Pages

Friday, October 5, 2012

Pumpkin Cake and Fall

It's officially fall in oh so many ways.


Today I changed out my summer and winter clothes, which means Mother Nature (if you're listening) that the temps are not allowed to go above 75F until April! Got that? It's time for hot cocoa and sweaters, not tank tops and sun dresses. They are packed up for another year gone by.


While we're on the topic of another year gone by, umm...how did it get to be the end of September??? It's practically October, which means it's practically November which means it's practically time for Thanksgiving and Christmas! Gah!!


Ok, I'm taking a step back. Never mind me and my mini-almost-holiday-time freak out.


Have you noticed that it's all of the sudden gotten really dark really really fast at night? I was leaving work at my usual time and it was dark, no the sun was not setting, no it wasn't twilight. It was dark, as in night time. I'm all for it in the mornings. It's rather fabulous to not have bright glaring sun at 7am shining in my eyes. Is there anyway we can arrange to get the sun to come up a bit later in the morning, have the temps drop, but not have it be pitch black until at least 830pm? Thanks, I would really appreciate that!

To honor fall and all it's glory I decided to make Pumpkin Caramel Cake. Actually, the truth is I was having a mini-tailgate at my home and I was told dessert was non-optional. Okkk...I got the message. Which, left me the morning of trying to come up with something that I could easily throw together, but at the same time keeping with my chili and cornbread theme. Hmm...


Then I remembered something that I had recently pinned! It was for Caramel Apple Bars, but I couldn't be bothered to peel and chop apples, so I threw them out and substituted pumpkin. I really like the texture the pumpkin gave the cake, but it wasn't exactly cake-like. It was dense and kinda almost bread pudding like or maybe a bit of a cooked pudding. Yeah, cooked pudding texture! It was really good and everyone enjoyed it, including the toddler.

Pumpkin Caramel Cake
Serves 6

1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Granulated sugar
1/2 cup Brown sugar
1 Egg
1 stick Butter, at room temperature
1 15oz can Pureed pumpkin
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking soda
1/2 tsp Baking powder
3 oz Caramel

1. Preheat oven to 350F and grease an 8x8 pan.
2. In a medium sized bowl mix the wet ingredients until thoroughly combined. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
3. In a small microwave-proof bowl heat up the caramel. Instead of using caramel you can also use 20 individually wrapped caramels and 2 tsp heavy cream. Heat the caramel up until it can easily be poured.
4. Pour half the batter into the pan. Pour half the melted caramel on top. Repeat. Pour the remaining batter on top. Top with the rest of the caramel, I swirled the top a bit. Try to keep the caramel away from the edges of the pan, it will be more likely to burn. Bake for 30 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
5. Cool slightly and top with whipped cream!


Enjoy!

No comments:

Post a Comment