Back on the saddle with Pumkin Cake!

When the Cook is sick... the Cook don't cook!

I was put down with a pretty bad abscess in my jaw and jaw joint and then midway of treatment, I was hit with Strep. Go figure! So there went my whole plan of wanting to make a cookie every week.

Well I am cooking again, so that must mean I am on the mend or going through cooking withdrawals. I am on a soft food diet again, so instead of making a cookie this week, I thought cake would be better. I had left over pumpkin that needed to be used up so, I made a pumpkin cake.

It is made with a cake mix, I cheated but I used what I had on hand!

Ingredients:

Pumpkin mixture-
3/4 can of pumpkin
1 1/2 blocks of cream cheese at room temp
3/4 cups of packed brown sugar
1.5 tsp of pumpkin pie seasonings
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 tsp of ginger
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
2 tsp of vanilla

Cake-
1 yellow cake mix
4 eggs
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
1 cup water
1 package instant pumpkin flavored pudding (if you can't find this, you can use vanilla or cheesecake and add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the mix)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 ° F

1- In bowl combine all the items for pumpkin mixture and mix until well combined.

2- Spray 9x13 cake pan with non cooking spray. Pour pumpkin mixture evenly on on bottom of pan and set aside.

3- In bowl combine all the items for cake and mix until well combined. ( I didn't use a whole cup of water, you may have to judge based on texture, etc)

4- Pour cake mix over pumpkin mixture and place into oven.

5- Cook at 350 ° F until edges are slightly brown and then cook on 200-250 ° F until center is set and firm. It will take 45 minutes to an hour for this cake to be fully cooked.

6- When a butter knife comes out clean, remove from oven and lightly dust with powdered sugar.

Final thoughts:

Considering I winged this recipe, I am not sure if I am going to rate it. But I do think it's good enough to pass on and I hope you will try it and review it for me and let me know how many stars you think it deserves.

It's made with a cake mix so you have plenty of wiggle room to experiment!

Enjoy!