Last year I needed a good (and of course, easy) Thanksgiving dessert to take to the church carry-in. My friend Judy gave me this recipe. I was a little scared at first because anything that involves LAYERS of cake intimidates me a bit. But I promise it is easy to make! I whipped one up last year and only brought home crumbs. :( This year I made it again and managed to bring a few pieces home, so I've been happily enjoying it for the past couple of days!
If you're looking for a good Thanksgiving/pumpkin dessert that offers an alternative to the standard pie route...allow me to suggest this one. Happy Thanksgiving, and happy cooking!
The Recipe
1 yellow cake mix
1 15-ounce can pumpkin, divided
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup oil
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice, divided
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 8-ounce tub whipped topping
1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping
1/4 cup chopped pecans
Spray 2 9-inch round baking pans with non-stick spray and flour them. In a large bowl, beat together the cake mix, 1 cup of the pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs, and 1 teaspoon of the pumpkin pie spice. When well blended, pour into pans. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Cool in pans for 10 minutes, then remove to wire racks until completely cool. Meanwhile, beat cream cheese until creamy. Add powdered sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice. Gently stir in whipped topping. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half. Place frosting between layers and on top. Just before serving, drizzle with caramel topping and sprinkle with nuts. Refrigerate when not serving.
I did use low fat milk, cream cheese, and whipped topping, and everything tasted okay.
I'm not really an expert at flouring pans, but I just sprinkled some in there and shook it around until it looked semi-evenly floured.
The cake mix, pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs, and spice - awaiting its stirring.
And here it is once it's all combined. I did actually use the beaters - just didn't think to take a picture of it at that time.
I tried to get the batter to spread evenly in the pan so I wouldn't have rounded cakes, but my efforts were in vain.
When the cakes came out of the oven, I ran a knife around the edge right away to loosen them a bit, hoping they wouldn't crack or crumble when I tried to transfer them to the wire racks.
...and it was successful! I had to kind of beat on the bottom of the pans to get them out, but they came out all in one piece. WHEW. This isn't a cake that allows you to cover up those sorts of mistakes very easily.
While the cake was cooling, I worked on the frosting. I'd had the cream cheese out softening for a while and ran the beaters through it for just a few seconds.
I quit when it looked about like this.
Then I stirred in the pumpkin, spice, and powdered sugar. I kept using the beaters - but I had to be careful not to blow the powdered sugar all over my kitchen!!
I stirred in the whipped topping with a spatula - and the frosting became very light - but pretty with the pumpkin in there.
Cutting the cake...very tricky. I noticed there seemed to be a line about halfway down the cake, so I used that as my guide...
And it cut pretty evenly! I'm sure my Home Ec teacher would have something to say about the holes in there, but whatever. All tastes the same!
I wasn't very good with fractions, so I had to do my best guessing frost between the layers.
The original recipe said not to frost the top layer but that made no sense to me, so I frosted it anyway. Sorry the nuts aren't on here...we added those at the last minute at church and I didn't take a picture.
Very, very yummy!!!!
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