Moist and Flavorful Pumpkin Cake

The first day of fall came to my side of the world, and I was so excited. I got up, got my kids off to school, and got dressed in my fall-ish type clothes. You know the ones – cardigan sweater, warm socks and pants. And then, I took my preschoolers outside. I was hot. Apparently, summer hadn’t been told it was fall yet. Disappointed, but determined to celebrate the advent of fall in some way, my preschoolers and I made a moist and flavorful pumpkin cake – because it’s fall, I promise!

This cake is very moist, and very easy to make. (I love my stand mixer – the best Christmas present I ever gave to my husband, by the way. Making treats became a lot easier once he got it.) The recipe is a modified cookie recipe I found five years ago when my now fifth grader needed a treat for a bake sale.

Anyway, the ingredients are simple and not fussy. And, the cake is aromatic, moist, and tasty – all without the cream cheese frosting. I made a double batch because I knew my children would be coming home from school and I still wanted some for later in the evening. (You know – that snack time adults aren’t supposed to indulge in, but often do as a celebration of the day’s completion.) Another plus of this cake recipe is that it makes to whole house smell like fall. So, even though I couldn’t feel the crisp fall air, I could taste fall and I could smell fall.  I’ll be happy with those, for now.

This cake also pretends to be good for people, because of the zucchini carefully hidden inside. No one would even know it’s there – unless the preschooler tells everyone. Then, well, you’ll have to own up to the fact that you were trying to use up another zucchini from the garden.  But, my kids didn’t seem to care about the zucchini in the cake. Half the pan was gone before I had a chance to add the gooey, yummy cream cheese and cinnamon frosting.

I’d managed to stop the slicing and snatching of cake just a few moments before my husband came home from work and added the cream cheese frosting and cinnamon frosting.

The frosting tastes amazing, and again is simple to mix and looks amazing on the cake. My husband’s first words when he got home from work were “Can I eat the cake on the plate?”

I’d left my sample for photos on the table, and it apparently caught his eye. He ate not just one sample piece, but both, and then snagged another – all before dinner. My children and I were no better. After we had consumed half the pan without frosting, I added the frosting to the other half. We were slower to wolf-down the frosted variety. It actually requires a fork and plate so wolfing is more refined and it helped that I moved the pan to the fridge so the frosting wouldn’t spoil.

Now that you’re mouth is watering, let me share the recipe for this moist and flavorful pumpkin cake.