Week 9, October 17, 2010: Pumpkin Spice Cake

Welcome to a momentous edition of Cake 30- Featuring some special guests.

Hi guys, like the gloves? 

I was fortunate to get to meet the incredible, amazing Miss Emers Ficus Angeline in person last week.  I've never been a baby person: they seem to eat, poop, cry and sleep.  Not a bad gig for them, but not so entertaining for those around.  I sold them a bit short.  At two weeks, she's looking around and seeing things.  She's trying to make sense of the world around her and she gets angry when you don't walk her around or talk/sing to her.  She's forming her own personality- she likes the Beatles (and may be the only person on earth who likes my brother's singing), she's a clean diaper connoisseur and quite the wiggle worm.  To agree with my brother, Em, "you are way better than legos."

Hey, you're sleeping on the job!  You're supposed to be helping Aunt Marty bake!

In addition to guest stars, I had a guest kitchen to work in- replete with convection oven, garbage disposal, easy reach everything, full pantry, sweet granite countertops and a kitchen-aid mixer.  I'm hoping my kitchen doesn't see this and get jealous.

The main part of the kitchen.

Pumpkin Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting.  Recipe from joyofbaking.com

I was set to make pumpkin cheesecake this weekend, but ran into two issues: 1, my host kitchen had no spring form pans because 2, my sister-in-law isn't a big cheesecake fan.  She does however like pumpkin desserts, and since I'm forever indebted to her for getting me off the hook for grandkids, I switched this week's cake.

Hand mixer, don't look!

 The recipe was basic: whisk dry together, mix butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla and then add buttermilk, pumpkin and dry to the wet in three additions.  The recipe called for 2 8" rounds, but we had 2 8" squares, so I made do.  The mixture smells great and looks like pumpkin pie, but looked small in the pan.

It came out looking very flat as well.  I figured it was the pans, but when I did my cakes for work and the rest of the family, the same happened.  It didn't effect the density of the cake.  It wasn't heavy.  It was moist and tasty.  For my brother, sister-in-law and her parents, I did the traditional all white flour.  I swapped half of the white for whole wheat when I did the work and family cakes and it wiped out the flavor entirely- not cool.  I had someone at work ask me if it was apple sauce cake.  I need to figure out how to modify the spices when I change out the type of flour.

Em, you're just as helpful as mommy in the kitchen-
excellent with the moral support and helping with the clean up!

The frosting was the real star of the show: maple syrup, butter, confectioner's sugar and cream cheese.  It was heaven on a spoon.  The home batches didn't mix as well (they had a few cream cheese lumps) as the first at my bro's, but it was so divine that it's probably illegal in a few states.

We had it for dessert after some of my sister-in-law's mom's excellent cooking.  It just so happened to be Miss Em's 2 week birthday, so her daddy used a birthday cake plate and her grandpa O (Cup) called to wish her a Happy Birthday.

It was a great cake, but I think that everything had the propensity to be incredible this weekend, even the multiple diaper changes at 3 am made me laugh hysterically.

Check you guys later!

Nice face, baby-love!  I miss you--keep being amazing!  Listen to your mommy's great stories and your daddy's songs y sabes que yo bailare y cantare contigo cuando nos vemos.  Te amo, amorcilla.  Besos (Kisses)!