{"id":170,"date":"2011-11-30T23:13:44","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T07:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/?p=170"},"modified":"2011-11-30T23:13:44","modified_gmt":"2011-12-01T07:13:44","slug":"pumpkin-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/archives\/170","title":{"rendered":"Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rather than making the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I went for a pumpkin cake instead. I did want something with that familiar pumpkin flavor, just something that felt a bit more… decadent.<\/p>\n

So I found this pumpkin cake, which surprisingly has no butter in it, just oil. The frosting, with cream cheese, has plenty of butter though, so don’t worry if you were looking for your butter fix. You can just lick the frosting.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1772\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pumpkin Cake<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 cups sugar
\n1 cup vegetable oil
\n4 large eggs
\n2 cups all-purpose flour
\n2 teaspoons baking soda
\n2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
\n1\/2 teaspoon ground ginger
\n1 teaspoon baking powder
\n1\/2 teaspoon salt
\n2 cups pumpkin puree
\n1\/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)<\/p>\n

Frosting<\/em>
\n1\/4 cup butter
\n8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
\n1 pound confectioners’ sugar
\n2 teaspoons vanilla extract <\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Preheat oven to 350F.<\/li>\n
  2. Mix together the sugar, vegetable oil, and eggs.<\/li>\n
  3. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, salt), and mix well.<\/li>\n
  4. Stir the dry ingredients into the oil mixture and beat until combined.<\/li>\n
  5. Stir in the pumpkin puree.<\/li>\n
  6. Pour the batter into two 9-inch cake pans, greased and floured.<\/li>\n
  7. Bake the cakes at 350F for 35 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean.<\/li>\n
  8. Turn the cakes out onto cooling racks to cool.<\/li>\n
  9. To make the frosting, combine the butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract in a bowl, and beat them with a mixer until smooth.<\/li>\n
  10. Take about a quarter of the frosting and place it on top of one of the cakes, smoothing it over with a spatula.<\/li>\n
  11. Place the other cake on top of the first cake.<\/li>\n
  12. Cover the cake with more frosting, and smooth the whole surface over with a spatula.<\/li>\n
  13. Optionally, sprinkle chopped pecans on top.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"IMG_1761\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The wet ingredients: sugar, oil, and eggs.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1762\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking powder, and salt.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1763\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The dry ingredients get mixed into the wet ingredients.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1764\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Then the pumpkin puree gets added, since otherwise it’s not really a pumpkin cake. It makes the batter a nice orange color.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1765\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The batter goes into a couple of cake pans. I tried to split it evenly, but it’s very hard for me.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1766\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Unfortunately, my oven heats rather unevenly, so the cakes look rather different. Well, that’s what frosting is for!<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1769\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    I torted the bottom layer for a flatter surface. As an added bonus, I got some cake scraps I could snack on. And they were deliciously moist.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1768\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The frosting made of butter, cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1770\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Some frosting on the bottom layer. There are crumbs all over it, but since nobody will see this layer, I didn’t care too much.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1771\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    I flipped over the other cake to put on top of the first layer.<\/p>\n

    \"IMG_1772\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Then the whole thing is covered in frosting. My frosting skills are inadequate. Whenever I frost a cake, two things always seem to be true: my frosting is not smooth, and the cake leans in one direction. Oh well, it’s the taste that counts, right?<\/p>\n

    This cake was wonderfully moist, probably because of all the pumpkin puree in it. The cream cheese frosting has a tanginess that goes really well with the rich pumpkin flavor of the cake.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rather than making the traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I went for a pumpkin cake instead. I did want something with that familiar pumpkin flavor, just something that felt a bit more… decadent. So I found this pumpkin cake, which … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[255,264,263],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baking","tag-cake","tag-cream-cheese","tag-pumpkin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}