Pumpkins are smooth-textured, sweet, and full of flavour, and although pumpkin pie is a favourite in America, there are so many other recipes that are great for pumpkins, including these cakes – they’re deliciously moreish and scarily simple to make.

So choose treats over tricks this Halloween, share these creepy cakes, they’ll certainly put a smile on the face of any little monsters that might visit. 

What You’ll Need:

• 150g dark chocolate 72% cocoa solids
• 50g pumpkin seeds – toasted
• 460g pumpkin skinned, de-seeded and diced into large cubes – choose a pumpkin that is bright orange and sweet preferably
• 100g caster sugar
• 80g soft brown sugar
• 330g glutinous rice flour – more may be needed
• 1 tablespoon honey
• Pinch table salt
• 50g toasted sesame seeds
• Sesame oil 

Spiced Mango Puree

• 3 large mangoes – peeled and stone removed
• 50g light soft brown sugar
• 2 star anise
• 1 cinnamon stick – snapped in half
• 50ml water

 What To Do:

• Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a pan of water, ensuring that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl, on a low heat. When all the chocolate solids have melted remove the bowl from the heat.
• Roughly chop the pumpkin seeds and season with a pinch of table salt, add this to the melted chocolate then add the honey and mix together. Spoon this mixture into 2-3cm demi-sphere or cake-pop moulds and place in the fridge until set.
• Steam or boil the pumpkin for 30- 40 minutes or until completely soft.
• Mash the cooked pumpkin with a fork and squeeze any excess water out.
• Mix both sugars together in a bowl, place the pumpkin into a jug blender and blend on a slow speed with the sugar, leave to cool for 10 minutes.
• In an electric mixing bowl with the paddle attachment fitted, beat the pumpkin mix with the glutinous rice flour on a low speed for 2 minutes, then turn the speed up and beat for 10 minutes, until smooth and forms into a ball (if the mix is too wet add more flour until the desired consistency is reached, this will depend on the water content in the pumpkin).
• Weigh off the pumpkin dough into 45g pieces and roll into balls, with a rolling pin roll 2 pumpkin balls out to a 5mm disc and place a piece of the chocolate into the centre of one disc. Place the other disc on top and gently press down around the outside to expel any trapped air. Using a 75mm round cutter, cut the excess mix off the pumpkin cake and gently lift onto a tray lined with silicone or greaseproof paper. Repeat this process until all of the pumpkin dough has been used, kneading together the excess that has been trimmed. Reserve in fridge until needed.

Method for Mango Puree:

• Roughly chop the mango flesh and place into a saucepan with the sugar, star anise, cinnamon and water. Cook over a low heat until the mango is thoroughly cooked and soft.
• Remove the cinnamon and star anise, then blend in a jug blender or with a stick blender until smooth. Feel free to add more spice to your desired taste – ground cinnamon, Chinese 5 spice or cassia bark.
• Reserve in fridge until needed.

To serve

• Pre-heat oven to 180c.
• Heat a non-stick frying pan and add 1 tablespoon sunflower oil, and then carefully place the pumpkin cake into the pan flat side first. You can cook up to 4 at a time depending on the size of your pan.
• Cook until golden then carefully flip over and repeat the process, then once golden remove from the pan and place onto a non-stick tray or tray lined with greaseproof paper.
• Place tray into pre-heated oven for 5-8 minutes until the cakes are cooked. They should have a little give to them when pressed.
• Remove from the oven and brush with a little sesame oil, sprinkle with the toasted sesame seeds and serve warm with a pot of the mango puree.