Pumpkin Spice Cake

I Love the fall season.  It's the first day of Septmeber and even though it's still hot outside here, I am stocking my kitchen pantry with all the ingredients for the season.  Today I was in the mood for for something pumpkin.  I usually wait until late September/early October to start my fall baking.  Armed with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and canned pumpkin on hand.....I decided instead of making pumpkin pie, I wanted something cakey (is that even a word? 😜).........so Pumpkin Spice Cake is it.

I made some minor adjustments to my pumpkin cake batter.  I wanted butter instead of all oil but I also wanted the oil for moistness.  I found a happy medium with a cake with butter and oil and the results are awesome.  

I made a spiced brown sugar cream cheese frosting (recipe below) for the filling and finishing......which I altered my original recipe as well.  I wanted something more fluffy and light, not too sweet and grainy (like other cream cheese frostings I have had from others) and something not too heavy like my original cream cheese recipe.  So this is what I came up with:

(2) 8oz. Packages of cream cheese

3 sticks of butter

3-4 cups of confectioners sugar

1tsp Madagascar vanilla

1tsp cinnamon

Cream the butter and cream cheese until fluffy.  Then add the confectioners sugar (a little at a time) until well combined, scraping the bowl in between.  Once everything is combined, then add your vanilla and cinnamon until just combined.

Finally, I wanted a garnish and a little crunch.  So I came across this recipe on www.food.com for a super simple, super fast candied pecan recipe.  All you need is three simple ingredients......pecans, butter and brown sugar, but I added a few pumpkin seeds and pure maple syrup to the recipe.  

Candied Maple Brown Sugar Pecans

2 cups of pecan halves

4 tbs salted butter

4 tbs brown sugar

1tbs pure maple syrup (use a good maple syrup.....not that cheap stuff)

Melt the butter in a sauce pan on low heat, then add the pecans.....stir to coat the pecans.  

Then add the brown sugar and maple syrup......stir until the brown sugar caramelizes and nicely coats the pecans.  

Pour onto a sheets pan lined with parchment paper and allow to dry.  

I always to a step further for presentation purposes, so I finished this cake with caramel sauce on top of the pecans and down the sides of the cake.

The results........an ultra moist, not too sweet cake that simply melts in your mouth.  SIMPLY DELISH!!!!😋😋😋😋😋😋😋