Pumpkin Cake Recipes with Buttercream Frosting

It is time to get out those pumpkin cake recipes! I received a telephone call early one morning last week. It was my brother up in Ohio. Our niece, Diane had just called him. She is Sister Dorothy’s daughter and a few years older than me. (This does happen when you come from a large family.) Dorothy was one of my older sisters and Diane is her oldest child; I was the youngest of my siblings so Diane was a few years old when I was born.

Anyway back to the pumpkin cake recipes and the story. It seems everyone is in the mood for making Fall cakes; Halloween cakes or Thanksgiving cakes or just something for the season. Diane was searching for my Sister Gloria’s (her Aunt Gloria’s) pumpkin orange cake recipe which she made more than fifty years ago. My brother called to see if I knew anything about her recipe. He went on to describe this cake as Diane remembered it; contained orange juice and frosted with buttercream frosting recipe and so delicious.

I certainly did not remember this! My sister Shirley makes Gloria’s pumpkin cake quite often and it does not have orange in it. Beside that as I told my brother, most pumpkin cake recipes are made with oil so I wouldn’t think our sister would add orange juice; it would make it too runny. Most everyone puts cream cheese frosting on these cakes, but thinking back past fifty years, we never used cream cheese. It was too expensive!

I was really beginning to think that Diane was dreaming about this cake recipe but with my curiosity when it comes to recipes always gets the best of me. I reminded my brother that I had all of Gloria’s recipes, notes and everything pertaining to food. She made sure I took them before she passed away. These are my treasures! Anyway, I said I would begin a search and if she made it, I would have it! Sure enough, in all the hand written notes, there it was! I couldn’t wait to try it!

Also among my treasures were all kinds of decorations to use when baking. It seemed so appropriate to use her decorations on this cake made from her recipe.

PUMPKIN CAKE RECIPE

• 3 Cups sifted flour
• 4 ½ Teaspoons baking powder
• 2 Teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 Teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 Teaspoon ground allspice
• ¾ Teaspoons baking soda
• ¼ Teaspoon salt
• ¾ Cup softened butter
• 2 Cups sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 1 ¾ Cups canned pumpkin
• 1 Cup orange juice
• 3 Tablespoons grated orange peel
• 1 ½ Cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F degrees.

Grease and flour 9 X 13 inch cake baking pan. (If you are going to remove cake from pan before frosting, line with wax paper.)

Combine and sift together the already sifted flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger and allspice; set aside.

Cream together butter and sugar; add eggs beating after each.

Add pumpkin and orange peel to creamed mixture.

Add flour mixture to creamed mixture alternating with the orange juice.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 35 minutes or until pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and cool completely before frosting (If removing from pan, do so after 10 minutes out of oven.)

BUTTERCREAM FROSTING RECIPE

I added grated orange peel and coconut.

• ¼ Cup flour
• 1/8 Teaspoon salt
• 1 Cup milk
• 1 Cup sugar
• 1 Cup butter
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons grated orange peel
• 1 Cup coconut

Combine salt and flour in saucepan; gradually add milk while stirring to blend.

Cook mixture until thick; then cool.

Combine and cream the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl; add vanilla, grated orange peel and cooled mixture.

Beat mixture until light and fluffy; fold in coconut and frost cake.

NOTE: This cake is nice when decorated for Halloween or Thanksgiving.

More Recipes for Cakes

Go to Painless Cooking Home Page from Pumpkin Cake Recipes