Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake

While I already have my own pumpkin spice cake recipe, I was at a Warm Up to Thanksgiving dinner last night (wherein we begin stretching out our bellies in preparation for the real deal on Thursday) and there was a very tasty pumpkin spice cake that one girl made from a recipe she found on Epicurious.  Her frosting hadn't worked out, but the cake was divine on its own, and well, with a little dollop of vanilla whipped cream that was probably made to go with the chocolate bundt cake, but that's neither here nor there.  Epicurious has plenty of yummy looking pumpkin spice cakes btw.

For cake 

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for greasing bundt pan

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15-ounce can; not pie filling)

3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs
For icing 

2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar 

Special equipment: a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan (3 quart)

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.

Whisk together flour (2 1/4 cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly.

Of course, my new focus now is a gorgeous bundt cake - I have always lusted over those fancy ones, and seeing this gorgeous cake only reinforced my desire.
You can find some good ones at Amazon.com.

Money Saving Thanksgiving - oh the SHAME

As horrifying as this is, Sandra Lee made a simple, affordable Thanksgiving dinner that actually looked quite yummy.  Trust me, I can hardly even choke out the words.  And yet, I'm still going to post here because hey - foods is foods and these recipes look easy.
I admit; this is the recipe that won me over - cream cheese?  IN the mashed potatoes?!  Madness.

Baked Mashed Potatoes
You basically just make your standard mashers (with salt, butter, milk, salt and pepper; whatever you use) and then add the fun.  Throw in a hefty handful of shredded cheddar cheese, a half a block of cream cheese and smoosh it in to incorporate.
Scrape it into a baking dish coated in nonstick cooking spray, then cover in crumbled cooked bacon and breadcrumbs and bake for 30 minutes or so at 350.  You can serve with chives or green onions.  Nom!

Cider gravy sounds pretty tasty too.  Again, get ready to make your standard gravy, but combine 1 cup of cider with 1 cup of chicken broth and slowly mix that into a roux (butter & flour; 3 tbsp of each).  You can add pan drippings if you want, or skip them.  Her recipe calls for 1 tbsp of brown mustard, but ew and I'm thinking honey mustard might be great.  A teaspoon of fresh thyme to finish, and ta da!

For her Roasted Turkey Breast with Spicy Herb Oil, she did a yummy spice rub.  I typically jam a bunch of pats of butter, cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary under my turkey skin, but her version sounds good too.  She just takes canola oil with chopped rosemary, chopped sage, chopped thyme, garlic powder, chile powder, crushed red pepper flakes and salt and pepper and rubs the mixture under the skin and on top before baking.

The final recipe that caught my eye was one of her round two recipes for Fried Potato Cakes.  My Irish boyfriend loves him some potato cakes, and since these ones have bacon, cheese, and green onions if you're using the leftovers from the above recipe, they sound divine!  You just take some of your leftover mashers, stir in some more cheese, and  dredge in bread crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper and cayenne and fry til the outside is crispy.  Easy peasy.  Drain them on paper towels to get rid of some of the excess oil.

And it just wouldn't be a Sandra Lee recipe post without cocktail time. . . how about Pumpkin Pie Martinis and Holiday Party Punch?
The martini is a bit labor intensive, requiring you to make a pumpkin pie spice simple syrup with brown sugar; 1/2 cup of each with 1 tsp of spice (hmmm, how else can I use that I wonder?), and then one of those awful sugar rims using regular sugar and more pumpkin pie spice - which I'll skip thanks.  They always either slide down the glass making it all sticky, or they dry onto the edge of the glass requiring you to nibble it off.
Then you whisk together 2 cups of half and half (Trader Joe's fat free!), 2 tbsp pumpkin puree, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and half of the simple syrup.  Combine with 4 ounces of vanilla vodka and shake or stir well with ice.  Pour into glasses and top with a little bit of sparkling water if desired.

The punch is a bottle of cranberry juice, a bottle of sparkling cider, half of a 2 liter bottle of gingerale, the juice of 2 lemons, and 12 ounces of vodka mixed together in a punch bowl.  Garnish with a sliced orange and frozen cranberries to act as ice for, oh, 2 minutes or so.  In fact, I'd probably freeze a bit of extra juice to use as the ice cubes to keep things cool.

Pumpkin Parmesan Popovers

I had some leftover canned pumpkin the other day (after making my pumpkin spice cake with cinnamon cream cheese frosting) and I didn't want to waste it.  I somehow knew that I must be able to make a popover or something with the pumpkin - even though I have never made a popover in my life, and may have only ever eaten one.  I checked out a few different recipes, and eventually came up with one that I thought might work.  For a dinner party.  Yes - I am one of those people who makes things they have never made before for guests and prays that they turn out.  Yes - I am a mediocre baker who probably shouldn't risk baked goods given the number of flops I have brought to family dinners.  None of these facts are enough to deter me, so off I went, and you know what?  Even though I forgot about them for a minute and let them get just a * little * bit too brown, they were damn near perfect - just a bit crisp and browned on the outside, but soft and a bit wet in the middle.   They were delicious and four of us polished off 12 of them.  Win!

Pumpkin Parmesan Popovers
4 eggs
1 c milk (I used fat free)
1/2 c pumpkin (canned is fine)
3 tbsp butter - melted
1 c flour
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp chili powder or cayenne pepper
Parmesan cheese (oh go on - you know how much you like; just keep in mind that the Parm keeps the popovers from, well, popping over, so you might want to go easy on it.  I probably used a pinch per popover.)

Preheat your oven to 375 and spray a muffin tin with cooking spray (I used butter flavored).  Whisk together the wets: eggs, milk, butter and pumpkin.  Combine the drys (flour, salt, chili powder) and whisk those into the wets.
Pour into the muffin tin; filling each no more than 2/3 full - this was just enough batter for 12 popovers for me.
Sprinkle a pinch of Parmesan on top of each.
Bake for 30 minutes or so; slit tops to allow steam to escape and bake 10 minutes more.

And yes, you can do these in advance and reheat them - I'd say a 300 degree oven for 10 minutes or so should do it!

Speaking of Halloween and pudding. . . .

How cute are THESE?!  Eee!



1 package gelatin
2 cups whole milk
1 cup sugar
6 large egg yolks (reserve 2 whites for topping)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon fine salt
1 (15-ounce) can pure pumpkin puree

2 large egg whites
1/3 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 pinch fine salt
Small candy, for eyes

PUDDING:
Put 1 tablespoon of cold water in a large bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over the surface, do not stir, and set aside until gelatin softens and bloom.
Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a stand mixer's bowl above the water. Whisk milk, sugar, yolks, cinnamon and salt in a heat-proof bowl. Set the bowl above the boiling water and cook, stirring constantly with a heat-proof spatula, until mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon and almost boils, 10 to 12 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and pour over the gelatin, whisking constantly until gelatin is completely dissolved and evenly distributed. Whisk in pumpkin until combined and completely smooth.
Evenly divide mixture into 12 small 3-ounce cups (paper works fine) and refrigerate until set, about 4 to 8 hours.
TOPPING:

Bring a few inches of water to a boil in a saucepan that can hold a stand mixer's bowl above the water. Whisk the 2 egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl by hand. Set the bowl above the boiling water and continue whisking until the mixture is hot to the touch and the sugar dissolves, about 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer bowl to mixer and beat with the whisk attachment at medium-high speed until eggs hold a stiff peak, about 5 minutes.
Spoon topping onto puddings in the shape of a ghost. Decorate with candy eyes and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Some people like cheesecake.  Sometimes I think it's pretty good, but I'm never like, "OOOOOOOHHHHH - CHEESECAKE."
I did have a pumpkin cheesecake once that was to die for, which then led my wonderful mother to believe that I would like ALL pumpkin cheesecake and that's what she got for my birthday, only for us to realize that what I really want on my birthday is yellow cake with chocolate frosting, made with a boxed mix and using a can of frosting.  Seriously.
However, pumpkin cheesecake is a delight, and these little bites look just fab.  This is my first ever Seejeneat Special Request Recipe - so Quinn, when they're done I will certainly be delivering.
And can we giggle for a second that in the address it says "whop cream?"  Okay, thanks. 

 Spiced Pumpkin Cheesecake with Bourbon Whipped Cream

Yields 12 2×3 mini cheesecakes

Crust
1-1/4  cups  ginger snaps
1/4  cup  sugar
1/3  cup  butter, melted
Cheesecake
1  8-ounce package  cream cheese, softened
1  cups  sugar
2   eggs
3/4 cup  canned pumpkin
1/2  teaspoon  pumpkin pie spice
1/4  nutmeg
1/2   teaspoon of candied ginger
1  teaspoon  vanilla
1/4  teaspoon  salt
4 ounces  semisweet chocolate, cut up,
1  tablespoons  butter
Bourbon Whip Cream
3/4  cup whipping cream
2 tablespoon of bourbon 

1/4    cup caramel sauce
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease pan. Combine In a, combine ginger snap crumbs and 1/4 cup sugar in a bowl. Stir in the 1/3 cup melted butter. Press mixture evenly into bottom of the prepared baking pan; set aside.

Add cream cheese and sugar into a bowl and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined. Add pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, nutmeg, candied ginger, vanilla, and salt to the bowl and beat until combined. Remove 1 cup of the mixture.

In a heat proof bowl combine the 6 ounces chocolate and the 1 tablespoons butter and place in an inch of simmering water. Cook and stir over low heat until melted. Whisk chocolate mixture into the 1 cup pumpkin mixture. Pour over crust, spreading evenly. Bake for 15 minutes.

Gently pour remaining pumpkin mixture over baked chocolate layer, spreading evenly. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes more or until filling is puffed. Cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes before releasing.

Whip cream until medium peaks form. Fold in bourbon and finish by drizzling caramel sauce on top and sprinkle with nutmeg seasoning.

A few notes: 

• If you decide not to make mini cheesecakes, use an 8inch springform pan and increase the bake time by 15-20 minutes. Start checking for doneness at 12-15 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the center of the cake gives a slight jiggle when the pan is tapped.
• You can skip the chocolate layer if you wish.
•  This pumpkin cheesecake can be made three days in advance and kept covered in the refrigerator

Another couple of recipes for the big bean book of desserts

Will I never learn?
Beans do not make good pastries. . . . or DO they?!

Pumpkin Spice Walnut White Bean Muffins

15.5 oz can of white beans, drained and rinsed

White Beans

Chick Peas

2 eggs

1 cup Splenda

Splenda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2/3 cup fat free dry milk

Fat Free

Dry Milk

1 Tbs vanilla

3 Tbs light margarine
1/4 cup fat free ricotta

Ricotta

1/2 cup walnuts

Preheat oven too 350.
In a blender, blend the beans and eggs.
Combine with all the other ingredients in a mixing bowl, don't over mix though.
Pour in to muffin tins (I use large muffin tins, and this recipe made 5 muffins).
Bake for 40 minutes at 35.

And if that sucks, I can always go with some other pumpkiny treat to apologize to my tastebuds for the assault (just like I had to after the black bean brownie debacle). At least they're white bean OPTIONAL.

Harvest Pumpkin Brownies
1 (16 oz.) can pumpkin
4 eggs (1/4 C. dry egg powder + 1/2 C. water)
3/4 C. vegetable oil (or 3/4 C. white bean puree)
2 t. vanilla
2 C. whole wheat flour
2 C. sugar
1 T. pumpkin pie spice
2 t. ground cinnamon
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt

Mix wet ingredients (including the water needed for your powdered eggs but not the dry egg powder…remember you DON’T need to mix these before adding to your recipes) Mix dry ingredients with wet ingredients. Pour into 9×13 pan and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Allow to cool and frost with cream cheese frosting or dollop cinnamon whipped topping.

Pumpkin Spice cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting

Okay, I'm only feeling confident to post this because I know no one reads this blog so there will be no mass stealing of secrets. The adoration of my cupcake fans is very important to me, so I want to be sure to hog all accolades for these delicious treats.
Who knows if I ever make them the same way twice, since I've only made them twice, but they've been tasty both times. I see someone else had the same idea, and given the struggle I had finding a box of spice cake mix this time around, I may have to pilfer this recipe in its entirety in the future.
I however, Sandra Lee'd the hell out of this so my version requires even less work. I was raised baking things out of boxes, so it's really the only way I know how, and the only stuff I really appreciate. Sad, right? NO, delicious.
1 box spice cake mix
1 15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1/4 c veg oil
1 can of cream cheese frosting
ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 and prep whichever pan you're using.
Dump the cake mix into a bowl, and mix in the eggs and oil, then add the can of pumpkin until mixed through.
Pour into the greased (or papered) vehicle of your choosing and pop in the oven. For cupcakes, I typically put them in for 8 minutes, and then start peeking and poking at them every few minutes after that until they're done. I wish I could tell you cooking times for other sizes, but it would only be a guess, so you're sort of on your own.
Let them cool in the pan for a bit, then put on a rack and let sit til completely cool.
In the meantime, put the frosting in a bowl and add cinnamon to taste. I must use at least 2 tbsp, tasting along the way until it's delectable.
Frost the cupcakes, then dust with a little more cinnamon. Bask in your accolades momentarily and then be sure to give me all the credit.