Cakes

Pumpkin Spice Cake

I wasn’t planning on making a blog post about this cake, just maybe some pictures for Instagram, and call it good. Nope, it deserves a post, even if it is a short one. One of my favorite cake sites, Sugar Geek Show, posted a recipe for pumpkin spice cake, and since I love all things pumpkin, and it is definitely feeling fall-like here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, I decided to give it a whirl.

Look at all that pumpkin and spicy yumminess topped with silky, fluffy cream cheese frosting

The ingredient list was filled with the expected: pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, most everything you’d expect from a pumpkin spice anything. What surprised me was the wet ingredient list: 8 (!!) eggs, 8 oz oil, 4 oz buttermilk, and 12 oz of MELTED butter! That is a lot of wet to go into a regular-sized cake.

All the pretty spices in a row

That is a lot of wet ingredients, but so worth it!!

The recipe is designed to make two 8 inch round layers, but as you can see from my photos I sort of got 3 layers. In reality, when I leveled the two cakes, one was much taller (I blame the different height pans I used…it’s what I had!), and when I leveled it at the same height as the shorter cake, I ended up with a top part that was almost big enough to make a full third layer, so I decided waste not, want not, and threw it into the middle of the cake. That’s why the frosting layer in the middle looks really wonky.

…this piece may have ended up eaten shortly after having its picture taken…

I did not use the frosting included in the recipe, but made my own (and “fan favorite”) cream cheese frosting. Since I wasn’t trying to make this for any occasion and really just wanted to try a new recipe, the frosting is definitely looking pretty rustic. I kinda like it though for this, it looks and feels homey.

Fast and “sloppy” frosting can be pretty too

I am here to tell you, this cake is freaking amazing! It is moist, pumpkin-y, filled with warm spices, not too sweet, and the sharp and sweet tang of the cream cheese frosting compliments this fall-season-in-a-cake perfectly. Everyone who tried it, loved it. My favorite reaction was a friend’s mother’s: “Damn it, Kate!” I take that as quite the compliment. I was thinking about letting someone take it in to work, but decided that it would be unfair to deprive myself of a second (and maybe a third) slice. Maybe the next time I make this, office folks can have some too. Maybe not. We’ll see.