Great Pumpkin

Pumpkin Ring Cake

I have loved pumpkin since I was a small child. Pumpkin pie, mostly, because that's about all that people did with pumpkin back then. At least, the people I knew. But pumpkin turns up often now—pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, pumpkin chili, pumpkin dip. All good.

Years ago, this was a recipe I used all the time when I needed a cake to take somewhere. Sometimes it was when a family had experienced great sadness. Sometimes it was to celebrate. I made it for church dinners and office parties. I could run home from work and mix this up quickly. Then I LOST the recipe. 

This was before Google searches and Pinterest boards. It was just gone. And after a few years, forgotten. But one day last summer when I was cleaning out the garage, I found it! It was in a bag of recipes--newspaper clippings, can labels, magazine pages, all safely stashed in a plastic bag. Why it never made it inside this house when we moved, I'll never know. But it was rescued at last. 

Now this recipe resides safely here on the blog and is listed in the recipe index—just in time for the holidays. A bundt cake always looks so festive. It is great cake for the newer baker. There is no sifting. No "alternately add wet and dry ingredients" and no "cream butter and sugar." Just dump all the ingredients in one bowl and mix. It's moist, dense, pumpkin-y and spicy. Good with a cup of coffee or hot tea. I know my cake baking skills have improved in the 35 years since I first baked this cake, but if you need an easy cake, this is still a good one.

Right this very minute I have this pumpkin cake in the oven. The house smells delicious. A Thanksgiving Hallmark movie is on TV. (Daddy-O left very early this morning to help cook hundreds of quarts of chicken stew at the fire department. I watch Hallmark movies when he isn't here.) The air is crisp outside. I'm starting to feel the first tinge of holiday spirit. This cake might be a good starting place for you, too.

PUMPKIN RING CAKE

3 cups Bisquick baking mix (Reduced Fat or Original)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar, packed

¼ cup butter, softened

¼ cup milk

2-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice

4 eggs

1 can (15-oz.) pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)

Preheat oven to 350°.  Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt cake pan.

Beat all ingredients with electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly.  Beat on medium speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally.  Pour batter into pan.

Bake about 50 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan.  Cool completely.  Drizzle with Glaze.

GLAZE

1 cup powdered sugar

1 tablespoon water (or more as needed) 

½ teaspoon vanilla

Mix all ingredients until smooth. (If you need more water, add it a teaspoonful at a time.)