Recipe Fridays: Pumpkin Cake

Pumpkin Birthday Cake

First of all, it's hard to find a really good, not-too-dry cake recipe. We haven't had many winning recipes over the past 16 years of gluten-free birthdays. My favorite kind of cake and cupcakes has always, always, always been vanilla with chocolate frosting. We still haven't found a magic recipe for this. So, this year, Mom tried something completely different and exceptionally yummy--even according to our non-gluten-free friends and family. Every year since I've been gluten-free the options for truly good tasting food get better and better and better.

Second of all, since this last October felt like the best birthday I've ever had, I figured I'd post a recipe of the cake that helped make it all so special.

Third of all, it is the season of everything pumpkin. Like over the top everything pumpkin. This recipe's worth it though.

Instead of making a two-layer cake, Mom made two single-layer cakes and iced them so that we could take one out to dinner on Friday night with Jeannine and one to brunch with Dad, Abbie and Jeannine on Sunday. 

Mom also substituted a classic buttercream frosting with added cinnamon in place of the cream cheese frosting. She put a very thin layer of frosting on each cake.

This cake is RICH. Very rich. We really felt it was rich enough without adding a cream cheese icing or even a lot of icing at all. And, I'm an icing girl, so that's saying a lot.

Here is a link to the recipe on the Pamela's website. Below is the more simple version that Mom made.

Blessings,

Emily

Pumpkin Cake

INGREDIENTS:

Puree: 
• 1 1/2 cups canned organic pumpkin 
Cake:
• 6 oz. (3/4 cup) unsalted butter (plus more for the pans) 
• 9 oz. (2 cups) Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix
• 1-1/2 tsp baking soda 
• 1 tsp baking powder 
• 1-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 
• 1 tsp ground ginger 
• 3/4 tsp table salt 
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar 
• 2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar 
• 2 large eggs 
• 1/3 cup buttermilk 

DIRECTIONS:

Making the cake:

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°. Butter and flour two 9-inch round cake pans with removable bottoms (or butter two 9-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, butter the parchment, and flour the pans). Melt the butter in a heavy-duty 1-quart saucepan over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan occasionally until the butter turns a nutty golden-brown, about 4 minutes. Pour into a small bowl and let stand until cool but not set, about 15 minutes. 

In a medium bowl, whisk the Pamela's Gluten-Free Bread Mix, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and cloves. 

In a large bowl, whisk 1-1/2 cups of the pumpkin puree with the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and buttermilk until very well blended. With a rubber spatula, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Gently whisk in the brown butter until completely incorporated. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans. Bake the cakes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Turn the cakes out onto racks and cool completely.



And here's the frosting we substituted in place of a cream cheese one in the original recipe. A thin layer is plenty.

Cinnamon Frosting:

     3-4 c. powdered sugar
     1 tsp. cinnamon
     1 tsp. vanilla extract
     1-3 TBLS milk (or milk substitute)