Bohemian Wedding Cake from EatLiveRun

I've been on a bit of a pumpkin kick lately and after coming across a pumpkin spice walnut cake on EatLiveRun's blog, I knew I had to try it. The cake, actually called a Bohemian Wedding Cake, mixes the flavors and textures of pumpkin, walnut, molasses, and spices that come together to form an incredibly moist, rich cake.

The pictures of this dessert just don't do it justice. This might be one of my favorite pumpkin desserts (even above the muffins!), however, one thing I would switch up is the frosting. I used the frosting that EatLiveRun uses, but to be honest, I don't think I let the cake cool enough before applying the frosting (there's me being impatient for ya!). Next time I make it, I might try making two cakes and spreading the a cream cheese frosting in the middle... mmm.

One thing I do love about this dessert is that you don't need a mixer! Just two bowls, some measuring utensils, a wisk, and a giant spoon.

First, mix together your dry ingredients:

Then your wet ingredients:

Then combine them both, mix in those walnuts, and plop it all into a baking pan. You can use whatever kind of pan you want... I used a bunt cake pan, but the blog I got the recipe from used a standard 9-inch cake pan.

I think I would vote this recipe #1 for easiest way to 'wow' family and friends on Thanksgiving. Don't think you can bake? Make this. If you can measure ingredients and mix a batter, you'll have yourself a delicious little dessert for the holidays.

Bohemian Wedding Cake

Dry Ingredients:

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1.5 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

Wet Ingredients:

1 15-ounce can pumpkin

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup molasses

1/2 cup (big handful) roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat your oven to 350 and butter/flour a nine inch cake pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda). Mix well.

In another bowl, whisk together the canola oil, eggs, pumpkin, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Fold in the walnuts and then pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake for about fifty minutes, or until the cake starts to pull away from sides of pan. Let cool for ten minutes and then invert on a plate and let cool all the way.

Frost as desired.

Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese Filling

I made Pumpkin Spice Muffins with Cream Cheese filling on Monday, determined to make something pumpkin to celebrate autumn. I found this recipe from a blog called Annie's Eats. These muffins were an absolute HIT with friends, family, and co-workers. They had a moist consistency and the sweet-spicy flavor of the pumpkin and cream cheese combo melt in your mouth. I must admit, they were quite tasty :)

This recipe is actually very easy, but takes a bit of time to prepare. As you'll read in the recipe below, you have to make the filling at least 2 hours in advance so it has time to harden in the freezer. I was surprised by how much filling there was, and decided to make two logs out of it, instead of just one (they were easier to manage this way). I snapped a few pictures along the way to show you how my little logs came out.

I actually left mine in the freezer for a good 24 hours before I actually got around to making the muffins. Hint: Don't take them out of the freezer until you're absolutely ready for them. The cream cheese softens quickly and gets messy.

The mix was crazy simple, just follow the directions below. Dry into wet, you know.

Now this is the secret part of the recipe... your friends and family will most definitely ask you how you got the cream cheese in there, but they don't need to know how incredibly simple it was. You can tell them you slaved over these muffins, stuffing them with cream cheese with just enough so that they didn't explode... you get the drift.

So get out your muffin tins, muffin cups, batter, cheese logs, and topping (which I didn't take a picture of, sorry!) and get to it. This is when you cut your logs up into 24 little pieces - use your best judgment with size. I just cut them about an inch long. Fill the cups with a little bit of batter, place a cream cheese piece in the center, cover her up with more batter, and top that little baby off some sugary goodness (the crumble topping).

There you have it! Now they're ready to be baked.

Warning: You may start to smell a heavenly sweet pumpkin aroma, but please, let them bake the full time and try to control yourself...

And this is what you will come out with :D

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins

Yield: 24 muffins
Ingredients:
For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup confectioners’ sugar

For the muffins:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice (I actually left this ingredient out because I didn't have any on hand, and substituted it with an extra tsp. each of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves)
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
4 large eggs
2 cups sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1¼ cups vegetable oil

For the topping:
½ cup sugar
5 tbsp. flour
1½ tsp. ground cinnamon
4 tbsp. cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Directions:
To prepare the filling, combine the cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar in a medium bowl and mix well until blended and smooth. Transfer the mixture to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a log about 1½-inches in diameter (your logs will be messy and difficult to smooth into perfectly shaped logs. Don't worry, they go inside the muffin and no one will see them. Just make sure they're log-like). Smooth the plastic wrap tightly around the log, and reinforce with a piece of foil. Transfer to the freezer and chill until at least slightly firm, at least 2 hours.

To make the muffins, preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line muffin pans with paper liners. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda; whisk to blend. In the bowl of an electric mixer combine the eggs, sugar, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix on medium-low speed until blended. With the mixer on low speed, add in the dry ingredients, mixing just until incorporated.

To make the topping, combine the sugar, flour and cinnamon in a small bowl; whisk to blend. Add in the butter pieces and cut into the dry ingredients with a pastry blender or two forks until the mixture is coarse and crumbly (it's going to be tempting, but do not heat the butter. The cold butter adds the crumbles and melts in the oven). Transfer to the refrigerator until ready to use.

To assemble the muffins, fill each muffin well with a small amount of batter, just enough to cover the bottom of the liner (1-2 tablespoons). Slice the log of cream cheese filling into 24 equal pieces. Place a slice of the cream cheese mixture into each muffin well. Divide the remaining batter among the muffin cups, placing on top of the cream cheese to cover completely. Sprinkle a small amount of the topping mixture over each of the muffin wells.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely before serving. (It may be hard to resist immediate consumption, but the cream cheese filling gets very hot!)