LET THEM EAT CAKE

I like to cook, especially desserts, and last week I had a fun afternoon making this cake for a special group of friends that were coming to dinner...

 It is a Pumpkin Crunch Cake.  I would strongly encourage you to look at the original recipe HERE as the chef that developed this recipe deserves all of the credit.  It is also on my "Cake" Pinterest board.

This is a 4-layer cake with a crunch layer baked onto each layer and then frosted with a wonderful cream cheese frosting.  Here is a picture of the crunch layer before frosting is added...

The crunch layer is a wonderful concoction of pecans, crushed vanilla wafers, brown sugar and butter.  The recipe makes more than enough of this layer and you might have enough left over for some delicious cupcakes too.  Here is the final cake...

And, of course, what kind of hostess would I be if I didn't offer you a slice...

The frosting recipe yields a big bowl of frosting, but I did add a generous layer of it between the cake layers.

Here's the recipe (it's a long one, but ohhhh so worth it)...

PUMPKIN CRUNCH CAKE

Crunch Topping

3 cups pecans, finely chopped

3 cups vanilla wafers (small box)

3 cups brown sugar

8 oz butter

Pumpkin Cake

1¼ cup sugar

6 oz softened butter

1 16 oz can solid pack pumpkin

2½ cups flour

½ cup Greek yogurt

1 tablespoon pure vanilla

1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice

2¼ teaspoons baking powder

¾ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon (2.5) Salt

4 large eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

24 oz cream cheese

8 oz softened butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

1 tablespoon pure vanilla

Crunch Topping Directions

• Melt butter
• In a food processor, pulse cookies to a fine crumb
• Then pulse walnuts to a fine chop
• Add brown sugar and mix well
• Add melted butter and blend together
• Divide mixture into 4 coated cake pans (One very full cup per pan) pressing into bottom and spreading it evenly into the cake pans. Reserve about 2 cups of the mixture that will be baked to use on the sides of the cake.
• Set pans aside and begin cake
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Pumpkin Cake Directions

• In a mixer beat sugar and butter for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy, scraping down the bowl frequently
• Add pumpkin and the rest of the ingredients, except the eggs. Mix just until blended.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time just until blended.
• Divide batter equally into your 4 prepared cake pans, smooth it out and make it as even as possible in the pan.
• Place remaining crunch mixture in another cake pan or pie dish and allow to bake for the same amount of time as the cakes.
• Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you use 2 racks to bake on in the oven, at the halfway mark rotate the pans.
• Allow pans to cool about 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire racks and allow to completely cool.
• Break up the extra crunch mix to very small bits to use to decorate the cake with.

• Whip the cream cheese and butter till very smooth and creamy

• Slowly add in the confectioners sugar while mixer is on low setting
• Add in vanilla and mix well. Set aside till needed.

Assembly

• After your cake is completely cooled (you can even refrigerate for a few hours) begin frosting the layers and putting the cake together.
• When you have assembled all the layers with a generous amount of frosting between them, start to spread the remaining frosting on the sides and top.
• When finished frosting, coat sides and top with the extra crunch mixture.

Chill the cake for a couple of hours before serving.  Serve small slices, as it is a rich cake.  Enjoy.

Thanks for reading even though I am posting more irregularly than ever before!  Leave a comment if you make the cake, as I'd love to hear from you.  Til next time...

Robin

The Cake's In The Oven

Yes, that is a cake with a large piece gone--just a testament to how good it is! (Or maybe how impatient I am.)

You would think with the heat of this summer, cooking, baking, and anything else that generates more heat in the house would be the last thing on my mind.  Not true.  Saturday I went to a tea room in Canton, Kansas, with a group of ladies from my church for lunch and there was NO DESSERT offered.  Crazy!  So, now,when I should be cleaning my house, I turn to baking and I am blaming the tea room in Canton for this.  Probably would have saved me a few calories if they'd just offer me a piece of chocolate cake or some cherry pie.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it for now.

So with that wonderful introduction are you still there?, I will tell you about a wonderful cake recipe that is new to me as of last night.  For those of you who have been to Ikea and had their apple cake, this is pretty close.  I consider it guilt-free even though it does have a stick of butter, Paula Deen, can you hear me? because it is loaded with apples.  I wish I could site the source of this wonderful concoction, but I haven't got a clue.  It was something I stuck in my recipe file and stumbled across while looking for something else.  Can you relate?  Please, please, tell me you can.

Loaded Apple Cake

1/2 c. butter, melted and cooled

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp. baking powder

4 large apples

2 large eggs

3/4 c. sugar

3 Tbsp. rum

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1.  Arrange oven rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Generously butter 8-inch springform pan.  Line cookie sheet with parchement paper and place prepared cake pan on cookie sheet pan.

2.  In a small blowl, stir flour and baking powder with a wire whisk. 

3.  Peel and core apples.  Cut into chunks 1- to 2-inches.

4.  In medium bowl, whisk eggs until foamy.  Add sugar and whisk 1 minute to blend.  Whisk in rum and vanilla.  Gently whisk in half of flour mixture until incorporated, then half of butter; repeat.  With rubber spatula, fold in apples until well coated.  Transfer mixture to pan and spread in even layer.

There is very little "batter" to this cake and this is what it looks like after adding the apples to the batter.  It just barely coats the apples, hence the guilt-freeness of it.

This is the cake just before putting it in the oven.

5.  Bake cake 1 hour 15 minutes or until top is golden brown and knife inserted deep in center comes out clean.

6.  Transfer cake to wire rack and let cool 5 minutes.  Run blunt knife around edge of cake and removed side of pan.  Serve warm or cooled.

Each serving contains about 300 calories, 3 grams of protein, 42 grams of carbohydrates.

Now, for a few cook's notes.  I added 3/4 teaspoon of Saigon cinammon (stronger than most cinammon I've experienced and available at Sam's) and 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg.  I do not like unspiced apple pie and thought it might be true of this dessert too.  I was right at least in my own mind.  I also had no dark rum and substituted light rum a favorite drink of choice with a coke and a lime.  I am sure you could omit the liquor and use more vanilla because vanilla has such a high alchohol content by nature, but I am not sure of the porportions.  You could Google it, if needed.  I also used salted butter, the original recipe called for unsalted and then asked you to add salt.  I always use salted butter unless the recipe has no salt at all in it.  That just how I roll with baking and will be true of most of my recipes on this blog.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do and I would love to hear comments about it.  I think you could do it with other fruits and could add raisins, nuts or different spice combos.  As always, thanks for reading.  Robin