Pumpkin Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing.

Thanksgiving is in two days. You're stressed, I'm stressed, there's just no time for lists and adjectives and real life. Let's get in and out with this one.

What: Moist, dense pumpkin cake. Brown butter icing. 

The plea: Please, please make this for Thanksgiving. Make it the day before, make it tonight, make it for breakfast.

Why: Because it's way too easy to skip. Three bowls: mix flour and spices, mix pumpkin and buttermilk, beat sugar and butter. Combine all three.

Pour.

Bake.

Wait. This is the holidays. Let's simplify this thing one step further.

I don't condone skipping the brown butter icing, but in a pinch, you can totally just dust this cake with powdered sugar.

Like I said. In and out. There's just no time.

The recipe: Scroll down or click here.

And... done. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving full of pumpkin pie cake, family, and laughter.

Pumpkin Spice Buttermilk Bundt Cake with Brown Butter Icing

Printable Recipe

Cake
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar 
3 large eggs
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspooon salt 
1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Icing 

1/4 cup butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter (or spray with a nonstick baking spray) and flour a bundt pan.


In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves.

In another bowl, whisk together the pumpkin, buttermilk, and vanilla until smooth.

In the bowl of an electric mixer (or with a wooden spoon and sheer determination), beat the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add eggs and beat another minute until combined.

Reduce speed to low and add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternately in small batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture and mixing until the batter is smooth.

Spoon batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, about 45-50 minutes. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes, then invert rack over cake and reinvert cake onto rake.

Allow cake to cool completely before icing. Or, if you want, you can skip the icing and just dust the cake when cooled with powdered sugar.

To make the icing, place butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally until golden brown (more info here on how to brown butter). Pour browned butter into a medium bowl and stir in powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency. Let stand 1-2 minutes or until slightly cool. Drizzle over cake.

Source: Pumpkin cake from Collecting Memories and brown butter icing from Pillsbury. 

Thanksgiving Moments & Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie.

Thanksgiving in our family of three goes a little like this: bake all week and decorate all day. It's a pretty relaxing, no-stress thing, unless we can't agree on only one pie everyone wants (we never can) or you manage to break the twisty top thingy off the whipped cream and are forced to either brave the lines at the grocery store or eat naked pie.

Not that that's ever happened. 

There's light-hanging.

Oops.

Sorry, Dad.

Finally some stormy, wintry weather. 

(And a rainbow! But you can barely see it in this picture.)

Tree decorating and glittery things. 

House decorating and Christmas magic.

Try not to giggle, I dare you.

Puppy-cuddling.

Peanut butter blossoms and chocolate fudge.

Christmas movies and food comas.

And pumpkin pie! 

Usually we make a pumpkin pudding pie, but this year we switched it up and made an apple butter pumpkin pie. It tasted like pure autumn... slightly sweet and fruity from the apple butter, but still having that traditional pumpkin pie flavor everyone loves. Can you believe this is the first pie I've ever made? It happens. 

Andddd I forgot to take pictures in between baking it and sneaking slices at midnight. That also happens. This is the last slice and that makes me sad. 

P.S. Beauty & the Beast comes back to theaters January 13th. I'm just saying.

Apple Butter Pumpkin Pie

Printable Recipe

1 cup apple butter

1 cup fresh or canned pumpkin

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground ginger

3 eggs

3/4 cup evaporated milk

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell

Sweetened whipped cream and praline pecans, for garnish

Preheat oven to 425°F. Place unbaked pie shell on a foil-lined baking sheet and set aside.

Combine apple butter, pumpkin, sugar, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger in a bowl. Stir in eggs.

Gradually add evaporated milk and mix well. Pour into pie shell. 

Bake for about 40 minutes or until set (I had to bake mine an extra 15 minutes).

If the crust begins to burn, place tin foil around the crust and lower the temperature of the oven.

Serve with sweetened whipped cream, sprinkle with praline pecans, and enjoy!

Source: Paula Deen.

The Best Cornbread Ever.

There are certain recipes in life I'd like sit down with in front of a fire and talk about boys and books and hopes and dreams with. To hug, if you will. Recipes that make me feel warm and bubbly and 4-years-old again and remind me of lazy Saturdays and Christmas Eves and being home. 

Recipes like my dad's buttermilk biscuits.

My mom's homemade hot chocolate.

Fresh baked raisin bread.

Cinnamon-sugar in a warm tortilla. Cinnamon-sugar on a fresh-baked doughnut. Cinnamon-sugar in my face.

Pancakes with chocolate chips. Pancakes with no chocolate chips. Chocolate chips.

My grandma's whipped cream pumpkin pie.

Sugar cookies. Christmas fudge. Graham crackers with vanilla frosting. 

And cornbread.

This cornbread.

Southern cornbread.

What makes it southern? Um... the buttermilk? I don't know. But everything's better with buttermilk, right? Right.

Make these. They're pretty much perfect. With dinner. With soup. With butter. With breakfast.

And it might be a little too early for this? But they make a really great cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving too. 

Southern Cornbread

Printable Recipe

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for the pan
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup buttermilk (shake before measuring)
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 425°F and position a rack in the middle. Butter an 8-inch-square baking pan.

Melt the butter in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish in three 15-second intervals on high or in a small pan on the stove. Set it aside to cool.

In a bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk and eggs. Add the melted butter. Add the flour-cornmeal mixture and stir just until combined. Pour the batter into the pan. Bake until the cornbread just begins to brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 18 to 23 minutes. Cool for about 10 minutes before serving.

Source: Food Network Magazine, November 2010.