Sidna Brower Mitchell Blog: Pumpkins Everywhere

St. Peter’s pumpkin patch, photo by Callie Daniels Bryant (Oct. 2014)

It’s not even near Halloween or Thanksgiving and for weeks we’ve seen pumpkin themes everywhere.

Dunkin’ Donuts is pushing hot or iced pumpkin macchiato. Of course, there is pumpkin bread and pumpkin doughnuts in the supermarkets. And you can always remember to make pumpkin soup from your leftover canned pumpkin whether the soup is curried or with apple and bacon.

Yuengling is offering spiced pumpkin roll ice cream. Don’t worry, there’s no beer in this dessert. On the Kraft website, you’ll find pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin bread pudding, pumpkin chocolate chunk cookies, pumpkin pillows, to mention a few recipes.

For breakfast, you can make pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin waffles, pumpkin French toast, pumpkin grits or fried pumpkin polenta to have with your pumpkin latte.

The choices are never-ending—pumpkin quesadillas, pumpkin pasta sauce, pumpkin fondue, pumpkin hummus, pumpkin turnip green lasagna, pumpkin tortilla chips, pumpkin biscotti or pumpkin fudge.

You expect a traditional pumpkin pie around Thanksgiving but what about a coconut pumpkin pie or cracked caramel pumpkin pie for a change.

Enough! My head is spinning. How about an old-fashioned pumpkin cake from a recipe I made years ago for Thanksgiving?

Pumpkin Cake

2 cups pumpkin (16 oz. can)

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1 ¾ cups vegetable oil

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

½ cup chopped nuts

½ cup coconut flakes

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat together pumpkin, sugar, flour, oil and eggs and mix well.

Add salt, cinnamon, nuts and coconut and continue mixing.

Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch tube pan.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for about an hour or until an inserted toothpick comes out

If you want, top your cake with this frosting.

1 stick butter, softened

8 oz. cream cheese, softened

1 pound confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup chopped nuts

½ cup coconut

Blend the butter and cream cheese together.

Add sugar and vanilla and mix well.

Frost cake and sprinkle with chopped nuts and coconut.

NOTE: This can also be made as a sheet cake and cut the baking time in half.

Reach Sidna Brower Mitchell via e-mail at sbmcooks@aol.com.