I accomplished “three birds with one stone” over the weekend (I say accomplished because I hate the expression killing two or three birds with one stone because I could never kill a bird with a stone or anything else).
But here’s what I accomplished: a tasty cake that satisfied three things I had to do. I needed to develop recipes that use coconut oil. I needed to bake a cake for our local Hadassah’s bi-monthly Tea for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital. And I wanted to use up canned food that I bought at the beginning of the fall (not that the cans of food couldn’t last longer, I just like to do a “winter” cleaning as well as a spring cleaning).
The result was this tender, warm and spicy cake. It’s a nice nosh on a cold day. It’s good for dunking. It’s good plain, just as is, but you can dress it up with ice cream or some sort of sugary-caramel sauce (that’s way too sweet for me).
Remember this for next Thanksgiving. Or make it now. You can freeze it too, and have a piece now and then over the coming weeks. You can use canned pumpkin or squash or about 1-3/4 cups mashed fresh cooked squash.
Pumpkin Spice Cake
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup coconut oil
4 large eggs
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin purée (not pie filling)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 10-cup Bundt pan, sprinkle with flour and tap out any excess. Place the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg and allspice in a large bowl and whisk to blend them completely; set aside. Place the sugar, vegetable oil and coconut oil in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed for about one minute to blend ingredients thoroughly. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the pumpkin and blend thoroughly. Add the reserved flour mixture and beat the mixture at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until the batter is smooth and even. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about 60-70 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove the pan to a cake rack to cool for 15 minutes. Invert the cake onto the rack and cool completely. Makes one cake serving 12-16