Today felt more like a Fall day than the dead of Winter so I thought a Pumpkin Cake was in order.

I have used up the massive amount of Fairytale Pumpkin I cooked off in September, but I still have several cans of pumpkin sitting around for when the urge strikes. It’s nice to have a well-stocked larder.

I do have to admit that I love my desserts, and trust me when I say it’s a bitch being able to walk into the kitchen and just bake something. I can’t use the excuse that I don’t have something or it’s too much trouble. There’s always flour, butter, and eggs in the house.

And right now, plenty of canned pumpkin.

I suppose I should just blame my mother. She was the Dessert Queen and had dessert virtually every night of her life. There was more than one night we would be watching TV and eating fudge with a spoon because no one (especially her) had the patience to let it set.

It’s genetic. I absolve myself.

Tonight’s cake is a pretty basic bundt. I reworked a recipe I had found some time ago. It called for some ridiculous cup and something of pumpkin. There is just not a lot one can do with a half-cup of pumpkin. More often than not, it goes into a little tupperware container, grows mold, and gets thrown out. I decided we needed to slow down on the science projects. Waste not, want not. That part is genetic, as well.

Pumpkin Cake

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda soda
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 15oz can pumpkin
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 tsp vanilla

For icing

• 3 tbsp (about) buttermilk
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter bundt pan and dust with flour.

Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and spices, and set aside. Mix pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla in another bowl.
Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then add eggs one at a time and mix well. Add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in three batches, beginning and ending with flour. Mix until just smooth,

Spoon batter into pan, smoothing top, and bake 50 to 55 minutes or until skewer comes out clean. Cool cake in pan about 15 minutes, then remove from pan and cool completely.

For the icing:

While cake is cooling, whisk together buttermilk, vanilla, cinnamon, and powdered sugar until smooth. Drizzle icing over cake.

The cinnamon glaze is good, but you could easily just dust with powdered sugar or go crazy and make a cream cheese icing. It’s a nice, moist cake and will handle any sort of topping.