Pumpkin Crunch Cake

I have a problem with pumpkin. Call me an addict. When the season comes around I want to bake pumpkin non-stop. Poor husband isn’t as in love with the sweet, wet squash as me. No matter. More for me.

I made two pumpkin cakes in two days. The first one was a bust (I still ate it), and the second was sweet victory. I was inspired by the infamous pumpkin crunch cake that is floating around the internet, which has very little pumpkin flavor and HORROR of horrors, is made entirely with boxed cake mix and is essentially a dump cake. I know, it’s tasty, but this just blows all of those others out of the water.

I think this cake needs no other explanation than the sum of its parts:

Pumpkin cake layers (thanks to David Leite for his perfect pumpkin cake)

Pumpkin pie layers

Cream cheese frosting layers

Crunch in the frosting

Amaya said, “Thank you for making this cake! You make the best food Mommy.”

Dang it. She tricked me into giving her another piece.

Pumpkin Crunch Cake (click to print)

If you don’t know David Leite’s website, Leite’s Culinaria, you’re in for a treat. Tested, awesome recipes, and David’s writing make a great website. This was the best pumpkin cake recipe I’ve made as most pumpkin cakes are dense, soft, and not suited for layering, however tasty. This one was perfectly pumpkin-y without being too soft.

This is a really long recipe. So worth it. Husband approved, and he only got one bite because he’s off sugar until Halloween.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees

Prepare two 8” round cake pans. Place cut circles of parchment paper at the bottom of the pan and butter the bottom and edges.

Pumpkin Pie Layers:

• 1 Cup and 2 Tbsp canned pumpkin
• 1 Cup canned table cream (found in Latin food aisles or supermarkets)
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 Cup sugar
• 1/3 Cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp cinnamon or pumpkin pie spices

1. Whisk together all of the ingredients and divide equally between the two cake pans. Cook for 15 minutes in the oven. While it’s cooking prepare the pumpkin cake layers.

Go to David's web site to get the cake recipe:

David Leite’s Pumpkin Cake Make just the batter.

I did not put in all of the spices. Just the cinnamon and just a pinch of black pepper. I'm sure it's good with all of it though.

1. Remove the pumpkin pie layers from the oven. Turn the heat down to 350 degrees.

2. Spoon the cake batter over the pumpkin pie layers, evenly and gently. You don't want to mix the layers. Smooth it out with the back of a spatula and firmly hit the pan on the counter a few times to remove the air bubbles.

3. Return the cakes to the oven and bake for about 37-45 minutes. Check the cakes with a toothpick or sharp knife after 35 minutes and remove when just done. The toothpick, when removed from the cake, should have just a few crumbs clinging to it. If it comes out with raw batter, cook for longer. This part really depends on your oven. If your oven cooks unevenly, probably rotate the cakes a couple of times during cooking.

While the cakes are cooking, make the cream cheese frosting

Cream Cheese Frosting

• 12 oz cream cheese, softened slightly (1 and a half boxes of cream cheese)
• 8 Tbsp butter, still cool, but not cold
• 2 Tbsp sour cream
• 2 Cups powdered sugar

1. In a food processor/cuisinart fitted with the blade, process the cream cheese, butter, and sour cream until uniform and whipped. Add the powdered sugar and process until completely mixed, about 20 seconds. You will have to scrape down the sides a couple of times. Put it in the fridge until ready to use.

When you remove the cakes from the oven, turn on the broiler and prepare the crunch. Let the cakes cool for 10 minutes, then remove the cakes from their pans. Run a knife around the edge of the cakes and invert to remove. Let cool completely.

Crunch for pumpkin cake

• 1 cup yellow box cake mix
• 8 tbsp butter, divided
• ½ Cup walnuts, chopped into small pieces
• ½ Cup brown sugar

1. Sprinkle the nuts and cake mix over a quarter of a baking sheet. Don’t worry about being exact, but the cake mix should be in an even layer. Break up the largest pieces of cake mix, but little pieces are fine.

2. Drizzle four tablespoons of butter over the cake mix. It’s ok if it isn’t completely wet, just try to sprinkle it over as evenly as possible.

3.In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar and remaining butter. Spread this evenly over another unused portion of the baking sheet in a thin layer—about 1/8”.

4. Broil for 3-5 minutes, pulling it out when the brown sugar layer is bubbly and glossy and the cake part looks still yellow but just barely getting browned on the edges. You have to watch this very closely and it depends on the heat of your broiler.

5. Let the crunch cool completely. Then use a metal spatula and remove the brown sugar layer to a cutting board and chop it up. Mix the pieces in a bow with the cake crunch part and set aside for assembly.

Assemble the cake.

1. Place the first cake on a serving platter with the pumpkin side up. Put about 1 cup of frosting on the cake and spread over the top of the cake. Layer the second cake on top of that with the pumpkin pie layer on top, again.

2. Spread another cup or more of frosting on the sides and top of the cake in a thin layer to seal in the crumbs. Put the cake in the fridge for an hour or two to let seal.

3. Remove the cake from the fridge and put another layer of frosting on the whole cake—use as much of the rest as you like—I didn’t quite use all of the frosting.

4. Sprinkle the crunch all over the cake, also on the sides. Serve. Serves a lot, or just you. I won't tell.

Pumpkin Three: Savory Pumpkin Muffins

In a former life I really thought I was headed for a career in science.

I wanted to be a marine biologist; I learned I could be on a boat for 5 minutes before being barfing.

I wanted to be a psychologist; I learned that psychologists are crazy.

I wanted to be a doctor; I learned that I wanted to be home by 3pm every day.

I wanted to be the next Jane Goodall; I learned that carrying all your food into the wilderness makes for some light meals.
So instead I became a high school English teacher and a sometimes fanatic food blogger.

(I also learned that wearing My little pony tails in my hair was not actually very fancy.)

But I do love the science of food. Not necessarily weird food invention (although it is something I am interested in looking at, tasting, but not making), just plain ol' "How the heck does flour work anyway?" kind of science.

Enter Harold McGee. I've read quite a bit on food technique and basic food science in cookbooks and cooking handbooks and food encyclopedias, but Harold McGee tops it all (even, dare I say, Cook's Illustrated, which I consider to be the authority on recipe development-- and hopefully Christopher Kimball never reads these words because I hope to one day become one of his minions). He's easy to read, throws in history when you want it, and is the most reliable I've found regarding the science of the kitchen.

Da was nice enough to get me an autographed copy (I am insanely jealous that she met him) of his newest book, Keys to Good Cooking, and I have been reading this book like a thrilling mystery novel. It is his words on muffins that have led me to this recipe, and although I want to tweak this recipe a little more, the fact that I could make up a muffin recipe and come out with such beautiful domed tops and good textures, I owe this success to Harold McGee.

I'm putting away all this kitchen knowledge so that when I pass it on to Amaya, she'll think I'm the kitchen goddess and owe all future muffin perfection, to me.

(Isn't that why we have kids, anyway?)

Savory Pumpkin Muffins
I'll hand you a little McGee knowledge. You don't want to overmix the flour in the batter, because otherwise, you get a tougher gluten. Sugar and fat can go together first. Also you don't want the leavening ingredient (baking powder/soda) to hit the wet stuff too early because it will die quickly. So wet ingredients/sugar first, then dry stuff together, then combine quickly without overmixing. Also, cook muffins at a high temp. They'll rise up more quickly and make a nice top.
I'm thinking that these principles probably work pretty well with cupcakes, too.

One thing I'm still trying to figure out, though, is why sometimes my muffins or cupcakes stick to the cupcake liners, despite all my tricks with cooling, enough fat, etc. I'm not sure what it is exactly.
These didn't stick at all, but I was using these ultra cool silicone baking cups.

These have a subtle flavor and remind me of biscuits. I want to eat these with pumpkin chili. Double the cheese for more savory stand-alone flavor. Or cube the cheese so you can taste it in chunks.

• 1/2 Cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 Cup sour cream
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 C oil 
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 C milk
• 1 T baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Cups flour
• 1/2 C shredded hard cheese like Sheep's milk cheese or gruyere
• optional: black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 380 degrees. Mix pumpkin, sour cream, eggs, oil, honey and milk in a large bowl.
2. Sift together (or whisk together) baking powder, soda, salt, flour and black pepper if using. Stir in cheese to dry ingredients.
3. Quickly mix together until all ingredients are wet. Do not over mix. May be a little lumpy.
4. Fill muffin cups-- I used silicone baking cups (fit in a muffin pan) and I used 11 of them. If you use a muffin tin then the space is slightly shorter, so it will probably fit 12 muffins.
5. Bake for 20 minutes or until muffins are set, dry on top and properly domed.

Serve as a side to soup or chili-- it is perfectly moist and has good balance to something slightly more savory. Good topped with cream cheese or butter, warm.

Pumpkin Two: Pumpkin Fritters

I told some friends yesterday that I don't think I became comfortable with motherhood until about 3 months ago.

Obviously I love my daughter, but I think mothering has been mostly alien to me. I have some theories about this, but we can skip the psycho(analytic) ones and say that having two kids is double intense. And double real. There's no continuing your life the way it was before kids.

A random stranger at the library called out to me as I passed and said, "Hold on to them. They grow up so fast." This first struck me as cliche, but he's right. In fact, almost every cliche that anyone has said to me about parenting has turned out to be true in some way. How much love they bring out in you, how much you would do to protect them, how you forget how about labor....
(HA! Not true on that one, but nice try. The only thing true about that was that I was willing to do it again, which tells you that the cliche about how sleep deprived parents get is true.)

I've been thinking quite a bit about how precious kids are, actually. Damaris alerting me to the whole Amazon fiasco , a young person we know in my very small community recently deciding to end his life, and the missing 3 boys have all made me emotionally aware of youth. I haven't figured out how to respond to these events.

Positive thoughts did come to me out of all of this. Reflecting on the incident that happened in my small town a former student contacted me and very generously attributed me with giving him hope when I tried to help him out with some challenges he was going through.

Mostly, every day, I wish I could have done more for him, and many other youth that are in desperate need, emotionally and physically, at my school. The need is as overwhelming to me as the world's problems, really.  Kids have more need than resources, at least in our world.

We have responsibility for our kids, but also for other kids. We should be helping to take care of the children that cross our paths. My husband and I talk about the circle of people that are closest to you, and how you can have the most influence and do the most good in that circle.

Here's where I'm going to ignore that whole "It takes a village" cliche.

When Amaya was eating these pumpkin fritters non stop throughout the day (she ate almost the whole batch herself) I almost told her no more, but since I was feeling a little sensitive about all of this, I sat back and enjoyed the fact that she loved them enough to come back again and again. I cook a lot of treats (Hey, they're better for photography) but I usually only let her have a small amount of sugar, even on Halloween or in the face of chocolate cookie dough cupcakes. For this day, I let it go. There's a difficult balance between the challenges and rewards that make a person.

Let her eat some fritters.

Pumpkin Fritters
These are a little crunchy on the outside, a lot creamy on the inside, and not sweet except for the sugar they're rolled in (so don't skip that step). Even though Amaya was content to eat them all, I think since they're fried you could probably use some self-restraint. Good luck finding some.

• 2 Cups pumpkin puree
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 Cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• oil for frying
• 1/2 C sugar
• 2 Tbsp cinnamon

1. Mix eggs and puree in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Add to the pumpkin and mix well.
3. Mix together sugar and cinnamon for dipping in a small bowl and set aside.
4. Heat 2 inches of oil in a large cast iron skillet (or similar pan) over medium heat. When it is very hot, drop 1 tablespoon of batter into the oil for each fritter. Fry about 6 or 7 fritters at a time. Flip after a minute or so and cook until the fritter is a light orange color and looks dry.
5. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate. Roll fritters into sugar and cinnamon or sprinkle sugar on top (according to how sweet you like).
6. Repeat for the rest of the batter.
7. Eat while warm.