Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Thanksgiving Dessert: Pumpkin Cake

This year we are driving about an hour south to my cousin's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It will be the largest Thanksgiving celebration that I've attended in years - the good old extended family dinner with aunts, uncles and grandparents!

I don't have a token "dish" that I bring to people's houses for dinner; I'm more of a baker than a cook. I think I'll bring a pumpkin cake, and if I get ambitious, decorate it like this pumpkin shaped one I made last month.



I got the recipe from CDKitchen.com and since it you make it in a bundt pan, it isn't too hard to convert into a pumpkin shape.

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup pumpkin puree, fresh or canned (I used canned)
1/2 cup applesauce (all I had was pomegranate applesauce and the cake tasted fine)
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup margarine, softened
3 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
cooking spray
3 tablespoons dark or light brown sugar
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 teaspoon skim milk
3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine first 6 ingredients; set flour mixture aside. Combine pumpkin and applesauce; set aside. Beat granulated sugar and margarine in a large bowl at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended (about 5 minutes). Add egg whites and vanilla, beating well.

Add flour mixture to sugar mixture alternately with pumpkin mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Pour batter into a 12-cup Bundt pan coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan 10 minutes; remove from pan.

Icing Directions:
Combine brown sugar, rum, and milk in a small saucepan, and cook over low heat until brown sugar dissolves. Remove sugar mixture from heat, and add powdered sugar, stirring with a whisk. Spoon glaze over warm cake.

Instead of using their icing directions, I used store-bought cream cheese frosting and dyed it orange. The pumpkin stem was made with green Twizzlers. They actually packages of multicolored Twizzlers (I got mine at Walmart). I added some vines with green piping gel.

2 comments:

Nancy McCarroll said...

That cake looks yummy! good job!

knittingdragonflies said...

Oh my gosh, thanks for the recipe. This looks fab! Wow! I think I gained a pound just looking at it.
yum
Vicki