Incredibly Moist Pumpkin-Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

A coworker of mine shared this awesome recipe with me. When I tasted it for the first time I immediately blurted out, “I need the recipe!” I love this cake. It is the perfect spice cake. I ended up finishing my piece of this cake alone in the break room at work, and was almost tempted to lick my plate when I was done. I did scrape the icing off of my plate which is almost as bad. The icing is my favorite cream cheese icing by far. That may or may not have to do with the fact that it has 5 cups of powdered sugar AND 16 oz of cream cheese….oh yeah and butter. The cake itself is very dense and moist. I wouldn’t change a thing about it. I am not posting or will I EVER post any nutritional information about this cake so as to not sway anyone from trying it. It is worth every single calorie.

Incredibly Moist Pumpkin-Spice Cake with

Cream Cheese Frosting

Cake:

1 box (1lb 2.25 oz) Betty Crocker SuperMoist Spice Cake Mix

2/3  cup granulated sugar

3 eggs

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1/3 sour cream

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 pkg (3.4oz) pumpkin spice instant pudding mix

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Frosting:

2 pkgs (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

5 cups powdered sugar

Directions:

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottoms only of 3 (9-inch) round cake pans with baking spray with flour.
2. In large bowl, beat all cake ingredients with electric mixer on low speed until moistened; beat 2 minutes on high speed. Divide batter equally among pans. Bake 19 to 22 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely, about 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese and butter with electric mixer on low speed until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar, 1 cup at a time, until smooth. Refrigerate 30 minutes or until frosting reaches desired spreading consistency.
4. Place 1 cake layer, rounded side down, on serving plate; spread about 3/4 cup frosting over top to within about 1/4 inch of edge. Top with second cake layer, rounded side up; spread with 3/4 cup frosting. Top with third layer, rounded side up. Spread thin layer of frosting on side of cake. Spread remaining frosting on side and top of cake. Store in refrigerator.

Salted-Caramel Banana Pudding Pie

Salted-Caramel Banana Pudding Pie

Ingredients

• 1 box vanilla wafers (65 cookies)
• 6 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 large ripe bananas
• 1 cup salted caramel, plus more for garnish (1 cup caramel, plus 1 teaspoon fleur de sel), recipe follows
• Vanilla Pudding, recipe follows
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put 45 vanilla wafers in a food processor and pulse until the cookies are finely crushed. Reserve 1/2 cup to top the pie. Stir together crushed vanilla wafers and butter in a small bowl until blended. Firmly press it into the bottom, up the sides, and onto the lip of a greased 9-inch pie plate. Bake until lightly browned, about 10 to 12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack, and let cool until completely cool, about 30 minutes.

Coat the banana slices with salted caramel. Arrange some banana slices evenly over the bottom of the crust. Spread half of the hot, prepared Vanilla Pudding over the bananas, top with vanilla wafers, and more caramel-coated bananas. Spread the remaining filling over the vanilla wafers, and caramel-coated bananas.

In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff peaks are just about to form. Add the almond extract, and sugar and beat until peaks form. Make sure not to overbeat, or the cream will become lumpy, and butter-like. Spread the cream over the pies. At service, garnish with a caramel swirl, and the reserved vanilla wafer crumbs.

Vanilla Pudding:

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 cups milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

In a bowl whisk together the sugar and flour until all of the lumps are gone. Once it is a fine powder, whisk in the eggs, and egg yolks, and continue whisking until a smooth paste is formed. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of milk, and once this is incorporated add the remaining cup of milk. Transfer the mixture to a saucepan, and cook over medium heat whisking constantly, until it reaches the thickness of chilled pudding, about 10 to 15 minutes. (Mixture will just begin to bubble and will be thick enough to hold soft peaks when the whisk is lifted.) Remove from the heat, and stir in vanilla.

Creamy Caramel

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

(for Salted Caramel add Fleur de Sel (or Kosher salt) 1tsp at a time until it tastes the way you want)

Directions

Over low heat, mix the water, and sugar in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook until the sugar dissolves, about 5 to 10 minutes. Do not stir. Increase the heat to medium and boiluncovered until the sugar turns a warm chestnut brown (about 350 degrees F on a candy thermometer), about 5 to 7 minutes, gently swirling the pan to stir the mixture. Be careful – the mixture is extremely hot!

Watch the mixture very carefully at the end, as it will go fromcaramel to burnt very quickly. Turn off the heat, and stand back to avoid splattering. Slowly add the cream. Don’t panic – the cream will bubble violently, and the caramel will solidify.

Simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until the caramel dissolves and the sauce is smooth, about 2 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours. It will thicken as it sits.

My new favorite Mac N Cheese!

This Macaroni and Cheese is easier than ANY box mix.  You toss a bunch of simple ingredients together.  You stir.  You bake.  You wait for forty minutes then drool as you take it out of the oven. No need to preboil the noodles. You just need one HUGE bowl to stir everything together, and another deep casserole dish to transfer it in to. This dish is definitely not calorie free, but it is the best Macaroni and Cheese I have ever had!

Easy Baked Macaroni and Cheese
1 (16 oz.) pkg. macaroni
1 c. milk
2 c. chicken broth
2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1 c. swiss, grated
1 c. monterey jack cheese, grated
8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
2 tsp. onion salt
fresh ground pepper
1/2 c. flour

In a large bowl, stir together the macaroni,  milk, and chicken broth.  Add the remaining ingredients and mix together using a large wooden spoon.  Pour into a very large, deep casserole dish.  Bake uncovered in an oven preheated to 375 degrees for 30-40 minutes, or until pasta is fully cooked.  Turn oven broiler on for the last two minutes of cooking time to brown up the top part of the mac and cheese.  Allow to cool slightly before serving.

Glazed Chocolate-Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Ingredients

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup dark brown sugar packed
1 large egg at room temperature
1 large egg white at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze & Garnish:
1/2 cup packed confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat buttermilk
2 tablespoons mini chocolate chips or toasted chopped nuts (see Tip)

Directions

To prepare cake: Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray.

Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.

Blend 1 cup buttermilk, pumpkin puree and brown sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer on low speed. Beat in whole egg and egg white. Stir in oil, corn syrup and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack, about 2 hours.

To glaze & garnish cake: Combine confectioners’ sugar and 1 tablespoon buttermilk in a small bowl, stirring until completely smooth. Place the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the top; garnish with chocolate chips (or chopped nuts) while the glaze is still moist.

To warm an egg to room temperature, either set it out on the counter for 15 minutes or submerge it (in the shell) in a bowl of lukewarm (not hot) water for 5 minutes.To toast chopped nuts & seeds: Cook in a small dry skillet over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant and lightly browned, 2 to 4 minutes.