Name: Hooting Halloween owls
Total time: 35 min
Yield: Makes 12
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 280g butter softened; 280g golden caster sugar; 200g self-raising flour minus 1 rounded tbsp; 1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder; 6 medium eggs; 200g butter softened; 280g icing sugar sifted; 1 tube orange ready-to-use icing; 1 small bag Maltesers; 1 tube choco M&Ms minis (use just the brown sweets) or Cadbury's mini buttons; 1 tub jelly diamonds (just the orange ones)

280g butter
softened
280g golden caster sugar
200g self-raising flour
minus 1 rounded tbsp
1 rounded tbsp cocoa powder
6 medium eggs

For icing and decoration

200g butter
softened
280g icing sugar
sifted
1 tube orange ready-to-use icing
1 small bag Maltesers
1 tube choco M&Ms
minis (use just the brown sweets) or Cadbury's mini buttons
1 tub jelly diamonds
(just the orange ones)

Method

step 1
Heat oven to 190C/fan 170C/gas 5. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with brown muffin cases. Beat the first 5 ingredients to a smooth batter and spoon between the cases, almost filling them to the top. You may have a little left over. Bake for 20-25 mins until risen and spongy. Cool on a rack.
step 2
Beat the butter and icing sugar until smooth. Slice off the very tops of the cakes and cut each piece in half. Spread a generous layer of icing over each cake.
step 3
Working on one cake at a time, squirt a pea-sized blob of orange icing onto two Maltesers and use to fix a brown M&M on each. Sit the eyes, two pieces of cake top (curved edge up) and a jelly diamond on the icing to make an owl.