Preheat the oven to 180°C and grease and line a 20cm round cake tin.

Whisk the eggs until foamy, then mix in the oil, milk and pumpkin puree until combined. Add the cake mix and whisk to form a smooth batter.

Transfer the batter to the prepared tin and bake for 25-30 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer. Set aside to cool completely before icing.

To prepare the maple cream cheese icing, cream the butter with an electric hand mixer until soft, silky and paler in colour, about 3 minutes. Add the cream cheese and mix well until smooth and combined. Add the icing sugar, cinnamon and maple syrup and mix to form a thick, glossy icing – do not overmix otherwise your icing may become very soft.

If you want to decorate your cake with a pumpkin design, scoop a small amount of the icing into two ramekins and colour them orange and green (we used about 1/3 cup icing for orange and 3 tbsp for green). Place into piping bags fitted with round tips – a larger ~1cm one for the orange and a small 2mm tip for the green.

Dollop the remaining maple cream cheese icing on the cake and swirl over the surface using the back of a spoon. Pipe small pumpkin bodies using the orange icing and decorate with green tendrils. Finish with chocolate vermicelli sprinkles for stalks.

Keep the cake in the fridge until ready to serve.

Tip: Learn how to make your pumpkin puree from scratch in our Top Tips post here.

While the piped pumpkin design is optional, it’s a super cute added touch if you have the time.