The Great Pumpkin Cake

"It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" (click!)

One of the great pleasures of having a child is getting to celebrate holidays in a particularly playful manner.  Okay, confession. I had my daughter at age 36, and I have to confess to never going to a pumpkin patch or carving a pumpkin until very recently. Sad, but true. Last year I carved my first pumpkin and loved it so much that I wanted to give all my friends a carved pumpkin for Christmas, somehow I was talked out of it… And pumpkin patches? Well, what could be better? I love pumpkin, and here in Santa Cruz there are so many different patches to explore up and down the coast. One has a corn maze, another giant pumpkins, and yet another is next to a fields of brussel sprouts and artichokes (my daughter loves brussel sprouts and likes to carry one in her pocket, like a good luck charm). But what they all have in common is a view of the Pacific Ocean. A gorgeous way to spend a couple of hours.

Pumpkin obsession, the beginning. October 2007

This year I planned a weekly pumpkin outing, each time with different friends. It was all very well and good until on week 3 I realized that my daughter inherited not only my love of pumpkin, but also my love of collecting. Every week our car got filled, okay maybe not filled, but loaded to some degree with pumpkins. It was utterly impossible for us not to fill our wheel barrel. Impossible. And just when I thought we were done, I took my car to get serviced and across the street… yes, you guessed it, a pumpkin patch. So, this October we had 5 pumpkin patch visits, x pounds of pumpkins were purchased, and lots of pumpkin soup, cookies, cake, and ice-cream got made. And the good thing is, we still have pumpkins occupying every free space in my small house for a particular pumpkin cheesecake, Marlena’s pumpkin sage mac and cheese, my mother’s candied pumpkin recipe, and more cake.

This amount of pumpkins x 5.

Here is a recipe for the pumpkin cake we made for my birthday, and for a playdate, and for a meeting, and for the neighbors…

The Great Pumpkin Cake

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon each of baking powder and baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 sugar pie pumpkin (or 1 cup tinned pumpkin)
• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 3/4 cups pecans
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• an 8 inch square pan, buttered
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Quarter and clean one sugar pie pumpkin. Half each piece again, leaving you with 8 pieces.  Place on cookie sheet, cut side up, and bake for about 35 to 45 minutes, or until soft. Let cool. Once cool enough to handle, scoop out baked pumpkin and pass through a food mill on the medium sized disk or, alternately, use a food processor. Set aside one cup, and put the rest in an airtight container in the refrigerator for other uses.
2. Raise the temperature of your oven to 375º.
3. In a non stick pan, gently cook the pecans over medium heat. When they start to brown, turn the heat off and add the maple syrup, gently mixing the two to create fabulous maple pecans. Immediately pour the maple pecan mix into your buttered baking dish and spread evenly by shaking the dish.
4. In a large bowl whisk together all the dry ingredients.
5. In another bowl, mix the butter with the sugar, then add the eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Finally, mix in the pumpkin.
6. When the wet ingredients are thoroughly mixed, add to the dry ingredients. Gently incorporate the two.
7. Spread the cake batter over the maple pecans and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.
8. Remove from oven, let cool for about 30 minutes. Gently run a knife around the edges and carefully flip onto serving dish.

The first time I made this cake, I included homemade butterscotch a friend delivered. I simple chopped up the butterscotch and added it to the batter, maybe about a cup. WOW! Butterscotch works well with these flavors, so it can be an extra special addition. This cake is very moist and sweet, the kind of cake I like to have in the afternoon with tea. Also, if you insist, whip cream is a great topping and an even better topping is a boozy whip cream…

the Great Pumpkin Cake (great in flavor, not in size)