Happy Halloween

With Halloween around the corner, we're having a fun day in the kitchen making these gorgeous Pumpkin Patch Cupcakes.

Ingredients (makes 22 cupcakes)
1 pumpkin (680 g)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup pecans
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
Pinch ground cloves
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 x 200 g packages almond paste
Food colour -orange, brown and green

Cream cheese frosting

Method
Preheat oven to 170 degrees Celsius.  Line two muffin tins with paper liners.  Grate pumpkin in a food processor or on the large holes of a box grater (you should have about 2 1/2 cups). Transfer to a medium bowl, add pumpkin puree and pecans.

In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  Pulse to combine.  With machine running, add oil and eggs; process until smooth, scraping sides of bowl as needed.  Add pumpkin mixture; pulse to combine.

Spoon about 1/3 cup batter into each cupcake liner.  bake until a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, about 25 minutes.  Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Make the marzipan pumpkins:  Tint two-thirds almond paste orange, adding food colour a dab at a time until desired colour is reached.  Tint a quarter of remaining paste brown and the rest green.  using a small rolling pin, roll out green almond paste about 1/8 thick; use a leaf cutter to cut out leaf shapes.  Roll brown into small ropes; cut and shape into stems.  Using the palm of your hand, shape orange paste into three-quarter-inch gloves.  Use a toothpick to poke holes in tops of pumpkins and to press creases from top to bottom.  Attach leaves and stems to tops with a bit of frosting.

Decorate cupcakes with frosting and marzipan pumpkins.