Mini Pumpkin Cakes with Maple Syrup

Peel a butternut squash of about 500 g and cut it into cubes of 3 to 4 cm. The butternut has especially thick flesh and is exactly what we need.

Put the cubes into a small pot with 100 ml water and cook them covered over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Do not use more water, because the purée should turn out nice and thick.

After 15 minutes the pumpkin is so soft that it falls apart with the Dough scraper. Purée it without any further ingredients and let the purée cool down.

Put 220 g butter and 150 g brown icing sugar into the Mixing bowl.

Add ½ tsp salt, 3 tsp Cinnamon powder and 1 tsp ground Nutmeg.

Add 1 tsp ground ginger and ½ tsp ground cloves; with measuring spoons you dose everything precisely. Mix everything with the Whisk for about 2 minutes on medium speed into a thick, smooth dough.

Add 80 g maple syrup and 1 egg.

Add 1 tsp vanilla aroma and 240 g pumpkin purée and mix everything for 1 minute with the Whisk. Because of the butter the dough becomes a bit lumpy, that is completely normal.

Add 1 tsp baking soda and 300 g flour.

Finally, add 150 g of almond powder and switch to the flat beater, as the mixture now becomes quite thick. Mix for 2 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 °C fan.

The dough is very compact and is hard to portion neatly into rounds with a spoon. So fill it into a large piping bag of at least 40 cm.

Place 2 pumpkin silicone molds on a perforated tray and spray each cavity with non-stick spray so the cakes release well later.

Fill each cavity to ¾ and bake the cakes for 20 minutes at 180 °C fan.

After baking, turn the mold out onto a cake rack and let the cakes cool like this. Do not release them warm from the mold, as they are still too fragile then. Once cooled, they come out easily.

Place the chocolate flavour pens in orange, green and black into a measuring cup with warm water. Paint the pumpkins just as you like and let your imagination run free.

For a touch of glamour, use a pen to apply a little chocolate and stick mini pearls «Halloween» onto it. That way they stay exactly in place.