It’s that time of year again, when Katy and I carve pumpkins, just because we can and it’s such fun and we hope that the “Trick or Treat” brigade don’t throw bricks if not donated with sufficient amounts of chocolate (It was worrying last year how many of them had voices that had already broken). Disappointingly, no Halloween parties or discos this year, but on the plus side it means we don’t see Josh in his red velvet devil costume (Yes he really does, the minx, be grateful it’s Katy in the photo).
However, the biggest question on everyone’s mind is not “Paranormal 1” or “Paranormal 2”, it’s what the heck do you do with all that scooped out pumpkin? 
Well, Ellie’s recipe for a really good curried pumpkin soup to use up the flesh and for roasted pumpkin seeds is always a winner. I’ve included those further down as they are very easy to make and delicious. However, making cakes with vegetables is still the new black, so never one to resist a fashion trend, I present to you my Pumpkin Cupcakes.
PUMPKIN CUPCAKES
Ingredients:
- 100g unsalted butter, softened
- 190g caster sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger and ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 120g cooked, mashed pumpkin
- 275g self-raising flour plus 1 teaspoon of baking powder
- Splash of milk if the mixture looks a little stiff
- 50g chopped walnuts plus a few for decoration
For the icing: 100g unsalted butter, 200g icing sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence all beaten together until pale and creamy
For the Cupcakes: Pre heat the oven to Gas mark 4/160 fan/180 electric. Cream the butter and sugar together (I chucked them in the food processor) once they are pale and creamy, add the eggs followed by all the spices and the mashed pumpkin. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and fold in gently, add a little milk if very stiff. Stir in the chopped walnuts and place in twelve large cupcake or muffin cases. 
Place in the oven for 25 minutes or until a cocktail stick comes out clean. Decorate as you wish, I used vanilla butter icing (Literally, combine all the ingredients until creamy) and sprinkled with bright orange glitter, or get as spooky as you like with black icing etc. The pumpkin really does make these cakes lovely and moist, in fact if you have left over mashed butternut squash or parsnip it would be just as nice.
Ellie’s Spooky Soup
You will need: The innards of one pumpkin, (less a little bit for your cupcakes!) flesh chopped into manageable chunks.
- One onion, chopped.
- A couple of cloves of garlic, chopped.
- One chopped up chilli).
- A big pinch of dried curry leaves, or a big spoonful of curry powder.
- Approximately 750mls of vegetable stock – made from 2 Kallo Organic chicken cubes
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- A big dollop of double-cream or half-fat crème
- A splash of the oil of your choice.
Method
- Heat up your oil in a big pan and throw in the onion, garlic and chilli. Cook until it all starts to soften but not go brown.
- Chuck the pumpkin chunks in with it, add all the seasoning, and cook the lot until it’s going a bit golden and gooey (about 5 minutes).
- Pour your stock in over the top, bring to the boil, and then simmer over a low heat for maybe 20 minutes, until the pumpkin has gone really soft.
- If you have a hand blender (the kitchen gadget of champions, in my humble opinion), then whiz it up in the pan until it’s smooth; otherwise, obviously, you could stick it in a proper blender; if you are not lucky enough to own either of the above, a masher and a lumpy soup will still be tasty.
- Dollop in your creamy component of choice, and then give it another whiz and heat it again for another minute or two. Serve with some sort of bread.
Toasted Pumpkin seeds
Take your pumpkin seeds (you can use butternut squash seeds as well, which is also good made in to Ellie’s soup as a pumpkin substitue). I tablespoon of olive oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon paprika.
Pre-heat your oven to low – Gas Mark 1 120 degrees C for fan assisted, C140 not- Rinse your seeds and then pat them dry with some kitchen roll
- Place in a bowl and stir in the oil, salt and pepper and paprika
Line a baking tray with aluminium foil- Spread the seeds out on the tray and place in the oven for around 15-30 minutes until golden brown or until your hear them start to pop
These are great on the top of the soup, but also lovely hot from the oven with a glass of wine. Experiment with curry powder, worcester sauce, garlic or chilli oil.
Have a lovely Halloween!
The Bombay Boys 