Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has suitably spooky plans for the evening, if you like that sort of thing, or suitably unscary plans if not. I am about to go create a backcombed up-do, smoky eyes and red, red lips and slip on my long black dress (no particular costume as such, but some sort of vampire maybe?) before trekking even further into South London than I am now (currently at M's) to a Halloween housewarming. We will be taking a few bottles of wine, a couple of carved pumpkins (see photo above, mine on the left and M's on the right) and some more of those pumpkin cupcakes, as I baked another lot this afternoon. I've had a request for the recipe from mise of pretty far west (hello, thanks for stopping by!), so will leave you with it, along with a photo of batch number 2, which I iced with a different piping nozzle - not sure which I prefer as I think this second lot may be a bit too pretty looking for Halloween.

I know it is probably a bit late to be of any use for today, but they are so good they are worth making anyway, Halloween or not!

Hummingbird Bakery Pumpkin Cupcakes

40g unsalted butter at room temperature

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

a pinch of salt

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

120ml milk

2 eggs

200g pumpkin puree (it says tinned, but I reckon you could also make your own if you can't get hold of any - I found some in Waitrose though)

12 holed cupcake tray lined with cases (there is a note at the start of the book that states that American cupcake trays are larger than British so I used a muffin tray, lined with muffin cases, if you want to use a British cupcake tray you will just get more cakes and have to reduce the cooking time slightly)

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/ Gas 3.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated. Whisk the egg and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated. Stir in the pumpkin puree with a spoon.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.When the cupcakes are cold, spoon or pipe the cream cheese frosting on top (recipe below) and dust with a little more cinnamon.

Hummingbird Bakery Cream Cheese Frosting

125g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter at room temperature

300g icing sugar

Blend all the ingredients together until smooth.