Peace of Cake

My husband and I were having a holiday tactical meeting earlier this week, to discuss the inner-workings of our family’s holiday plans. In a ten minute period, I went from jamming out to “Run-Run Rudolph” on the radio, to stressing out over the crazy logistics required to pull of a successful Thanksgiving and Christmas. Do you know that feeling?

Well, at that moment, I declared that this holiday season, I wanted to prioritize peace.   How?  By baking, believe it or not.  And with one incredible pumpkin spice cake recipe, I was going to simplify the holiday season like never before.

This Pumpkin Spice Cake is one of the best recipes we have ever created.  The cake is so tasty, and with ingredients like brown sugar, cinnamon, pumpkin puree, spices and vanilla, it’s perfect this time of year.  Additionally, this recipe is so versatile that you can bake it as cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for Thanksgiving, or bake basic bundt cakes and give them out as gifts at Christmas.  This cake takes the guesswork out of so many holiday events and gifts, and if you’re like me, that can mean the difference between Merry Christmas and scary Christmas.

This week, the kids and I baked three variations of this amazing Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe.

First we baked a bundt cake to give to our friends at the local retirement home.  Initially, my daughter was skeptical about donating her special cake, but once she saw how excited the residents were about what she had created, she beamed with pride.  Moments like that are why baking with kids is always worth the mess!

The second variation of this recipe we baked was a batch of teacakes with royal icing and sprinkles.  We used this pan from Nordic Ware, and these bite-sized beauties were packaged up and sent to sweet friends. We had to ship them quickly, because these delicious teacakes started vanishing from our kitchen counter very quickly!

The last variation of the Pumpkin Spice Cake was a batch of small cakes with baked apples and homemade whipped cream.  Oh my goodness, this was spectacular and so easy to make.  We baked the cakes in this pan from Nordic Ware, and used Hormel baked apples to save time.  This would be a great variation of this recipe for Thanksgiving.  (I will be having one of these with my coffee for breakfast, tomorrow.  Don’t tell)!

We hope you fall in love with this versatile cake as much as we have.  It’s amazing how sometimes sweet little things in life can make a big difference in your peacefulness and joy.  We hope this recipe will be no exception.  Happy holiday baking, friends!

Love,

Emily

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Pumpkin Spice Cake

This is our favorite family holiday cake recipe.  It is totally versatile and makes a great gift for the holidays.

Author: Pie Crust and Pixie Dust

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup Pumpkin Puree (We use Libby's from the can)
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin spice
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 egg

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Grease your pan

3. Combine sugar and butter

4. Add egg and pumpkin puree, vanilla and blend

5. Add salt, spices and baking powder

6. Add flour and milk

7. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean