place of the mixed spice.