Around Halloween it’s inevitable that I end up with a fair amount of leftover pumpkin, and rather than create a soup or a Pumpkin Pie, I decided this year to branch out and create some different recipes.
I’ve already posted my Sausage and Pumpkin Traybake, so here’s a little sweet treat based on that delicious orange vegetable.
I wanted to try something a little different to the traditional pumpkin spice flavours so I decided for a pairing of ginger and pumpkin as they go so well together and I added the walnuts for a little crunch, which I suppose is a bit like a twist on a carrot cake recipe.
This one took a little perfecting as pumpkin is quite moist but the result is a deliciously moist muffin.
Full fat soft cheese should be used for the icing as it contains less water than its low fat counterparts, otherwise you could end up with a very runny icing.
- 2 large eggs
- 250g pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp ginger
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- 100g caster sugar
- 100g soft dark brown sugar
- 100ml vegetable oil
- 225g self raising flour
- 50g walnut pieces
- 100g full fat soft cheese
- 100g icing sugar
- 40g softened butter
- Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 5/190C. Line a 12-hole muffin tin with paper cases.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together until smooth, then add the oil and pumpkin puree.
- In another bowl add the flour, baking powder and spices.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and combine.
- Add the walnut pieces and stir well.
- Spoon into the cases and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
- Leave the muffins to cool on a wire tray.
- Meanwhile beat the softened butter and icing sugar until smooth then add in the soft cheese and mix well.
- Once the muffins are cool spread the icing over the tops of the muffins.
