Pumpkin Halloween Vanilla Cake Pops

Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan, gas mark 4). Grease and line an 8” cake tin.

Mix together all of the sponge ingredients until smooth.

Pour into the tin and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden brown and cooked throughout.

Leave to cool on a wire rack. This sponge can be made days in advance as stale crumbs work well for cake pops.

To make the buttercream, beat together the icing sugar, butter, milk and vanilla extract until smooth.

When the cake has fully cooled, crumble it up in a large mixing bowl and then mix together with the buttercream until it combines into a stiff mixture.

Using a teaspoon scoop out the mixture and roll into walnut sized balls. Place on a baking sheet.

Once all of the mixture has been rolled, pop in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.

Insert the cake pop sticks into each of the balls.

Melt the orange candy melts in a heatproof bowl over simmering water or in short bursts in the microwave.

Dip each of the cake pops in the coloured chocolate so that they are fully coated.

Allow the cake pops to drip dry, twirling the pops once dipped to avoid the chocolate running.

Once the cake pops are fully dried decorate the facial feature and pumpkin stalks with writing icing.