Marbled Pumpkin Chocolate Bundt Cake

People that bake occasionally really do not have much concept of how a recipe can actually end up being a visual work of art. A carefully placed series of strawberries on a cheesecake all the way to a contrasting marbled cake can be as visually pleasing to the eye as well as pleasing to the palate.

The "visual aspect" does play an important part when it comes to choosing food, especially at a younger age. It took me quite some time to actually try guacamole, simply because I was turned off by the look. Now, as a food blogger, I am more open to try things before making a decision regarding food and yes, I do think guacamole is pretty tasty!

This particular recipe blends spicy, pumpkin flavor with rich chocolate in a cake. The end result is a tasty, as well as stunning, dessert. This bundt cake has great texture. The use of oil instead of butter always yields a more moist cake. The chocolate part of the cake is extra rich, using dutch process cocoa while the spicy pumpkin swirl offers a tasty accent of flavor to every slice.

Marbled Pumpkin Chocolate Bundt Cake
adapted from Kiss My Bundt

Ingredients/Pumpkin Batter
7 1/2 to 8 oz pumpkin puree (1/2 15 oz can)
2 eggs
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 granulated white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Ingredients/Chocolate Batter
1 egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup dutch process cocoa powder
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup plus 3 tbs sugar

Start by preheating the oven to 350 degrees. Then generously grease and coat the interior of a 12 cup bundt pan with flour.

For the pumpkin batter, crack the eggs into a bowl of a stand mixer and beat on medium speed about 3 minutes. Eggs will have a frothy consistency. Turn the mixer down to low speed and slowly stream in the white sugar. Then toss in scoops of the brown sugar. Continue to beat until batter becomes thick. Add the pumpkin puree and the oil. Combine with the mixer on medium speed until completely blended. Set aside.

Using a separate bowl, sift together the remaining dry ingredients for the pumpkin cake. Also, set this bowl aside.

For the chocolate batter, fill the bowl of a stand mixer with the egg, milk and oil. Beat for about one minute. Set aside.

Sift the baking soda, baking powder, cocoa powder, flour and salt into a medium size bowl. Stir in sugar until mixed evenly. Empty 1/3 of the batter into the egg/oil mixture and fold together. Continue
with this process until all the sifted ingredients has been blended into the batter. Lastly, mix in the
 boiling water.

Go back to the pumpkin batter and fold in the sifted pumpkin spice ingredients. Add and stir in increments, just like the instructions for the chocolate batter.

Now that you have created 2 batters, you will start the layering process. Using 1/3 of the pumpkin batter first, spoon it into the bundt pan, making sure batter makes a complete circle inside the pan.  Then pour on 1/3 of the chocolate batter. Repeat this process until you have filled the cavity of the pan with 6 layers of alternating batter. The batter layers in the pan start with pumpkin and end with chocolate.

Bake until tester comes out clean.  Cake should take about 45 minutes to bake.  Remove cake and let rest on a cooling rack about 20 minutes. Then invert onto rack to finish cooling. When cool, transfer to serving plate.

Tips and Notes:
1. The chocolate batter will be very runny, that is why the pumpkin batter goes first into the pan.
2. The chocolate is very rich, so much so that the prumpkin flavor to chocolate is not 50-50.  Should you want  a 50-50 ratio of flavors, you will need to experiment more with the recipe. However, this cake disappeared very quickly, perhaps waiting a day before serving may have allowed the pumpkin flavor to develop more.
3. Glazing or topping the cake is optional, but I would have chosen a cinnamon glaze since it pairs well with either chocolate or pumpkin, if I was going to glaze or frost the cake.
                                   **LAST YEAR:Chocolate Pecan Snails** 

Pineapple Upside Down Pumpkin Gingerbread

I think that one of the more difficult things in creating your own recipe is balancing the flavors.  I have posted and have seen other bloggers post comments regarding "subtle flavor" or that a certain flavor takes over the whole dessert which is not what is intended.  I think the worst I have seen is a recipe review stating "and after that dessert we all went to bed with upset stomachs".  It was not a blogger recipe but an actual comment regarding a recipe in a published cookbook.

This cake recipe, in reading the name itself, makes you think there is too much going on here. However, I give kudos to the collaboration of Gold Medal Flour and the Hawaiian Pineapple company in creating this recipe.  It came out back in the 1960's and proves that both knew a thing or two about balance of flavor.

This recipe is spot on when it comes to texture as well as flavor. As you can see by the above picture, this cake was moist and tender.  The cake brings all those wonderful winter flavors together, pumpkin, gingerbread and cinnamon.  Great as a stand alone, but even better with the pineapple caramel topping with an occasional bite of fresh pineapple on top.

This one does not require a lot of time or effort.  The biggest effort was only cutting out the circles of pineapple and most of the time used was in the baking of the cake.  The size of this cake is not real big.  Perhaps you and one of your loved ones should take some time out from all the holiday stress.  Time to crank up the fireplace, put on some Christmas music and kick back with a warm a cup of hot tea or coffee and a slice of this cake. Ahhh, I just feel better thinking about it...

Pineapple Upside-Down Pumpkin Gingerbread
adapted from Bon Appetit/ Oct 2008

Ingredients/Topping
1 ripe pineapple/ peeled
2/3 cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 tsp light or mild molasses
2 tbs frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
1/2 cup or 1 stick of butter
Nonstick pan spray

Ingredients/Cake
1/2 cup light molasses
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 1 stick softened butter
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup boiling water
1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
Whipped cream (optional)

Start by cutting 1/3 inch round from the pineapple and core it.  Then stand the pineapple on end and cut 1/3 inch thick lengthwise slices, avoiding the core.  Take a small biscuit cutter (I used a 1 inch) and cut the slices into circles. 15-20 circles will be enough.  Place the slices in a bowl, cover and refrigerate.  Reserve the rest of the pineapple in the fridge for another use.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9 inch square or round cake pan with non-stick spray.

The topping will be prepared first. Place a saucepan on medium high heat and fill with butter, sugar and pineapple juice concentrate.  Stir and let butter melt and sugar dissolve until smooth.  Then stop stirring and let mixture boil for about 1-2 minutes. It should have the consistency of warm caramel. Remove and pour into prepared pan and swirl a little, to make sure it is even on the bottom.

Place the pineapple slices on top of the caramel mixture in a decorative design, making sure there is no overlap. For the cake, sift together the ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour. Set the filled cake pan as well as the bowl with sifted ingredients aside.

In another bowl, beat butter until smooth.  Pour in the sugar and beat on medium speed until all is incorporated.  Add one egg and beat for 30 seconds.  Repeat with the additional egg.  Continue to beat mixture and pour in molasses and spoon in the pumpkin.  Remove beater blades and if using a stand mixer, remove bowl from stand when all is blended together. Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the batter until no dry streaks remain.  Lastly, pour the boiling water into the batter and mix until blended.

Empty batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface, so it is even.  Place in oven and bake until tester comes out clean.  Bake time is approximately 50 minutes. Remove cake pan from oven and place over cooling rack.  Cake should cool in pan for about 45 minutes. Then invert pan over platter or cake board.  Let rest in place for 5 minutes, then remove pan. 

For serving, cake can be warm or room temperature.  Also, if you prefer, you can add a dollup of whipped cream on the side with each slice.

Tips and Notes:
1. Fresh pineapple on top does beat canned, for cutting the canned is way too mushy.  As noted above, you will have some left over.  I did not have an issue since fresh fruit is always eaten in this house.

2. Be aware that the cake bakes up very dark, so do not think it is burnt.  The above noted baking time was perfect for my oven 
                                        **LAST YEAR: Czech Nut Bars*

Welcoming Autumn- Carrot Cream Cheese Cake

Mother nature seems to have switched the flip here.  Dove season has started and the mornings have been cool and overcast.  Time to make a decision regarding running the air conditioner, hopefully fall weather is here to stay awhile.

With the change, I started thinking of all the delicious desserts that come with the autumn season.  Pumpkin pie, apple pie, something with egg nog and gingerbread cookies are a few that popped into my head.  That is, until I saw this particular recipe for carrot cake.  Labeled as "Carrot cake to Die For" , this recipe is one that is very similar to Oregon Farms or the Sara Lee brand carrot cake.

I did a little experimenting and tried to create a tunnel of cream cheese in the middle, pulling the filling recipe from another cake. As you can see that componet needs some more tweaking, for there was not enough there to balance with the cake part of this dessert.  Due to the high liquidity of the batter, a repeat of this cake would cause me to choose a 9x13 inch cake with no filling that is topped with cream cheese frosting. However, I would still choose the honey/molasses over the brown sugar to sweeten the cake.

As you can see by the picture, the result is a moist dark cake. One slice contains a myriad of spices and sweet honey enveloping thin strips of carrots with an occasional crunch of walnuts. The bake time for my cake took a lot longer than stated in the original recipe, due to the increase of the liquid with the filling.  Also, it was baked in a tube pan.  The original stated bake time is below, which I feel is probably correct if you intend to bake in a square pan.  For a tube pan, the bake time may take up to an hour or more.  I have also included the filling, which can be a great addition if tweaked to include with this cake as well as red velvet or lemon.  Please note that the recipe does have different options, so be sure to read and decide which to follow prior to starting on this cake.

Carrot Cream Cheese Cake
Cake adapted from Recipelink website/Filling from Desserts from Loveless Cafe

Ingredients/Filling
1/4 cup granulated sugar
6 oz cream cheese (avoid low fat or whipped type)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients/Cake
3 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp nutmeg
2 1/4 cups of flour
4 cups of shredded/grated raw carrots (do not pack)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar or 1 1/2 cups honey plus 1/4 cup molasses
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup chopped walnuts and/or 1 cup raisins

If making the filling, add the cream cheese, sugar and egg to a bowl of a stand mixer.  Beat on medium high for 1 minute, stopping a few times to scrape down the edges of the bowl.  Then blend in the egg and the vanilla extract and set aside.

Prepare a cake pan (either 10 inch tube or 9x13 cake pan) by lightly greasing the interior.  Also preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl, sift together the first 7 ingredients. Set aside.  In a large bowl, whisk together the oil and eggs.  Then stir in the sweetener (brown sugar or honey/molasses), carrots and vanilla extract. Fold in the sifted ingredients.  Once no dry streaks remain, mix in the walnuts and/or raisins.

Measure out half the batter and set aside.  Pour the other batter in the pan, making sure it is even.  For the tube pan, spoon out filling into center of batter, leaving 1/2 inch border of batter along pan edge. For the rectangular pan, the filling should be done in a cross pattern, like tick tack toe with four rows of filling for the shortest sides of the pan and two rows for the longest. You are welcome to use a squirt bottle to do this but remember the key is for it to be thick in a central area instead of thin in a wide area.

After you are done with the filling, Add the second layer of batter to the pan.  Make sure that the filling is completely covered and the batter is even.

Then bake cake for about 45 minutes for the rectangular pan or about 50-60 minutes ( tube pan) until cake is set.  The batter should no longer jiggle when the cake is done.  For tube pan, let cake rest for 20 minutes and then scrape between the pan and the cake around the edges and invert onto cake board or serving tray.  The rectangular cake can be served right out of the pan, but make sure either is completely cooled before topping.  Dust with confectioners sugar or frost with cream cheese icing- a brown butter cream cheese icing recipe is in the link below.
                          **LAST YEAR: Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting**