These little cakes are mildly sweet, flavoured with plenty of cinnamon and other warming spices, and made incredibly soft and fluffy by the addition of pureed pumpkin. I’m using our homegrown kuri (or hokkaido) squash for this, which is dense and starchy and not very sweet, but you can use any kind you can find.

Ingredients for about 15 little cakes (standard size ø 7 cm)

275 g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 large tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1/2 tsp ground ginger

a pinch of ground allspice

a pinch of ground coriander

a pinch of salt

300g pumpkin puree (pumpkin/squash, steamed and mashed)

scant 90 ml thin yoghurt

175g softened butter

200 g sugar

3 eggs (medium-large)

• Heat the oven to 160 degrees Celsius (fan)
• Mix the pumpkin puree with the yoghurt and set aside
• Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt in another bowl and also set aside.
• Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy
• One by one, whisk in the eggs.
• Now add a bit of the pumpkin mixture, followed by some of the flour mixture (sieved) and fold through with a spatula. Repeat until everything is incorporated and the batter is smooth.
• Spoon the cake batter into your paper or silicone cupcake cups and bake for 20 minutes (or when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean).