Pumpkin Spice Cake!!

To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are all about the dessert.  The food is just the appetizer to the dessert.  I probably get this from going to my grandmothers when I was young.  I was pretty young, but what I remember is the savory dishes being spread around the counters in her kitchen.  Then, the desserts covered her huge dining room table (these memories may be slightly exaggerated, but I think fairly accurate).  She would have several cakes, pies, and candies.  My sweet tooth gene that was passed on to me from my mother required me to taste every single dessert.  It was this sweet tooth that talked me into cooking 3 desserts to bring with me for Thanksgiving (1 for Michael's house so they wouldn't make fun of my crazed dessert obsession, and 2 for my mom's house to go with her other 2 desserts). 

My favorite dessert that I made was by far the pumpkin spice cake.  This was originally suppose to be pumpkin spice bars, but I am going to change it to a cake.  No, this dessert was not completely home-made (I am too scared to venture into the homemade GF baking as of yet).  But, it was easy and delicious!!

Pumpkin Spice Cake!!!
What do you need?

• 1 box of 1-2-3 Gluten Free Sweet Goodness Pan Bars
• 1 can of pumpkin
• Eggs
• Vegetable oil

What do you do?
Simply follow the directions of the side of the box!!  If I remember correctly, you just mix the pan bar mix with the eggs and oil until nice and creamy and then you add the pumpkin, then you put it in a greased baking dish and bake until it is done...  How easy is that?!!

With a name like pan bars, I was expecting these to be dense and able to cut into little finger-sized bars...  Well, these turned out much fluffier and cake-like than expected.  I was a little worried about the flavor and decided to make some homemade cream-cheese butter cream frosting to go on top.

Cream Cheese Butter Cream Frosting

Ingredients

• 1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 (1-pound) box confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

1. Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until creamy, about 30 seconds.
2. With the mixer on low, slowly add sugar, scraping down the sides of the bowls as necessary.
3. Add vanilla and increase mixer speed to medium. Blend until frosting is fluffy, about 1 minute.

With this frosting on top, the cake was to die for!!  I have probably eaten half of it by myself (well I shared some with Baby B).  Although the frosting is my favorite part, the cake was actually very fluffy and moist as well!!  This is probably the best GF baked good I have had (as far as texture goes).  

One day I will venture out into the homemade GF baking.  Right now I am scared off by the big words such as xanthan gum and all the different flours (rice flour, tapioca flour, chestnut flour, etc.).  I mean, how do you know when to use what?  I am also convinced I need a stand mixer for all of this (I think it will give me the confidence that I need).  So, why read my blog when I clearly don't know what I'm doing?  Because you don't know what you are doing either or you wouldn't be here.  You can learn along with me and I will speak on a level that everyone can understand.  Then all the baby-stuff doesn't hurt either.