In the spirit of Halloween and in the spirit of yumminess, I present this recipe for pumpkin cake. This is one of Ian’s favorite things apparently, so I got the recipe from his mother (which actually originated from his aunt). I made it this week and it really is delicious, I must say. Kind of like carrot cake, but even better and that’s saying a lot coming from me.

pumpkin cake

Ian’s mother also pointed out a brilliant strategy, which is to cut the pumkin in half, scoop out the guts, then bake it until it is soft enough to scoop out the pumpkin ‘meat’ (what is this called?), thereby avoiding all the tedious peeling of the pumpkin which I had been doing before cooking it. Brilliant! The pumpkin mush can then be frozen for all your future pumpkin cake needs. I really do recommend trying fresh pumpkin as opposed to the stuff in the can, it really makes a difference in the flavour, I think. Enough blah blah already, on with the cake!!

AUNTIE GLORIA’S PUMPKIN CAKE

4 eggs
1 c. sugar
1 c. oil
1 c. (16 oz) pumpkin
2 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda

Beat eggs, add sugar, oil and pumpkin. Sift dry ingredients together and add to liquid ingredients. Mix. Pour into a ungreased 15X10X1″ cake pan. Bake at 350 F. for 25-30 minutes.

Note: Because I am physically incapable of making a recipe exactly as written, I added extra pumpkin, probably about 1/2 cup more, and a little ginger and allspice. It made it even better.

And because cream cheese icing also makes everything better……

CREAM CHEESE ICING

1 (8 oz) pkg. cream cheese
5 Tbsp butter (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
2 c. sifted icing sugar

Beat all together til fluffy.

pumpkin cake