Pumpkin Cake 2 Ways

While I know that several of us on Couch are watching what we're eating, I can't help but post the recipe for the pumpkin cake that I made for Thanksgiving. It's so not healthy at all but it was pretty delightful. That being said, it may likely be another year before I make it again (partly because of the eating healthy thing, mainly because I have a pumpkin window every year that lasts just a few months). To balance the unhealthiness of the pumpkin cake, I will also post a recipe for low fat chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookies from the Skinnytaste site!

Anyways, I did this cake 2 ways: 1) as a double layer cake with a chocolate buttercream frosting for a party along with one layer for home and 2) as a bundt cake with a cream cheese glaze for the boyfriend and his family.

Pumpkin Cake (adapted from Allrecipes found here)

Ingredients:
2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup applesauce
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups canned pumpkin
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour either 3-9 inch round cake pans or 1 bundt pan. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the sugar and oil. Blend in vanilla and pumpkin, followed by the eggs one at a time. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Spread batter into your greased and floured pan(s).
For a layer cake: I put 2 pans in the middle rack and 1 on the top. I baked the cakes for 30 minutes while rotating the pans every 10 minutes in order for them to bake evenly since they were placed in different places in the oven.
For a bundt cake: This one took much longer. I baked this one for 45-55 minutes. I'd always err on the lower side of the baking time and adding any necessary additional minutes.

Chocolate Buttercream Frosting (from my favorite site Smitten Kitchen here)
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
4 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar (no need to sift)
3 sticks (yup, 3 sticks) unsalted butter at room temp
6 tbs half-and-half or whole milk
1 tbs vanilla

Beat the sugar and butter. Add the chocolate, half-and-half or whole milk and vanilla until smooth. Enjoy. Deb from Smitten Kitchen (I read her website so much I feel like we should be on a first name basis) says you could also just put all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse to incorporate the ingredients, and then process until the whole thing is smooth.

And yes, I did decorate the cake myself. I used one of the big jagged edged frosting tips (sorry, can't remember the number) and just add those all around the cake.

Cream Cheese Glaze (also from Smitten Kitchen here)
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
3 tbs powdered sugar, plus extra if needed
2 tbs milk, plus extra if needed
1/4 tsp vanilla

Beat cream cheese with powdered sugar until smooth and light. Add milk and vanilla. I ended adding more sugar and vanilla because I felt the cream cheese taste was too strong for my liking. I do apologize, I did not measure exactly how much I added. I just put in a little bit of each and kept having to taste it until it was right. Darn.