Pumpkin Spice is Twice as Nice.
Good morning, friends. Thank you so much for all of the wonderful birthday wishes yesterday!
This post is my creation for the November culinary events at Kitchen Play.
Kitchen Play is devoted to connecting food bloggers and PR professionals through sponsored events such as the Progressive Party, the SideCar Series, the Pampered Pantry and more. This month is sponsored by Nestlé Kitchens, so you can imagine my excitement when I found out that my top secret product was… Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin!
Be still my heart. Does it get any better than this? My assignment was to create a deconstructed pumpkin pie. In other words, turn pumpkin pie on its head!
When I was brainstorming ideas for my deconstructed pumpkin pie, only one thing came to mind: cake.
I thought to myself, cake? I enjoy cake, but it is rarely my go-to dessert. I usually choose something much more rich and decadent. Not to mention that I cannot decorate a cake to save my life. I can barely master a crumb coat, let alone a beautiful blanket of fluffy, whipped frosting.
But I couldn’t get cake out of my head, so I decided to roll with the punches.
And the wheels continued to churn. Not just one cake. But two cakes. Dueling cakes, perhaps? There were so many flavors I wanted to throw together, but they couldn’t possibly make it all into one cake.
So two cakes it was.
I became a cake-baking machine. In one day, the following flavors rolled in and out of my oven:
- crunchy cinnamon apple
- pumpkin spice
- chocolate fudge
- peanut butter
In addition to those flavors, I added a pumpkin cheesecake to the list, which I stuffed inside the chocolate and peanut butter cake. Couldn’t hurt, right?
For the majority of the day, I was covered in batter. I had flour up my nose and in my ears. I had butter under my nails. I orally inhaled baking soda. I don’t recommend it.
I ended up with 2 tall layer cakes.
Cake #1 consisted of 2 layers each of peanut butter cake, crunchy cinnamon apple cake and spiced pumpkin cake. Each layer was sandwiched by a layer of cinnamon sugar butter cream.
Cake #2 consisted of a center layer of pumpkin spice cheesecake, enveloped by chocolate fudge cake with the outermost layers being peanut butter cake. It was concealed in a thick layer of dark chocolate fudge chip frosting.
Now to overwhelm you… there are so many recipes! Most of the recipes I used were tried and true – I didn’t have the time, nor the expenses to screw up! Where to begin? Behold the recipes for my final creation.
Peanut Butter Cake
Source: allrecipes
I made this recipe as is, though I double it for 4 cakes. I also doubled the amount of peanut butter in it.
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Source: Kevin and Amanda
There is no going wrong with this recipe – it is what I’ve used for those cupcakes I’ve been loving!
Pumpkin Cake
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream butter and both sugars until fluffy. Add eggs, beating one at a time. Add vanilla and pumpkin, mixing thoroughly.
Mix flour, powder, soda, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a bowl. Add half of dry ingredients to pumpkin mixture. Stream in milk while mixer is on low speed. Add the other half of the dry ingredients, mixing until just combined. Divide into 2 two 9-inch cake pans.
Bakes at 375 for 20-25 minutes.
Crunchy Apple Cake
Source: myrecipes
I added large chunks of apples to this cake, which gave it a delicious crunch.
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Source: Sugarcrafter
My only changes were to cut the recipe in half, and leave out the sour cream. Because of this, I added an extra 4 ounces of cream cheese.
Cinnamon Sugar Buttercream
2 cups butter, room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Cream butter and sugar together, adding vanilla and cinnamon. If mixture is too thick, add a tablespoon of milk until it reaches your desired consistency.
Chocolate Fudge Chip Frosting
Source: allrecipes
This frosting was inspired by Pillsbury’s fudge chip frosting which my family has become obsessed with. I doubled the recipe for this frosting and added mini chocolate chips. It was just as delicious!
So there you go. This non cake-baker baked 2 giant layer cakes full of pumpkin and spice. And we ate cake for days. It was fabulous. And delicious. And pants-button-busting.
This recipe was my creation for the Kitchen Play Sidecar Series, sponsored by Nestlé Kitchens . I was compensated for my work creating an original recipe with Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin.
106 Comments on “Pumpkin Spice is Twice as Nice.”
Soooo yummy!
Your cakes are seriously gorgeous! Happy belated b-day – sorry I missed it, I was in the hen house all weekend! LOL!
I can feel the sugar rush from here!
You’ve got to be kidding me!! This much cake makes my head spin (in a really good way) – you are one creative lady.
Also – wanted to tell you that my SIL LOVED your Chocolate Banana Gingerbread, she ate half of it while standing at the kitchen counter. :-)
That is awesome. :)
wow those are some AWESOME layer cakes! love the flavors, and love that they have so many layers!
this is so amazingly over the top — love it
Are you kidding me!? Those cakes look sooooo delish! I seriously caught myself drooling ;-)
Want!
Love your cake! Looks and sounds sooo yummy!
i can ONLY imagine how much work this way
recipe development
DOING the actual baking
taking TONS of pictures
then posting all the pics and recipes…
Oh lordy. Not to mention it all looks divine…but just to get it to this point, as a cook and blogger, I can imagine this took…ummm…more than just a few minutes :)
Oh my goodness. What on earth. The chocolate one looks delicious!!
Yum! Looks great. :)
I’m bowing down to you (my computer) right now.
(not really, but wow- and to think I was just *quickly popping in for a chicken finger recipe. :)
Why thank you! I hope you enjoy the chicken fingers. :)
Oh. my. LordJesusinheaven. You are amazing!!
You’re a champion, no doubt.
Wow. Just, wow. I am speechless with admiration. You deserve the Nobel Cake Prize, or something. Happy Belated Birthday!
These look absolutely sinful! Love the layers. Happy belated! xo
I just gained 5 pounds looking at the pictures! Good job, they look really good and I’m guessing tasted divine.
That looks amazingly delicious!! Soooo wishing I was having that right now…
Speaking of delicious.. I am trying out your Vanilla Bourbon Acorn Squash tonight.. can’t wait!
Let me know if you like it!
Oh my gosh, what??!! Those cakes look SO adorable and sound amazing. I’m almost in tears bc I can’t actually try them :-)
Oh. My. God. I’ll trade you all the bacon I can carry for just one piece.
Oh WOW, that is all I can say, just WOW. Can you come out to San Diego and make me my birthday cake? lol
All the cakes look so good! Great job on the pumpkin cake, it sounds delicious.
I bow down to you! I’m not creative like you. I just make what other people bake and make people think I’m an awesome cook :) You have made me look good on more than one occasion!!
Thanks!
WOW. Those look amazing! You have some very creative and yummy-looking recipes on here. Super impressed!
These cakes look fantastic! I can’t wait to try some of them out myself. I literally just caught myself drooling at the computer screen!
um seriously?! this is unbelievable!!! you are so talented Jessica!
Now that looks like a great party! What wonderful cake flavors!
Um. I think I just died.
Yummiiiiiiii!!!!!! These cakes are so delicious, look amazing… I want a piece right now..
I think I just died and went to cake heaven. The shot that got me? The one where the two cakes line up, one after the other, and begs to be dived into! :)
So. Much. Cake!!! You are a machine! Awesome sounding combinations! I think I just drooled a little.
Dang! You are good!
Oh Wow! These look awesome Jessica! I wish I could shove this into my mouth right now!
I’m not much of a cake fan either…but ohh my gagaa now I want some. Anything with apples makes me happy anyways–but the presentation is just gorgeous (as always), and the flavors sound incredibleee!
Truth: I’d be the happiest, most well-fed girl around if I was your neighbor….or cousin? Let’s make it happen :)
That’s it. I’ve died.
WOW…all of these cakes looks simply amazing and delish! I would dive right into each and everyone of them fork first.
Impressive cake!!! The layers are so pretty!
The picture of the batter folding in with the apples. Yum!
The recipe seems totally doable too. This whole cakes looks amazing. Good job with your assignment. Mine was way simplified. Yours looks elaborate and elegant. I love it.
Are you kidding me with this post? I’m in shock. Sugar shock. Love all the layers and the colors are gorgeous. Awesome photography!
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This looks delicious, I am totally going to attempt it this holiday season, and I’m definitely not an experienced baker…but I love cake! :)
YUM. This is..something incredible.
Yours is my favorite food blog. :)
Thank you!
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Oh. My. Gosh!! This looks amazing! I love pumpkin!
I’m having my first linky party on my blog and the theme is pumpkin. I’d like to invite you to come link up your favorite pumpkin recipe. The link is open until Wednesday at midnight, so please stop by and say hi.
http://cookincowgirl.blogspot.com/2011/07/pumpkin-blog-hop.html
~Cookin’ Cowgirl
These cakes look amazing and I cannot wait to try these in the fall! I have one question, which may sound dumb. For the pumpkin cheesecake, did you still make the graham cracker crust???
Wow, you are so creative!!!!!
Steph
Nope – just the cheesecake!
I just found your fabulous Pumpkin Spice is Twice as Nice. Yum! I tried to find the recipes and wonder if some have been removed by now. Can you tell me where i can find the recipe for the crunchy cinnamon apple. The Apple Cake seems to be gone from myrecipes. I got that you added the unpeeled apples — cool! Sure would like the apple cake recipe. Any help?