Pumpkin Crisis

  

A couple of years ago, I had a hard time finding canned pumpkin in the grocery stores.  Unbeknownst to me, there was a pumpkin shortage that year which meant that canned pumpkin was sparse.  Apparently it was a nationwide shortage because I called my mom and asked her to buy some pumpkin for me in Ohio and she ran into the same issues.  It was a pretty sad Thanksgiving with no pumpkin pie.  From now on, when I see canned pumpkin hit the supermarket shelves in late September, I start to stock up.  I love to cook with pumpkin (obviously) and I certainly don't want to face another pumpkin crisis. 





Ben asked me to make a birthday cake for a friend of his last week so naturally, I thought of my pumpkin butterscotch cake.  I make this cake at least once every Fall.  The pumpkin makes it nice and moist and the spices really add a nice flavor.  Don't let that fact that it is a scratch cake discourage you from trying it.  It really is easy and I took some photos to help walk you through it.

Pumpkin Cake with Butterscotch Sauce
1 2/3 cup butterscotch chips               ½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 cups flour                                             1 cup pumpkin
1 ¾ cup sugar                                         ½ cup oil
1 Tablespoon baking powder               3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoon cinnamon                       1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt                                        1/3 cup evaporated milk
½ teaspoon nutmeg

Grease a bundt pan.  Microwave 1 cup chips until melted.  Cool to room temperature.  Combine dry ingredients.

 Stir together melted chips, pumpkin, oil, eggs and vanilla. 

 Stir in flour mixture.

Spoon batter into bundt pan.  Bake 4-50 minutes at 350.  Cool 30 minutes in pan and remove. 

 
For Sauce:  Heat evaporated milk until boiling.  Remove from heat.  Add 2/3 cup chips and return to heat.  Bring to a boil.

 Cool to room temperature.  Drizzle over cooled cake.

This was somewhat of an nontraditional birthday cake but it was well received.   I really like to eat this cake with my morning tea.  It is just as good as coffee cake as it is a dessert.

I also baked a batch of pumpkin cupcakes last week to send to school for FCA.   They were really good and really cute. 

Cream Filled Pumpkin Cupcakes                                 Filling
2 cups sugar                                                                      8 Tablespoons butter
3/4 cup oil                                                                         8 ounces cream cheese
1 can pumpkin                                                                   2 cups powdered sugar
4 eggs                                                                                1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon


In bowl of mixer combine sugar, pumpkin, oil and eggs. 

In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

Add dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture.  Stir until combined.  Fill muffin cups two thirds full with batter.










Bake 22 minutes at 350.

 

Let cupcakes cool on a wire rack.  (It was so tempting to eat them warm - they smelled amazing.)

I filled 24 cupcake papers and I still had some leftover batter so I decided to make some mini bundt cakes.  My family was so happy that there were samples.

Combine filling ingredients in a mixing bowl and blend until smooth.  

I used this handy dandy little tool to take the centers out of the cupcakes.  If you don't happen to have one of these corers, a paring knife works just as well.

Fill the centers of the cupcakes with cream filling and replace the core.  Top each with a whole clove. For the mini bundt cakes, I piped a dollop of cream filling in the center of each.  If you like to taste more cupcake and less frosting, these cupcakes are perfect for you.  For me, it was the perfect cake to frosting ratio.  There were not cupcakes that came home from school so I guess the kids at FCA thought they were pretty good too.

Bon Appetit!