How to Make Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes

The pumpkins and squashes we have in the UK almost always end up in delicious savoury dishes, like those mentioned in my Favourite Five recipes, but in the USA and Canada they also have a tradition of using pumpkin in sweets and cakes. Famously this is in the form of pumpkin pie, which interestingly actually originates on this side of the Atlantic, with pumpkin pie recipes being found first in English cookbooks’such as Hannah Woolley’s The Gentlewoman’s Companion (1675).  Given our transatlantic cousins’ love of the sweet use of the pumpkin, I thought it was about time I embraced it too. Cupcakes are always a big hit in our family; so, with pumpkins ripened on the allotment, and children (and adults) keen on an after-school snack, I made these Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cupcakes.

You will need (makes 24)
Cakes
300g self-raising gluten-free flour
200g light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
2tsp mixed spice
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
150g sultanas
A pinch of salt
4 beaten eggs
180g unsalted butter, melted
zest 1/2 an orange
1 tbsp orange juice
300g pumpkin purée. (I roasted the pumpkin in two halves, then puréed the flesh, and used the leftover purée for soup)

Icing
100g icing sugar
1 tbsp orange juice
splash of food colouring

Heat your oven to 160°C and prepare the muffin/cupcake tin with paper cupcake wrappers. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl and add puréed pumpkin.  Beat the eggs and combine with the melted butter, orange zest and juice. Stir the dry ingredients into the dry mix, ensuring that it is thoroughly mixed.  Pour the batter into the muffin tin, leaving a little space for the mixture to rise in the oven. Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until golden and brown, place on a rack, and allow to cool. To make the icing, combine the orange juice and icing sugar to get the desired consistency, then carefully add the colouring, before mixing. Spoon the icing into a piping bag and pipe the cobweb design.