Categories
Breakfast/Brunch Dessert Pumpkin

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake With Peekaboo Cream Cheese Filling

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Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese

Now that it almost October, I’m starting to go pumpkin crazy again. This month’s issue of Fine Cooking features Holiday Pumpkin Desserts on the cover, and I was inspired by a Bundt cake featured inside. I adapted this recipe from that one, pumping up the spice a bit and making other little tweaks. The result is a moist flavorful pumpkin cake that was a hit at the church coffee hour this morning. Bundt cakes are so rewarding because they always come out looking great and aren’t that difficult to pull off. Powdered sugar is the perfect finish and a lot easier than frosting!

The filling includes crystallized ginger mixed in with the cream cheese and sour cream. Don’t skip it. It makes it have real zing. To finely chop it, I just dumped it in this MiniPrep:

And to grind the nutmeg, I used a microplane grater, like this one:

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese

 

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake With Peekaboo Cream Cheese Filling
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12
Ingredients
  • 12 oz. cream cheese, softened (1.5 packages of Philadelphia)
  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ cup granulated sugar
  • ½ tsp. ground ginger
  • ¼ tsp. salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • ½ cup finely chopped crystallized ginger (I used a Cuisinart Mini Prep to chop mine)
  • 2¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp. salt
  • 2 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 Tbsp. ground ginger
  • 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp. freshl ground nutmeg (I use a microplane grater)
  • ½ tsp. ground cloves
  • 1 15-oz. can pure pumpkin purée
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup vegetable oil
  • 4 large eggs
  • 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
  • Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Instructions
  1. For the cream cheese filling:
  2. In a stand mixer beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar, ginger, and salt on medium speed until well combined.
  3. Add each egg, one at a time, beating after each addition until mixed thoroughly.
  4. Chop the crystallized ginger in a Cuisinart MiniPrep. It will glom together because it's sticky, but don't worry. Once added to the cream cheese mixture, it will distribute.
  5. Add the vanilla and the crystallized ginger to the cream cheese mixture and blend. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
  6. For the cake:
  7. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt pan generously with nonstick cooking spray.
  8. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
  9. In the bowl of the stand mixer, blend the pumpkin, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla until smooth.
  10. Add the ⅓ of the dry ingredients, and whisk until well blended. Then add another third and blend and repeat.
  11. Fill the prepared Bundt pan with about half of the cake batter.
  12. Stir the filling to distribute the chopped ginger.
  13. Create a trough in the batter with the back of a large spoon and then try to pour the cream cheese filling into the trough. Don't worry if it spills over.
  14. Spoon the remaining batter on top and spread to evenly over the top.
  15. Bake until a sharp knife inserted to the bottom comes out clean, about 50 to 60 minutes.
  16. Cool on a rack for 10 to 15 minutes and then invert onto a serving plate and remove the cake pan.
  17. Cool completely.
  18. You can refrigerate the plastic-wrap covered cake for up to 2 days.
  19. When ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners’ sugar.

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Cream Cheese Filling
Categories
Dessert Pumpkin Uncategorized

Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Brownies


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Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Brownies
Pumpkin Chocolate Swirl Brownies

Day 13 of 31 days of pumpkin and we come to a personal favorite: the brownie. Brownies are the kind of food that inspire strong opinions. People know exactly how they like their brownies. Some people like them cakey, others like them fudgy. Some like the crunchy edges so much that they buy special pans so that every brownie will have a crunchy edge. Others want the slightly undercooked gooey middle. Me? I go for the fudgy, gooey variety, made with chocolate as dark and rich as possible. That’s why I decided to make this recipe using 70% cacao Sharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate and a whole lot o’ butta.

Scharffen Berger Chocolate
Scharffen Berger Chocolate
Categories
Dessert Pizza and Pasta Uncategorized

Marbled Cupcakes – Chocolate Brownie + Vanilla Swirl

Chocolate Brownie + Vanilla Cupcake Swirl
Chocolate Brownie + Vanilla Cupcake Swirl

I got it into my head the other day that I just had to make marbled cupcakes. I don’t know why. I scoured the internet for techniques but in the end, I just invented my own. I needed to use what I had on hand in the pantry and I didn’t have any buttermilk or orange peel or almond extract or baker’s chocolate or lots of other things that the recipes were calling for. So I improvised. I made two batters: one was a version of Mark Bittman’s (again?!) Golden Layer Cake batter from How to Cook Everything and the other was a pre-packaged brownie mix batter to which I added an extra egg. The extra egg in the brownie batter made it light enough to co-exist with cake batter in a cupcake. I spooned the golden batter into the cups first then added a large dollop of chocolate brownie batter. Then I simply swirled a knife through with a circular and upwards motion. Once baked and cooled, I iced them with a basic butter cream frosting and added some sprinkles. I don’t have any cake decorating tools, so my icing job looks pretty amateur (at best), but I’m learning.

Marbled Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cupcake
Marbled Chocolate Vanilla Swirl Cupcake

Marbled Cupcakes – Chocolate Brownie + Vanilla Swirl
Makes 24 cupcakes

Vanilla Cake Batter

1 1/4 sticks butter, softened
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk

1. Cream the butter until smooth. Add sugar gradually and continue to cream for 3-4 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, incorporating each one completely before adding the next. Then beat in the vanilla extract.

2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the milk into the butter mixture, incorporating each completely before adding the next.

Chocolate Brownie Batter

1. Follow the instructions on the packaged brownie mix, but add one extra egg.

Assembling the Cupcakes

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚F. Spray two cupcake pans with cooking spray and insert paper cupcake liners.

2. Spoon in enough vanilla batter to fill about halfway up each cupcake liner. Then spoon in a heaping tablespoon of the chocolate batter. Take a knife and swirl it through the batter with an upward motion at the end. Don’t stir too much or the batters won’t remain delineated.

3. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. An inserted toothpick should come out clean. Cool on rack. When completely cool, ice with a simple buttercream frosting.

Buttercream Frosting

1 stick butter, softened
1 lb package of confectioners sugar
1/4 cup milk (more or less)
2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Cream the butter. Alternate adding sugar and milk, beating everything to a smooth, creamy texture. Beat in vanilla. Adjust thickness by adding milk or sugar, but remember that putting it back in the refrigerator will also thicken it up.

Marbled Cupcake
Marbled Cupcake
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