Halloween Pumpkin Cake – Brains 🧠🔪💀

For the sponge

• 335 g flour
• 15 g instant coffee
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• pinch salt
• 335 g pumpkin purée*
• 300 g brown sugar
• 165 g flavourless oil
• 3 large eggs
• strong coffee for soaking

For the decoration

• 100 g butter (at room temperature)
• 100 g condensed milk (at room temperature)
• ~500 g fondant
• red food colouring
• preserve/jam (red)

For the sponge

1. *for the pumpkin purée, cut the pumpkin into cubes (skin removed), spread them on a tray lined with baking paper and roast in an oven preheated to 180°C until soft (about 20-40 minutes, depending on the size of the cubes). Blitz the roasted pumpkin in a food processor or blender.
2. Sift the flour with the instant coffee, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
3. In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin purée, sugar and oil together well. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each. Stirring constantly, slowly pour in the flour mixture and mix well - it is important not to overmix.
4. Bake in a buttered hemispherical dish (I used a 23cm tempered glass bowl) in an oven preheated to 160-170°C for about 1-1.5 hours, depending on the diameter and shape of the dish (mine took about 1 hour 20 minutes). Before you start, I recommend putting a tray of water on the bottom shelf - that way the sponge doesn't dry out as it bakes and the crust isn't as hard. And since the baking time is fairly long, I would advise covering the top with foil so it doesn't scorch.
5. Once the sponge has cooled completely, remove the crust and even out its surface (see the photo); a spoon or a fork works well for this. Turn the sponge out of the dish onto a surface where you can shape it with a knife.

Assembly

1. Beat the room-temperature butter with the condensed milk (about 5 minutes).
2. Using a knife, carve the dome-shaped sponge into something as close to a brain as you can (I recommend finding a picture of a brain online and cutting to that - it is the easiest way).
3. Once you are happy with the shape, soak it with strong coffee and coat it with a thin layer of buttercream. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes, then apply a thicker second coat and chill again until it sets.
4. Colour the fondant with red food colouring so it turns a soft pink. Roll the fondant into "sausages" of varying lengths and weave them across the whole sponge to form the folds of the brain.
5. Push the jam or preserve through a sieve so no seeds remain. You can add red food colouring for a deeper colour. Brush the jam over the fondant brain folds.
6. Have a gruesome and cheerful holiday!