These three ingredients are a match made in heaven and some of my new favorite flavors for fall. This pumpkin spice cake with brown butter icing and caramelized walnuts was actually very easy to make and filled the house with the aroma of fall food.
The recipe was from Martha Stewart and I used canned pumpkin, which had one ingredient: organic pumpkin. I prefer to add the spices myself. I haven't ever made a pie from fresh pumpkin and from what I have heard, it can be very tricky to get the right consistency when using fresh pumpkin. Has anyone made their own pumpkin puree and does it have significantly better flavor? For time's sake, I used canned.
I also wanted to try out my small cake pans again and I thought I would use the leftover batter to make a half bundt cake.
The batter was easy to make. With standard spices, vanilla, eggs and canned pumpkin.
The small cakes baked nicely and with a less significant dome shape than with the lavender cakes.
The half-bundt also turned out well!
I caramelized the walnuts on the stove with a bit of sugar. This works nicely for nuts in salads as well!
I placed the coated nuts onto foil and used two spoons to separate the nuts. Then, I did the something stupid. I know molten sugar is dangerous, and of course I used my hands to separate the nuts. And totally burned my finger- blistered it. So, the moral of the story is, don't touch hot sugar.
The icing was made using browned butter (shown above) and straining any burned bits, then mixed with milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar.
The results was three mini cakes with delicious icing...
and one bundt cake with less than perfect icing because I ran short and thinned it with milk. The emulsion of butter and milk was unstable and broke...but it tasted fine and by then my finger really hurt so I was done fussing with it.
The crumb was pleasantly spiced and moist! An easy and delicious treat for fall! Happy baking!
I also wanted to try out my small cake pans again and I thought I would use the leftover batter to make a half bundt cake.
The batter was easy to make. With standard spices, vanilla, eggs and canned pumpkin.
The small cakes baked nicely and with a less significant dome shape than with the lavender cakes.
The half-bundt also turned out well!
I caramelized the walnuts on the stove with a bit of sugar. This works nicely for nuts in salads as well!
I placed the coated nuts onto foil and used two spoons to separate the nuts. Then, I did the something stupid. I know molten sugar is dangerous, and of course I used my hands to separate the nuts. And totally burned my finger- blistered it. So, the moral of the story is, don't touch hot sugar.
The icing was made using browned butter (shown above) and straining any burned bits, then mixed with milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar.
The results was three mini cakes with delicious icing...
and one bundt cake with less than perfect icing because I ran short and thinned it with milk. The emulsion of butter and milk was unstable and broke...but it tasted fine and by then my finger really hurt so I was done fussing with it.
The crumb was pleasantly spiced and moist! An easy and delicious treat for fall! Happy baking!
2 comments:
It looks delicious! Pumpkin is my favorite flavor ever - I can't get enough this time of year. I wish you were here and we could do our holiday baking together!
i made a "real" pumpkin pie for the first time last year, and here's my 2 cents worth: after roasting & mashing, i strained it for a few hours. then i lined a jelly roll pan with paper towel, spread the pumpkin on top, and layered more paper towel over the pumpkin. this whole operation worked well. i think it's wise to do pumpkin pie for your first experiment, since it's custard-y and not so critical to have the moisture level perfect. happy fall!
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