Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

It is hard not to love Fall.  Beautiful colours, cool crisp mornings followed by blazing sun filled afternoons. Perfect days to go to the pumpkin patch, a colourful walk in the woods, or stay home and bake up some comforing healthy treats using all the wonderful vegetables available to us during the harvest season.  Pumpkins, squashes, carrots, beets, parsnips, giant zucchini that your neighbours left on your doorstep; they are all terrific in baked goods.  Cookies, loaves, muffins, cakes, pies, bars, squares; great stuff for breakfast, snacks, desserts.  Using vegetables in baked goods usually means we can reduce the amount fat we are using by half. You can adapt your own favourite recipes by using this simple rule. The vegetables add moisture, boost the nutrition and add great flavours.

 Moist and delicious, this pumpkin spice cake was a wonderful addition to our Thanksgiving Dinner.   Filled with the warm spices of pumpkin pie and topped with a silky smooth cream cheese frosting it can be both a snack or a special dessert. This recipe makes 2 small round cakes or a larger sheet snack cake.  It is easy to put together and is much lower in fat and sugar than a typical cake. The frosting is AMAZING.  The cake freezes well without the frosting.  

Pumpkin Spice Cake with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

 Maple Cream Cheese Frosting

125g Light Cream Cheese Spread *

3-4 tablespoons maple sugar

1/8 tsp vanilla

Directions:  Place all ingredients in a small bowl and stir until smooth with a spoon.  The maple sugar dissolves into the cream cheese and blends beautifully.  Adjust the sugar to taste. Place in refrigerator.   This is enough for 1 small round cake or 1/2 the large sheet cake.

* I like to use Liberte brand Light Cream Cheese Spread. 

 Pumpkin Spice Cake

1 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin

1/4 cup oil

1/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup Fancy Molassas

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cloves

1/8 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

 Directions:  Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare cake pans or glass baking pan with butter and sprinkle lightly with flour.  Add pumpkin, oil, sugars, molasses and eggs to mixer and mix until well combined.  Add in spices and salt and mix well.  In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and baking soda.  Stir into pumpkin mixture until incorporated and pour into prepared pan(s).  Bake 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely before spreading the top with frosting.  Enjoy!  

This recipe is adapted from Cooking Light Pumpkin Pie Cake.