[Rainey]

I made pumpkin cookies for my daughter last night because it's something she remembers fondly from her childhood Halloweens. Then I went looking for something else to use up the pumpkin that was left over. This is what I found and I have to say I really enjoyed it and look forward to experimenting more with it.



Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Icing Recipe By: Gourmet, November 2005

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cup pumpkin puree, NOT pie filling
• 3/4 cup buttermilk, shake well
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 large egg

for icing
• 2 tablespoon buttermilk, plus 2 teaspoons, well shaken
• 1 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar

Make cake:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.
Whisk together flour (2 1/4 cups), baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a bowl. Whisk together pumpkin, 3/4 cup buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.

Beat butter (1 1/2 sticks) and granulated sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes, then add eggs and beat 1 minute. Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in batches, beginning and ending with flour mixture and mixing until batter is just smooth.

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, then bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted in center of cake comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rack. Cool 10 minutes more.

Make icing:
While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk and confectioners sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over warm cake, then cool cake completely. Icing will harden slightly. Cooks' note:

Published note:
Cake can be made 3 days ahead and kept in an airtight container at room temperature.

Rainey's notes:
The reviewers' notes at epicurious.com were full of "needed more spice" so I added:
1/2 teaspoon each of pumpkin pie spice and nutmeg and a healthy pinch of ginger and I'd make them part of the recipe
1 cup Splenda blend + 1/4 cup of brown sugar Splenda blend instead of granulated sugar; I never missed the sugar
about 1/2 cup fine cubes of firm, barely ripe red Bartlett pear + 1/2 cup of pecan pieces; another time I might try small dice of candied ginger instead of pears or ginger and pears and leave out the ground ginger
I forgot the vanilla but I'd substitute 1 tablespoon of Grand Marnier or apple juice concentrate but, in truth, the cake was flavorful enough without

I found the icing bland so another time I'd try using a scant tablespoon of apple juice concentrate instead. But, since it's an accent and not a primary flavor, it worked as a glaze on the cake.



And if you have pumpkin left over from this cake and want to do something with it, you might want to give these cookies a try. They're very different — spicey and cakey with a real jolt from the lemon icing.



Pumpkin Spice Cookies with Lemon Icing
Recipe By: Libby Foods
Makes about 4 dozen

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 egg
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 1 cup nuts, chopped

for icing
• 2 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest, firmly packed

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

For Cookies, cream shortening. Gradually beat in sugar. Add eggs and pumpkin. Mix well. Set aside.

Sift dry ingredients together. Add to pumpkin mixture. Add raisins and nuts.

Drop by heaping teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheets. Flatten slightly with a flat-bottomed glass dipped in water every 2 or 3 cookies as needed. Bake about 15 minutes or until firm to touch. Remove cookies to cool on rack. Ice with Lemon Frosting when cool.

For Lemon Frosting, combine the ingredients adding just enough milk for a spreading consistency.

Notes:
Pumpkin in a cookie! Why not? These are soft and cakey. They have an interesting combination of rich, spicy, not too sweet flavor that is accented by the sweet-tart lemon glaze for complexity.
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[gingerpale]

Rainey, I notice you have a"groovy" cake pan--how do you prepare it so the cake releases easily?

I love that soft sort of pumpkin cookie, my recipe is almost identical to yours, but switches cloves for ginger.

[Rainey]

I tossed my 20 or 25 year old bundt pan when I got tired of it never releasing cakes properly. Turns out I had used aerosols like Pam on it and they have an agent that binds with the non-stick layer and actually binds more effectively. Lost some good omlette pans the same way.

So this time when I replaced it I followed the manufacterer's suggestion to use Bakers' Joy which lacks the offending ingredient and includes flour. Even so I gave the pan a dusting with additional flour.

It released very well. A fact that, I'm sure, impressed Odie when he pulled the cake off the counter and ate it all breaking the cake plate and the glass cloche.
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[gingerpale]

Dogs can do no wrong, I have nothing but admiration for Odie's accomplishment! (My dog just STARES at me until I hand him the food..)

I had NO idea that cooking sprays like Pam contain an ingredient that sticks to the non-stick pans!!! Who the @#$% thought THAT up??

When I use my fancy-shape bundt pan it's with lots of butter, but would rather have a spray, I'm assuming that Baker's Joy is a spray..

[Debbie]

They sound fabulous. Thanks Rainey. I made pumpkin pain d'epice last weekend, and it was the same, very rich and moist because of the pumpkin and soo good....

If anyone wants the recipe I will post it. Very easy, but a bit of work. Makes a huge square cake, or 2 loaf cakes, and freezes beautifully.

Odie was just showing his appreciation of your cooking.... pity about the cloche and dish though. Damn that lack of opposable thumbs!!!
_________________
If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[David]

Odie's only crime was being short! My dear Beau once ate an entire fresh apple pie off the kitchen cupboard barely moving the pie plate--of course he was a pit bull/shepherd so had the height to do it! I didn't know immediately who the culprit was as we have just about always had more than one dog but his fresh sparkling cinnamon breath gave him away!
_________________
Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[Donna]

Oh Rainey - does that ever look delicious!!! How kind of Odie to wait until you'd taken a pic before he had his share!

Wally, our Lhasa, is naughty if things are near the edge of the counter. So if we push them back, we're safe. But our friends' beagle! Now - there's a dog! He is overweight, so you'd never expect such agility, but he can jump up and get things off the BACK of the counter. So - they got in the habit of putting things in the cupboard. Then he learned how to get on the counter top and open the cupboard by jumping on the chair, getting on the table, walking across to the counter and opening the cupboard. SO - they moved the chair to the dining room. One day they were thawing a chicken in the cupboard and...Yep, you guessed it! Marcel moved the chair back into the kitchen and got into the cupboard and ate an entire raw chicken!

I remember a story my mom told about living in Germany after the war. Meat was still hard to get - even for the military. My dad, who was from Texas, managed to get a sirloin steak and they had it on top of the fridge thawing. Poppo was in heaven! He considered having steak right up there with life, liberty and thepursuit of happiness! He was an MP and came home with the police dog, who lived with us. Well - fridges were short then - and Blackie was big and - the sirloin was gone in a thrice! I think Blackie was banned from our house forthwith!
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L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[gingerpale]

I once had a co-worker, Pam, who owned a Dalmatian, Rebecca.
Pam came home one day to find a mysterious thick metal disk on her kitchen floor.
Rebecca had stolen an UNopened can of cat food from the counter, bit and squeezed it with her teeth until all the meat smooshed out, devoured it, and licked it clean!

[msue]

Our Maisie, an Aussie, once opened a shut closet, pulled out a large suitcase, unzipped it, pulled out another suitcase stored inside, unzipped it, pulled out a smaller travel bag, unzipped it, pulled out a ziploc, tore through it to get to the one lone sugar-free chocolate bar intended for my diabetic father-in-law. It had been in there for weeks, a forgotten stocking stuffer. All that remained was the wrapper and suitcases strewn about.

We spent the evening at the vet getting a very unpleasant charcoal treatment. She's none the worse for wear, despite the dire warnings regarding dogs and chocolate.

How she sprouted opposable thumbs and suddenly shed them is just as big a mystery! I guess that sometimes a girl just needs her chocolate.

[David]

Wow--well if there were an award that I could nominate her for Maisie would certainly be first on the list!! Great story (great doggie)
_________________
Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

[msue]

LOL, David. I just told Maisie of her 'almost award', and she looked at me as if to say, "But, of course!"

[Rainey]

Yes! Points to Maizie for skill, determination and the basic decency to open things and not destroy them! Odie found a candy bar in Iz' backpack one day when he was in middle school. He ate through a Kippling bag to get it!

I was furious because it was an expensive bag but also because it was sewn with all kinds of clever reflective threads so when he was walking home at night when the light was down, I felt he was safer.

You guys all get BIG points, too, for dealing with your marauding four-footers better than I do. I seethe for months after these things.
_________________
God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, he's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny. -- Garrison Keillor

[Donna]

But Rainey - wasn't it easier to see Odie's leavings when you walked him afeter dark?
_________________
L'appetit vient en mangeant. -Rabelais

[Debbie]

Not on topic... but I am having one of those days with our furbaby.....

He stole one of my lipsticks last night (anything not nailed down he steals and he moves things way bigger than him around the appt... sigh) and he dropped it into the printer......

This morning my husband went to print something and of course it made the lipstick go through the workings and made a mess of our printer....

I am fuming as he has been doing super naughty things since we came back from holidays and I have been atwork each day. I think he is punishing me for not being home with him, which I can understand, but am having a lot of difficulty coping with this morning....

Will console myself with a slice of pumpkin pain d'epice and a cup of tea and try to lower the blood pressure below boiling point.
_________________
If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

[Cake Lady Mandy]

Pumpkin pain d'epice? I'm so intrigued! Is this a sort of pumpkin bread made with honey?