These freaky fingers are a great way to get good value from a pumpkin. You’ll still have the thick skin left afterwards to carve for a decoration. This is a fun meal to cook and a good way to get something warm into the children before they head off trick or treating. The sweet potatoes give it a nice colour and texture and you can use any sausages you have handy. Make the mash in advance so you just have to reheat it in the oven or the microwave when you need it.

This spiced toffee apple cake recipe is a great one to use to get children interested in baking. You might try it over the midterm break. If you get some small cases you can use the mixture to make muffins and they are sure to enjoy that. Instead of apples, you could use plums or blackberries, but I do like it best with apples. This cake is sugared, spiced and very very nice. Have a great weekend.

Happy cooking.

Neven Maguire’s Complete Family Cookbook with 300 life-saving recipes for super busy parents is out now, published by Gill Books.

Freaky fingers with creepy mash

Serves four

350g (12oz) potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

350g (12oz) sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

225g (8oz) pumpkin flesh, cut into small pieces (or just scooped out with a spoon)

20 cocktail or chipolata sausages

6 tbsp milk

Knob of butter

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Tomato ketchup or mild dijon mustard, to serve

1 Place the potatoes into a large steamer set over a pan and tip the sweet potatoes on top. Add a pinch of salt and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and tip in the pumpkin flesh and continue to cook for another five minutes or until all of the vegetables are completely tender when pierced with a knife.

2 Meanwhile, preheat the grill to medium. Arrange the sausages on the grill rack and cook for three to four minutes on each side until cooked through and golden brown.

3 Heat the milk and butter in a small pan or in the microwave. Remove the cooked vegetables from the steamer and tip away any remaining water, then put the vegetables back into the pan and return to the heat for a minute or two to dry out any excess moisture. Mash until smooth and then beat in the milk and butter mixture until you have a nice creamy mash. Season to taste.

4 Divide the creepy mash among warmed plates and make a witch’s hand by sticking the sausages into the mash to look like fingers, placing a dab of tomato ketchup or mustard on the end of each sausage to look like fingernails. Serve at once.

Spiced toffee apple cake

Makes 15 squares

200g (7oz) pitted dates, roughly chopped

200ml (7fl oz) milk, plus an extra splash

250g (9oz) butter, softened, plus extra for greasing

275g (10oz) self-raising flour

200g (7oz) light brown sugar

½ tsp baking powder

4 large eggs

1 tbsp mixed spice

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 small red apples

Squeeze of lemon juice

Handful of toffees

Icing sugar, to dust

1 Put the dates and milk in a small pan and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and set aside for 15 minutes to cool.

2 Preheat the oven to 180oC (350oF/ gas mark four). Line a 20cm (8in) square loose-bottomed cake tin with parchment.

3 Put the date mixture into a food processor and blend to a puree. Using a plastic spatula, transfer to a large bowl and add the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, spice and vanilla. Using a wooden spoon (or an electric mixer is much easier), beat until it’s smooth.

3 Transfer the cake batter to the prepared tin and smooth down the top. Cut the apples into slices, discarding the core and toss in the lemon juice to prevent any discolouration. Arrange in three neat rows lengthways and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until a skewer put into the centre of the cake comes out clean.

4 While the cake is cooking, put the toffees into a small pan with a good splash of milk and gently melt, stirring until runny. To finish, dust the cake with a little icing sugar and drizzle over the sauce. Cut into 15 even-sized slices and arrange on plates to serve.