Pumpkin Overload

Today was family and friends day at our church. Like any good church of Christ, there's a fellowship meal after services. We planned on lots of people so we needed lots of food! Of course, I lean towards sweets (duh). Last year, my sister shared a recipe with me called pumpkin crunch cake. She said it was amazing even if you didn't like pumpkin. I tried it out and it was a hit at my church! I made it several times during the fall last year. Well people have already started asking about it this year so that was a gimme. It's pretty simple:


Pumpkin Crunch Cake


1-15 oz can of pumpkin pie filling
1-12 oz can of evaporated milk
1 and 1/2 cups of sugar
2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice mix
1 tsp. salt
4 eggs
1 box yellow cake mix
1 cup chopped pecans
2 sticks of butter, sliced (I just used one)

Mix all except cake and butter. Spray 9x13 dish and pour in pumpkin mixture. Sprinkle the top with dry cake mix, pecans and top with sliced butter. Bake 50-55 min at 350 degrees. Top with whipped cream or cool whip.

I swore I had pics of it from last year but cannot find them anywhere... not that special to look at anyway, but it is yummy!

Another funny story... I have this adorable cookbook just for sweets

Like several recipe books like this, there are two recipes per page. When I was baking my next recipe, I accidentally looked at this recipe's bake time: 50-55 min. The correct bake time is 25-30. Ha! Fortunately it turned out and I didn't burn the cake :)

Here's the next recipe: Pumpkin Spice Cake. I got this recipe from Cup a Dee Cakes. I think this cake is delicious!! And it made a lot of cake. I made three 8" with a really small 4th 8". 

Pumpkin Spice Cake

8 large eggs

4 cups sugar

2 cups vegetable oil

1 - 29 oz can pure pumpkin (I used 2-15 oz cans)

4 cups all-purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

4 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

(I used 2 tsp of pumpkin pie spice mix in lieu of ginger, cloves, and nutmeg)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray cake pans.

Combine eggs, sugar, oil and pumpkin in mixer and beat until smooth.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and slowly add to pumpkin mixture. Bake for 25-30 minutes until toothpick comes out clean.

She suggests a cinnamon buttercream (check out her blog!) which I want to try! But somehow I came across this caramel buttercream recipe from Family Bites. Yes, please! My husband couldn't taste the caramel, but I could and loved it! Just so you know, when I was melting the caramel it took about 15 minutes. Just to give you an idea of how long it'll take. 

I had an adorable idea for decorating this cake. But I was worn out by the time I got to the icing/decorating part. It's really ok because once it got to the church it was going to be cut all up anyway. I went for the messy look. I had the idea of drizzling caramel on top since I didn't get to decorate it. Well apparently the caramel/milk ratio is crucial. I made it before church this morning and it was too thin so no drizzle :(

I had some left over cake and icing so this is what I did with it

That's the pretty one. The rest were in a nice red solo cup, ha! But this did the trick. Made up a few of these and gave them away! 

Alright there's one last recipe! Whoopie Pies from Cookies and Cups. 

2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup room temp butter
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
Orange food coloring (gel)

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• Preheat oven to 375

Line you baking sheets with parchment paper. (Do not use wax paper... it is not meant to be exposed in the oven. It will cause smoke:)

Cream butter and sugar together. Add egg and vanilla, mix until combined. Mix you dry ingredients together

On low speed add 1/3 of your dry mix, then 1/3 of your buttermilk…continue adding in this order until all your dry ingredients and milk are mixed in and smooth.
Now add you orange food coloring. Mix on low to combine the food coloring, scraping the sides until color is even. Transfer batter into a piping bag or snipped off ziplock. Pipe in the shape of pumpkins (kind of a fat heart shape) about 2 inches apart. Bake for approx 6 minutes until they are set. Let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Fill each with your cream cheese filling.

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• Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups powdered sugar

Cream together your butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla and powdered sugar on a low speed. Turn it up to medium speed until all is combined.

I forgot to take pictures of mine, which is ok because Shelly's look a lot better. I personally did not like them but my hubby did. Maybe I should try them again sometime. I think I need new brown sugar. Mine is fine, but seems like it got moist or something.

See why I was worn out by the time I got to decorated the cake? And I started out the day with gumpaste flowers and decorated cupcakes. Big day.

I'm glad I finally tried out some new things. I always want to, but don't always follow through with trying new things. So one goal I'm going to work towards is learning gumpaste flowers! I might have mentioned before that I got the Wilton Gumpaste Kit (a few months ago). I was pumped! I opened it up.... and it included a long list of things you also need. Bummer. So I haven't learned any new gumpaste flowers. Well that's just silly. Now, when I have a free weekend I'm going to make a new gumpaste flower. And I plan on slowly obtaining items off that list. I bought two impressions mat this week. Thankfully, Hobby Lobby often has 40% off coupons so I'll use those as much as I can to get what I need. Hopefully next weekend I can show you a new gumpaste flower!