Delicious Halloween Pumpkin Cakes!

I don't usually like eating pumpkin but these pumpkin cakes are delicious and they're perfect for Halloween!  This batch was baked yesterday based on a family recipe, I've decorated them with a fun spiders web pattern and some of my Halloween printable papers.
 

To make the cake you will need:
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I also add a little ground nutmeg and mixed spice)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup pumpkin, cooked and cooled

For the topping:
icing sugar
milk or water
orange food colouring

Heat the oven to 180C / 350F / gas mark 4

The recipe I was given says to mix all ingredients together and pour into a floured tin.  I usually mix the dry ingredients together first, then add the beaten eggs, then the oil and finally stir in the cooked pumpkin.

I find the easiest way to cook the pumpkin is to heat it in the microwave for a few minutes until soft.  If the cooked pumpkin is very wet drain some of the liquid away before adding to the cake mixture to stop the cake from being too moist.  This recipe only uses a little pumpkin - if you're not making anything else with it the spare pumpkin (raw) can be cut into cubes and stored in the freezer, ready for baking another time. 

 

Pour the mixture into a tin or individual cupcake cases and cook for 25 minutes.

When the cakes are cooled they're ready to decorate!  Make some glace icing with icing sugar and milk or water.  Take some of the icing and colour for the spider web pattern, leaving the rest white.  (I gradually added a little yellow and red colouring until the colour looked right.)

Spread white icing onto a cake then pipe orange rings onto the white icing.  Using a cocktail stick draw lines through the icing, from the centre to the edge of the cake to create the spider web effect.  It's best to decorate one cake at a time rather than ice them all in white first.

I think the cakes look great with just this iced pattern on, but to finish these ones off I have also used some of my Halloween printables.

The designs were printed onto card, then cut out by hand.  The cupcake toppers can also be cut with a 2 inch circle punch.  For the circles, sandwich a cocktail stick between two circles of card and glue together.  I also used some of my new Halloween flags - for these simply fold in half with a cocktail stick glued in the centre fold.