Anne, from Quick and Easy Cheap and Healthy is my go-to girl for tantalizing, healthified desserts. While I claim a sweet tooth, the rest of my body flattens me with a headache if I over-indulge on it. You’d think this would inspire me to eliminate sugar from my diet completely,… but I’ll be real and admit that some desserts are worth the occasional headache.
This dessert, however, gave me no such pain.
Since Ray started saying “pun-keen” this fall I melted all over myself and decided to try and make him a pumpkin cake, if only to hear his sweet voice say that word as many times as I could. So of course, the pumpkin pie frosting recipe that Anne shared recently just begged to smother our pumpkin-shaped cake.
So it did, and it was delicious.
This recipe isn’t magical – just a pumpkin pie that has been whisked in a creamy frosting texture. But it works beautifully.
Instead of being crammed with powdered sugar like regular frosting, this recipe only uses 3/4 cup sugar to frost an entire cake. Which probably accounts for the blessed lack of a headache.
Since this recipe calls for ingredients like egg and pumpkin puree, it sound like it would cost more than a regular butter cream frosting. But it doesn’t. In fact, it’s significantly cheaper.
The ingredients for this frosting cost me $1.21. If I made the same amount of buttercream frosting, the cost of butter alone would have been more than that.
As an added bonus, after frosting the cake I wasn’t faced with the conundrum of either throwing out the leftover frosting (wasteful) or making another dessert I could frost (how many cakes does a family need in one day?). Instead we could simply eat the custardy leftover pumpkin pie by the spoonful. Guilt-free (almost) and waste-free. That makes this recipe a winner in my book.
And to give credit where it is due, I didn’t actually assemble or bake this cake. My mom was the genius behind that endeavor. I just made the frosting. Thanks, Mama.
{To make the pumpkin-shaped cake, I used my Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl, which is safe to bake with up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit}
Pumpkin Pie Frosting
In case someone in your family likes pumpkins as much as Ray does, I included directions to make the cake too.
Also, this recipe makes enough frosting to cover the entire cake and still have plenty of leftovers to store in the fridge and spoon out later.
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 cake recipe (try spice cake!)
- Something to use as the stem (we used leftover banana bread, cut into the shape of a stem)
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2 cups pumpkin, pureed
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 cups milk
SPECIAL EQUIPMENT:
- Oven-safe bowl (that can hold at least 1 quart) to bake the cake in (see photo above)
DIRECTIONS FOR FROSTING:
- Combine all ingredients except milk in a blender
- With the blender on low, gradually pour milk into the pumpkin mixture until milk has thoroughly mixed into the pumpkin
- Pour pie filling into a small greased casserole dish or pie plate
- Bake pie at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 40-45 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight
- Scoop pie filling into a stand mixer and use the whip attachment to beat the pie until it is fluffy and spreadable
DIRECTIONS FOR CAKE:
- Prepare the cake batter according to the recipe
- Grease oven-safe bowl and pour half of the cake batter into it
- Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (double check what your bowl can handle and use a lower temperature if needed) until knife inserted in the center comes out clean (for our recipe, this took 50-60 minutes)
- Allow cake to cool for a few minutes, then carefully remove it from the bowl and place it on a wire rack to finish cooling
- Quickly wash the bowl, grease it, and pour the rest of the cake batter into it
- Bake the same as the first cake
- When both cakes are sufficiently cooled, place one cake on the tray on which you will serve it, small side down so it looks like a bowl
- Frost the top of the “bowl” with the pumpkin pie frosting and place the other cake on top of the frosted side to make a ball-shaped cake
- Frost the cake as desired
- To insert the stem, use a sharp knife to cut a hole 1/2”-1” in the top of the “pumpkin” that will snuggly fit the stem
- Touch up with frosting, if needed, then slice and enjoy
COST:
- Eggs = $.33
- Pumpkin puree = $.50
- Sugar = $.28
- Spices, etc. = Let’s say $.10
Total = $1.21
As I said above, this recipe turns out cheaper than regular buttercream frosting. Keep in mind that ingredient costs vary, so that might not be true for everyone.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
What is your favorite kind of frosting?
Cheers,
P.S. Check out Tastetastic Thursday for more delicious inspiration!
2 comments
Matthew
12/01/2011 at 5:36 AM (UTC -6)
Pure, delicious-looking genius!
I have a horrible sweet tooth and just put up with the headaches that they cause. As much as I might desire cutting sugar out of my diet, it just hasn’t happened yet. Finding ways to reduce it has replaced trying for the time being. And here is a new favorite.
Mindy @ The Purposed Heart
12/02/2011 at 6:20 AM (UTC -6)
That is such a cute cake, Steph! Very nicely done.
I love Anne’s blog too – she has great recipes, doesn’t she?