SHF - Pumpkin Cake

For the first time this ever, I roasted pumpkins. It was a fun process to break the pumpkin open and scrape out the seeds with plans to roast them. I found the pulp to be rather dry, not overly “wet” as my friends had told me they would be. I roasted them open side up and added no oil, butter, spray or water. Just pumpkins in a hot oven.

The pulp came out nicely, but being that it was dry I had to add a bit of water in order to puree them. I was worried about making soup for about 20 people and roasted 5 pumpkins that night. In the end, I wound up with about 6 liters of pumpkin puree! So now I am working through some pumpkin recipes that I have collected.

When I saw that the theme for Sugar High Friday, hosted by Definitely Not Martha, was Beta Carotene Harvest, I was overjoyed to have yet another excuse to use the pumpkin puree! Although I could choose the easy route and make a plain pumpkin pie, I chose something I am more comfortable with – Bundt cake. I can manage to get many a fruit and vegetable into a Bundt, and pumpkin is no exception!

Over the weekend, I made a couple loaves of quickbread with pumpkin puree, semola and chocolate chips. I *loved* the texture but the chips sank too quickly, stuck to the bottom and the two loaves lost their bottoms. I also created a marbled pumpkin cake based on a banana Bundt I make rather often. It was tasty, but did not strike me as I had hoped. The chocolate portion was very chocolaty and I added the pumpkin spices to the pumpkin portion.

I found another recipe that I wanted to try as well. I know you are wondering, what does a single girl do with so many cakes? Luckily, I have friends to share with and visitors that drop by. Of course, this recipe is the one I still have at my house. I really like the combination of pumpkin spice and chocolate icing. Since it is still November, you too can enjoy the Beta Carotene Harvest with a delicious Pumpkin Cake.

Pumpkin Cake with Chocolate Icing

1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup of finely chopped toasted pecans
1 1/2 teaspoons of Autumn Spice Mixture
4 large eggs
2 cups of pumpkin puree
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup of plain yogurt
1 cup of wheat bran cereal
1 cup of Chocolate Icing

Preheat oven to 350F. Combine sugar, flour, baking powder, salt, pecans, and spice mixture in a medium bowl. In another bowl, beat eggs at medium speed with an electric mixture until foamy. Add pumpkin, vegetable oil, yogurt and wheat bran cereal, beating until combined. Add dry ingredients, beating just until moistened. Pour batter into a greased and floured 10-inch Bundt pan. Bake at 350F for 1 hour or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Remove cake from pan to a serving platter, and let cool 30 more minutes. Drizzle Chocolate Icing over top of cake, allowing it to run down sides. 8 to 10 servings. Adapted from Southern Living, September 2005.