Monday, October 06, 2008

Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Caramel Icing

I thought my Dad deserved a home-baked birthday cake this year (well, every year), especially since his chemo-affected tastebuds seem to work best with sweet foods. He loves pumpkin pie and caramel and dried fruits and nuts, so I decided to use the recipe that my friend Kate used for my 40th birthday cake: Spiced Pumpkin Cake with Caramel Icing.

It involves making home-made caramel enriched with not only heavy cream but also cream cheese.  I substituted dried cherries for the raisins in the recipe (Dad likes raisins, but neither MinxBro, Mr Minx, nor the Minx herself is very fond of the cucaracha-esque nasties), and because MinxBro has very specific nut allergies, I used a combination of chopped hazelnuts and almond slivers in place of the walnuts.

It was gooooood.  The cake is moist and airy, the caramel is rich and gooey, and with a leetle beet of vanilla ice cream, it's a perfect dessert.  

Dad enjoyed it. :)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a GORGEOUS cake! It also sounds delicious. Yum! (And happy birthday to your dad too!)

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious and I love pumpkin anything. I share your dad's birthday as well. Happy Birthday to him. I'm going to make this for myself (I'll share, of course). Happy birthday to me.

Stacey said...

Something like that might be a great alternative to pumpkin pie! For a lighter alternative, what do you think of pumpkin souffle? I may have to do some experimenting.

BTW, happy anniversary to you and Neal. :)