pumpkin | Sweet Bee's Treats

Spicy Pumpkin Cake

Having made pumpkin bars, I needed something else to do with pumpkin purée so it didn’t go to waste. I’m only up for one experiment at a time, so I made this tried and true pumpkin cake. It looks like a pumpkin bread, in a loaf pan, but it tastes like a cake. 🙂 I can’t claim too much credit for this one, as it is largely based off a recipe I found over at ComfyBelly. I just made a few tweaks here and there to make it more to my liking (such as doubling the amount of the spices).

So here is my version, “Spicy Pumpkin Cake”

Ingredients

Here are the assembled ingredients

1 cup of pumpkin purée (fresh or canned)
1 cup of maple syrup (or honey)
2 large eggs
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger
2 cups almond flour
optional: up to 1/2 cup of raisins, walnuts, or add-ins of your choice

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease your bread pan lightly with a little coconut oil or butter. Line the bottom of the bread pan with parchment paper.

Combine all the ingredients in the order listed into a large bowl and mix well, until thoroughly blended. Pour into the bread pan and use a spatula to spread it out and smooth out the top, if necessary.

Bake for about 60 minutes, until the outside is a very dark brown, and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.

This little loaf cake doesn’t last too long at my house. I think I have mostly myself to blame for that…

Following is the illustrated guide. 😉 It helps to have a trusty assistant, like Sweet Bee, so you can take pictures.

All the wet ingredients together in a bowl

Mix them together.[/caption]

Have a trusty assistant to stir for you, while you take pics.

Add in your flour, baking powder and baking soda

We used raisins, at Sweet Bee’s request. Stir in your add-ins last, if you’re using them.

Pour it into the bread pan and smooth it out.

How it looks coming out of the oven

Ready to eat!

Pumpkin Bars 1.0

This was an experiment I did today. I had made some pumpkin cookies using almond butter recently, and I liked the flavor, but they just didn’t do it for me. The texture wasn’t right for a cookie. So I decided to see if I could alter the recipe to turn them into bars. This recipe is not intended to make a super sweet dessert. Skip the chocolate chips, and use dried cranberries or raisins, and I think you’ll have a nice, healthy breakfast bar. The chocolate chips just make it a little more decadent and turn it into a dessert.

It’s a couple days later, so I’ve had some time to ruminate about the bars, and eat several servings to confirm my opinion. 🙂 They’re delicious enough that I don’t see the need to make any changes to the recipe at this point. Besides myself, I’ve had four other taste testers, and everyone seems to like them.

Ingredients:

The ingredients

1 cup creamy almond butter
1/2 cup pumpkin puree
1 egg
1/4 cup pure maple syrup (or you could use honey)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Either 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 F and grease an 8 x 8 inch baking dish.

Combine all the ingredients except for chocolate chips in a medium bowl, mixing until a smooth thick batter is formed. Stir in the chocolate chips last.

Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Here are the wet ingredients: almond butter, pumpkin pure, egg

The verdict: The texture is great, nice and moist. We like them – Sweet Bee asked for a second one. If you feel like giving them a try, please let me know what you think, and what changes you made, if any.