Pumpkin Cake

Tis the season for everything Pumpkin! Yay! So instead of doing the classic Pumpkin Pie, or Pumpkin bread I decided to make a Pumpkin ~~Pie~~ Cake! The same great flavors of a Pumpkin Pie but in cake form. Like we need an excuse to bake a cake, pssh.

A little tip: A slice goes great with a cup of coffee in the morning. Just don’t tell your kids that! 😉

So lets get started..

I opted to start with a butter cake recipe. But you can choose which ever cake base you would like, vanilla or a white cake would also work well.

Butter Cake Recipe

Ingredients needed:

9 cups granulated sugar
6 cups cake flour
1/4 cups salt
1/4 cups baking soda
2 3/4 cups solid shortening
4 cups butter
2 cups whole eggs
5 cups buttermilk
1/8 cup vanilla extract
8 cups egg whites
8 cups granulated sugar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 320 degrees F.

Mix together sugar, flour, salt, baking soda, shortening and butter in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on 2nd speed for 3 minutes. Then add whole eggs, buttermilk and vanilla to the mixture and beat again for 3 minutes on 2nd speed. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites and sugar into a meringue state. Then gently fold the meringue into the buttermilk mixture.

After you got your cake batter

After you got your base cake all mixed and ready to go, divide equally between 3 bowls.

-First bowl add 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
-Second bowl add 1/2 tsp each of cinnamon and nutmeg
-Third bowl leave plain

Pour each bowl into separate parchment lined sheet pans or round cake pans. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the cake. About 20-25 minutes depending on size and color of pan.

Let cool on rack and then slice off the top of each to make an even layer.

After completely cool, Frost each layer as you go .. Then completely around the sides and the top for an even coating of icing. You can get fancy with it if you like, but I kinda like the imperfect rustic white base.

Here is the Butter Cream Icing recipe:

Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 to 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

In medium bowl, mix powdered sugar and butter with spoon or electric mixer on low speed. Stir in vanilla and 1 tablespoon of the milk.

Gradually beat in just enough remaining milk to make frosting smooth and spreadable. If frosting is too thick, beat in more milk, a few drops at a time. If frosting becomes too thin, beat in a small amount of powdered sugar.