Glut pumpkin cakes

Makes 12 Total time: 1 hour 30 minutes plus cooling

INGREDIENTS 200g butternut pumpkin, 175g soft light brown sugar, 2 large free-range eggs, sea salt, 175g plain flour, 1 heaped teaspoon baking powder, 35g walnuts, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, 90ml extra virgin olive oil. For the zingy topping: Zest of ½ a mandarin, zest of ½ a lemon, 70ml sour cream, 2 heaped tablespoons icing sugar.

METHOD Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Carefully cut the butternut pumpkin into rough chunks (there’s no need to peel it). Place the pumpkin in a food processor and whiz until finely chopped. Add the sugar and crack in the eggs. Add a tiny pinch of salt, the flour, baking powder, walnuts, cinnamon and extra virgin olive oil, then whiz again until just combined. Try not to overdo it with the mixing – you want to just combine everything and no more. Line a 12-hole cupcake tray with paper cases. Fill the paper cases three-quarters of the way up with mixture. Bake in the hot oven for 25 to 30 minutes, or until golden, risen and cooked through. Leave the cakes to cool slightly in the tray, then carefully place them onto a wire rack to cool completely. Use a microplane to finely grate the mandarin and lemon zest onto a board, then add most of it to a mixing bowl, keeping a little bit to one side. Add the sour cream to the bowl, sift in the icing sugar and mix well. Put the icing into the fridge until the cakes have cooled. Once cool, spoon the icing onto the cakes then scatter with the remaining mandarin and lemon zest, then tuck in.