Pumpkin Dump Cake

Recently, while on a trip to my grandma’s house, I acquired MANY cans of evaporated milk. My grandma often supplies us grandkids with random pantry items as parting gifts. I can never tell what I’ll leave home with! I have received, oranges, pomegranates, coffee creamers, gift bags, sewing items, water bottles. She told me, “I know you’ll do something with these.” Well Grandma, CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! I have used on can, of the many, to make Pumpkin Dump Cake.

I discovered this great desert idea while scouring Pinterest. I’m a sucker for pumpkin anything and immediately “pinned” this. I followed this recipe here, by Cookies & Cups. There are many reasons that I love the concept of the dump cake.

1- very easy to make (little prep time)

2- I had almost all of the ingredients in my pantry

3- It’s kid friendly (if you like help in the kitchen)

4- Did I mention how easy it was?

I mixed together a can of pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar and spice in one bowl. Next, pour into a prepared (with PAM) 9×13 dish. Top the batter with a box of yellow cake mix (sprinkled evenly) and chopped pecans. Lastly, a step only Paula Deen would approve of, evenly pour 1 cup (2 sticks) of melted butter all over the top! Check out the full recipe from Cookies & Cups… such a great idea!

While I don’t think this would replace anyones tradition of Pumpkin Pie on Thanksgiving, share the love at a work pot luck!

The Cheesecake Chronicles: Pumpkin Cheese(sorta)cake

and the winner is….

ME!

Why? Because I am the oldest and my recipe is the easiest and quickest and least messy! So I win and I also made it up all by myself out of spite against Caas and Vettski because they didn’t include me on their little competition! No, I am not bitter at all… I am just as sweet and humble as my pumpkin cheesecake!

shopping list:

bagels

trader joe’s pumpkin cream cheese

yield: however many you plan on making!

time: oh, say about 5 minutes/whole bagel, max

prep: toast your bagel, generously spread the seasonally great TJ’s pumpkin cream cheese across your bagel, use a fork to make your pie imprints around the edges and make your little holes so four and twenty blackbirds don’t come flying out at you… VOILA!

copyright 2010 summer browner

everyone loved them (except lucas but he doesn’t count because he has a palette of a 20-month old, literally).

 

The Cheesecake Chronicles: Double Layer Pumpkin Pie

As I’ve pointed out before, I am an almost-homemade kind of girl. I love finding recipes that call for regular ingredients that are easily found at my local grocery store. Even more, I love finding recipes that offer short cuts!

I am not quite as ambitious as my dear cousin, Caasi. I used a ready-made graham pie crust for my no-bake recipe.

1/2 8oz. pkg. Cream Cheese, softened

1tbsp milk

1tbsp sugar

1 8 oz. tub of thawed whipped topping

1 graham pie crust

1 cup milk

1  15oz can pumpkin

2  4 serving vanilla flavor instant pudding & pie filling

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp. ground ginger

1/4 tsp. ground cloves

 

First mix the cream cheese, 1 tbsp. of milk, and sugar with a wire whisk until its well blended.  Then very gently stir in half of the whipped topping.  This will make up the cream cheese layer of your double layer pumpkin pie.  Spread into the crust. 

Then mix 1 cup of milk in a large bowl with the pumpkin, dry pudding mixes and spices.  Again, beat with a wire whisk until its well blended.  Spread this pumpkin mixture over the cream cheese mixture. 

Refrigerate the pie for 4 hours until it sets.  When you serve it, top it with a dollop of the remaining whipped topping.

I’m not really a big cheesecake person, so this recipe is perfect for me.  The cheesecake taste is subtle in comparison to the pumpkin.  My better half, however, LOVES cheesecake so this was not quite enough for him.  But luckily he also loves pumpkin pie so it wasn’t totally wasted on him.

The Cheesecake Chronicles: Pumpkin Cheesecake

9:34pm: Okay so we at Whoopie Cookie decided to have a Pumpkin Cheesecake “Throwdown” (a la Bobby Flay on The Food Network). I was coming off a great cheesecake victory! My first ever and it was spectacular! Being that it’s Fall and the fact that I have a pumpkin food fetish, I decided to try cheesecake of the pumpkin variety.

The night started out great. I made the crust faster and with more confidence than the first time I battled cheesecake. I was feeling like a pro. In the oven it went and onto blending up the filling. Ugh… the filling. I let the cream cheese soften a little too much. It was kind of runny instead of creamy and I hadn’t even added the last ingredient, eggs. I decided to give it 5 minutes in the refrigerator to set… disaster averted. I returned the mixing bowl to my stand mixer, I was locked and loaded. Speed low, I added egg number one, threw away the shell… egg two next. Egg two cracked, into the mixing bowl…with half the shell that slipped its slimy way out! Oh no! I’m trying to stop the mixer before the shell was in a million pieces… but I turn the speed the wrong way- into hyper mode!! What the?!?! I finally got it stopped. I removed the bowl from the mixer and fished out the egg shell. Thankfully, it only broke into 2 halves. I stuck both hands in feeling for shell, I was a little happy to feel how silky smooth the filling was. I guess you call that the silver lining? I dodged, so far, two potential cheesecake disasters! I pour the mixture into the crust (now out of the oven). Perfection! I carry the tray gently to the oven and place it on the rack. I slide the tray and it gets stuck for a second… just enough time for the filling to cover the crust on the backside! (Insert expletive here…)! I shut the oven door and start to laugh… now I know what Julie Powell felt like while she was on her mission to complete the Julie/Julia Project! I know cheesecake is no Beef Bourguignon or boning a duck… to me, it feels pretty close! 35 minutes left until cooling time…

10:32pm: The cheese cake is out. I prepared the sour cream topping. I know it sounds gross, but it’s a mixture with sugar and vanilla so it’s actually good! I spread that on top and I have five more minutes until cooling time! By the way… it smell delicious! Who cares what it looks like, as long as it tastes good, right?

10:45pm: Waiting 45 minutes for cooling in the pan. If I can get past the removing of the springform side…

11:26pm: Only one more hour of cooling, now that the pan sides are off. Then I get to go to bed. It seems as though I may have pulled this off! Can’t wait to try a slice tomorrow… and Laura- if you are reading this- I am 99% sure I got all the egg-shell out! I’ll see you tonight! 😉

Welcome Fall!

While most days it feels like Summer, we are in the beginning of my favorite season of all…Fall! There are many reasons I am in love with Fall. In terms of fashion, I can breakout my sweaters, boots and scarves from the dark depths of my closet. In terms of everything else…autumn colors, Halloween, Thanksgiving, cool weather and above all PUMPKIN!

I love all things pumpkin. Pumpkin lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin scented candles, pumpkin breads, pumpkin seeds, pumpkin cheesecake… There are endless possibilities with pumpkin! Expect a whole lot of blogging about pumpkin this month! I stocked up on lots of pumpkin this season and plan on using it all!

Its the first weekend of October and in my household, we decorate the house for Halloween! To get in the spirit of things, I also made pumpkin cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting as filling!

I made the cupcakes first, there were 24, and allowed them to cool completely. While they were cooling, I made the filling. It was a simple recipe. It was very easy to make and I had all the ingredients to make them in my pantry! The cupcakes came out perfectly and not too sweet, that's where the filling came into play. There is nothing better than a smooth cream cheese filling! Yummy pumpkin smells filled the house. The only thing I was missing was my Pumpkin Latte from the Coffee Bean!

I’d love to hear your favorite thing about fall! Please also share yummy pumpkin recipes too!