Design: Pumpkin Spice Bunco

I will be hosting Bunco again this month. I immediately thought of Pumpkin Spice as a theme. If you happen to be a fan of Brant Hansen, you may agree that pumpkin spice is all hype and that no one actually likes it--Contrived scarcity and fear of missing out. I will admit that it's not something that I would want to consume all year round, but a little bit around this time of year is enough for me. I've enjoyed a few pumpkin spice lattes and such.

Hosting will also give me a reason to make Upside Down Pumpkin Cake! I was introduced to this dish back when we lived in Ohio. I attended a work party and my boss' boss brought it. It is incredibility delicious and moist. Plus it's super easy to make. If does use a boxed cake mix. If you've been following me so a while you'll know I'm not a huge fan of boxed cake mixes. The last couple of times I've made this dish I was able to find mixes that don't have a lot of junk in them. Hopefully I'll have that same luck again.

 

Mummy Pumpkin

We finally made time to carve our pumpkin from Bishop's Pumpkin Farm. After looking through several designs on Pinterest, we went with a mummy!

It was hard to get them both to look at the camera at the same time.

Pumpkin Farm

Fall has arrived and I couldn't be happier! I love the cooler weather, the changing colors, pumpkins and apple cider. This weekend we were able to enjoy a local favorite--Bishop's Pumpkin Farm! It was a blast!

We enjoyed a hand dipped corn dog, saw a military working dog demo, rode a train, made our way through a corn maze, saw some farm animals, took a hayride, picked a pumpkin and more!

On the mini train

Just one of the pumpkin patches

Charles o lantern

Hungry goat

Lost in the corn maze

Hayride with my sunflower

Ghostly fun

On Sunday, Charles and I visited a local farm stand. They had tons of pumpkins! We decided to pick one out for carving and roasting pumpkin seeds. Neither of us have carved pumpkins since when we were kids, so it was a little bit of an experiment. But it turned out really well.

I picked out the design and Charles took care of all the rest. Love him! Here are some pictures:

Calvin didn't really want to take a picture with me. Can you tell?

Upside Down Pumpkin Cake

At work last week, we had a "Steak Burn." I had never heard of a "steak burn" before, so I wasn't really sure what it was. Basically, we all had an extended lunch and my boss's boss, Ron, grilled steaks, chicken, potatoes, etc. The food was really good! And it was nice to have an extended lunch and play some Skip-bo with my co-workers. (If you have never played Skip-Bo, go to Target, buy it and play it...you'll be hooked for life).

Anyway, for dessert Ron brought a dish his wife made. It was absolutely delicious! My boss, Michael, requested several times during the Steak Burn that he email it to us. He did. I wanted to share the recipe since it was so yummy. I haven't made it yet, but it's definitely on my to do list.

Upside Down Pumpkin Cake

Ingredients:
1 29oz can Pumpkin
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
3 Eggs
1/2 teaspoon Ground cloves
1 3/4 cup Sugar
1 12oz can Evaporated milk
1 box Yellow cake mix with pudding
1 cup Chopped pecans
1 cup Melted butter

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl, blend pumpkin, sugar, spices, eggs and milk. Pour mixture into a 13x9 pan. Sprinkle cake mix and nuts over mix. Pour on melted butter and spread over whole surface. Bake for 60 minutes until firm throughout.

According to the recipe, this is best if made ahead of time and served the next day or later. It's not as good right out of the oven.

Birthday cake!

As mentioned in my last blog entry, I promised to share the recipe for the cake I made for Charles' birthday. It turned out quite tasty, although this time it came out really thin even though I followed the directions. I'm not really sure what happened there, but it was still worth it.

Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients:
1 box of yellow cake mix, plus ingredients called for on the box (I used an all-natural cake mix since all the other brands had Partially Hydrogenated Oils, aka Trans Fat, in them)
1 15oz can of pure pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake as directed but with the following change: add pumpkin pie spice and substitute pumpkin puree for the water. Follow baking directions on the box (18-22 minutes for cupcakes, 25-30 minutes for 2 9inch cakes, etc). Let cool.

Icing
Ingredients:
3 cups powdered sugar
2 Tablespoons Milk
1/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon cinnamon

With electric mixer, mix powdered sugar and butter. Add vanilla, cinnamon and one tablespoon milk. Add more milk as needed.

You could probably do the icing as a cream cheese icing with added cinnamon. The original recipe actually called for cream cheese icing, but Charles has some weird thing against cream cheese. The cake would probably be very good with sweet potato puree instead of the pumpkin puree.

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Chef in Training