Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Pumpkin Spice Cake With Honey Frosting

As I’m writing this post, finally, BabyGirl is sitting next to me on the floor looking at a cake decorating book signing, “Happy Birthday to Me.” Two things come to mind, number 1, her birthday is 6 months away, and number 2, I wonder where she heard that version?
We must talk about Pumpkin Spice Cake. I love pumpkin. I have said this before. I love Pumpkin Pie, Frost on the Pumpkin, Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake, Pumpkin Cheesecake, Pumpkin Bread, etc. Well, is there a dessert that I don’t like? Hmmm, thinking.....Wait, wait, will have to get back to you on that one.
I made this dessert for church on Sunday thinking that people would either love it or hate it. Pumpkin is just one of those ingredients, like coconut, that people have a love/hate relationship. I was correct in my thinking. Some were excited and others hated being in the same room with this harvest time treat.
I made the cake as the recipe stated, but I made one major change. The frosting. I gave the Honey Frosting a whirl. Oh, no. Terrible. The honey even separated from the rest of the frosting. People who would like it probably enjoy Clotted Cream too. Oh, my. Anyhoo, I quickly whipped up my favorite Cream Cheese Frosting recipe. Very simple. 1 stick of butter, 1 package of cream cheese, 1 lb of powered sugar, 1 tsp of vanilla. All was well. The cake itself was very dense and more bread like than cake like. Based on the recipe I thought that might be true so I did not use a mixer and simply used a whisk. I gently stirred the ingredients until incorporated making sure not to over mix. Don’t want to produce too much gluten. No, no.
Well, this has been fun. Did you enjoy recipe number 119? What a thought I just had, I wonder how many pounds of butter I have used this year? I guess I would say at least 40 and holiday baking hasn’t even started yet!


Pumpkin Spice Cake With Honey Frosting
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted, plus more for pan
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon pumpkin-pie spice (or 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3/4 teaspoon ginger, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1/8 teaspoon each allspice and cloves)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin puree
FOR THE HONEY FROSTING (or see cream cheese frosting recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 bar (8 ounces) regular (or reduced-fat) cream cheese, very soft
1/4 cup honey
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9-inch square baking pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin-pie spice. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugar, butter, and pumpkin puree until combined. Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture, and mix gently until smooth.
Turn batter into prepared pan, and smooth top. Bake until a toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake 10 minutes in pan, then turn out of pan, and cool completely, right side up, on a rack.
Make Honey Frosting: In a medium bowl, whisk butter, cream cheese, and honey until smooth.
Spread top of cooled cake with honey frosting. Cut cake into squares to serve.

No comments: