Pumpkin Spice Cake from GUEST BLOGGER: Jenny's Cookbook

I have a little secret. I have already made this Pumpkin Spice Cake (remember that bright orange cake I made last week). Can you believe the day I was looking through and posting all of my guest posts, is the same day on facebook I asked my fans "hey does anyone have any ideas for a cake using a pudding mix", well I do! I do! I had to look no further then my in-box, this was already sitting there waiting for me to read. Now, I can already tell you that this recipe is A-MAZ-ING, because I've already made it. 

So, let's welcome Jennifer all the way from Canada with her blog Jenny's Cookbook. She started her blog after she began posting recipes on Facebook and her album reached it's max at 200 images, she decided it was time. I too started my blog a little the same way, I posted recipes on facebook everyday for a year before I began my blog. Too funny that we have this in common.

Blog: Jenny's Cookbook

TAKE IT AWAY: Happy Thanksgiving to everyone visiting Tina at MOMS CRAZY COOKING! My name’s Jennifer. I live in Toronto, Ontario Canada with my husband and two little princesses (4 and 17months). When I’m not busy working and running around with my girls, I try to spend some time in the kitchen (or if I’m feeling lazy you’ll find me on the couch crocheting). I went back to work in June 2011 after a 1 year leave so I don’t have time to cook and bake as much as I used to. I like collecting cookbooks and magazines. Sometimes I like to check out thrift stores as well, you’d be surprised at the wonderful cookbooks you can find there!

In Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October. I’m actually writing out this recipe on Canadian Thanksgiving but I’m so happy to have the opportunity to guest post on Tina’s blog and share this with my friends to the south.

I made this cake to bring to a potluck we had at work. I thought it was yummy! The spices weren’t overwhelming and the pumpkin was just the right amount for my liking. It was moist and people seemed to enjoy it! We cut it up into smaller pieces at work (about 24), but if I were serving this at home I would probably get 12 servings out of it.

Pumpkin Spice Cake

Recipe adapted from My Finds Online

1 package spice cake mix

1 package instant vanilla pudding mix

3 large eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup canola oil

½ cup water

½ cup icing sugar

milk

candies for decoration

Preheat the oven to 350F. Spray a bunt cake pan with cooking spray. Instead of using flour, coat the pan with some of the spice cake mix. Tap the excess into the bowl that you’re going to mix the batter in. Why waste it?

In the bowl, whisk together cake mix and pudding mix.

Make a well in the middle and add eggs, pumpkin, oil and water. Whisk all ingredients together just for a minute until combined. There may be a few lumps but that’s okay.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cake is cool you have several options. You can add a cream cheese frosting, powdered sugar or a glaze like I used. To make the glaze, mix powdered sugar with about 2 tablespoons of milk. You may need more or less milk depending on how thin you want your icing. If it’s too thin it will just run off the cake so try to make it slightly runnier than toothpaste consistency. Drizzle over the cake.

You can add some sprinkles or nuts while the icing is still wet if you wish. Or how about toasted pumpkin seeds? I added some candy corn and pumpkins to the centre to make it look festive. Or how about adding a bit of orange food colouring to the icing? Then it’ll look like a pumpkin!

Tip: I bought a large can of pumpkin. It was about 3 cups. I divided the other 2 cups into freezer bags and froze them for later use.

 I am so so happy Jennifer that you made this cake and choose it for her guest post. And I am equally happy that I got to make it before this went live, it was so delicious, even the neighbors

came to eat it. Here is a picture of my cake that I made with Jennifer's recipe
(we love frosting, so I smothered it in store-bought cream cheese frosting tinted orange). FUN!
Thanks again Jennifer, we loved having you here on MOMS CRAZY COOKING!