Pumpkin Pumpkin Cake

My experience in the cake decoration area is pretty much non existent so I was thrilled that my pumpkin cake actually turned out. Or shall we say a pumpkin, pumpkin cake. That's right, a pumpkin spice cake shaped like a pumpkin. Sound complicated? It's not I assure you it is not. Little to no artist ability required, thank goodness. So here's how it went down...

I used this Pumpkin Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting recipe as my base, but did 1.5x the amounts and made a few changes to give me two bunt cakes two work with.

Then I made the Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting exactly as the recipe states no changes, no modifications, to increasing the quantity. (Shocking, I know.)

Once my cakes and frosting were made and the cakes were cooled it got to the fun part! 

I started by trimming off the bottom of each cake giving me a flat surface to work with.

Then I spread frosting on the flat surface of one of the cakes, enough to cover the cut part and give the other cake something to stick to. This will be the bottom half of the pumpkin. I gently lifted the other cake on top placing cut sides together. It thankfully slightly resembled a pumpkin! 

With the remaining frosting I drizzled the top of the cake letting the frosting run down the sides to give it an "artistic" flair.

For the stem I rolled up a brown paper grocery bag and stole some leaves from my fall decor to give it a little more character. (Yes, they are maple leaves on a pumpkin. Please don't tell.) 

And voila, a Pumpkin-Pumpkin Cake is created. So festive, but really so simple!

Pumpkin Pumpkin Cake (makes 2 smallish bunt cakes)

2 c whole wheat pastry flour

1 c all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1.5 teaspoon baking soda

3 teaspoons cinnamon

1 scant teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 scant teaspoon ginger

1/2 scant teaspoon cloves

1 cup sugar

1 1/2 (15 oz) cans pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)

3/4 cup plain yogurt

1/3 cup canola oil

6 eggs

Preheate oven to 350.

In a large bowl, mix first 9 ingredients. Blend until combined. Mix remaining ingredients together and stir into flour mixture just until all the flour is incorporated. 

Pour half the batter in an oiled bunt pan (I used a canola oil spray and it worked well). If you have two bunt pans you can pour the other half of the batter into your other bunt pan. If, like me, you only have one you will repeat this process with the remaining batter after the first cake is done baking.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan until cake is only warm to the touch not hot. Carefully release the cake from the sides of the pan if needed with a knife (a plastic knife works well for this so you don't scratch your pan) and gently flip over and remove cake. Repeat process with the second half of the batter if necessary.