For every festival day there is usually a tasty and attractive dish which is traditionally eaten on it, ideal for helping the celebrations go off with a bang. Iin the case of Halloween, where there is a particular need to involve children with games and surprises, we can allow ourselves to be inspired in a culinary sense by elements of the festival itself. So, searching amongst the recipes that are part of traditional Italian cuisine, we find that in Emilia Romagna it is customary to make a cake that, with its taste and its characteristics, could easily have been invented for Halloween. It’s a pumpkin cake made with almonds and amaretti, and could be a wonderful addition to your Halloween feast, winning over even the most reluctant children who don’t usually eat vegetables if they are too obvious on their plates, thanks to the fact that it looks more like a dessert and is in keeping with the spirit of the festival?

Prepare the pumpkin by peeling and cutting it into segments, then put it in the oven at 180°C for about 20 minutes with some water in its oven dish. While the pumpkin is in the oven, prepare the other ingredients: take the amaretti biscuits and crush them thoroughly with a mortar and pestle until they are fine crumbs; again in a mortar coarsely crush the almonds. When the pumpkin is ready, cut it into cubes and again crush in the mortar. Then combine it with the softened butter, egg yolks, potato starch dissolved in milk, the amaretti, sugar, almonds and honey. Now slowly add the flour and baking powder. Whip the egg whites until stiff and add to the mixture a tablespoon at a time, stirring clockwise and ‘breaking the dough in half’ with your spoon in a ‘cutting’ style. Grease a small springform baking tin and pour in the mixture, which should still be rather liquid. Bake at 200°C for 40 minutes.