Unfortunate Events with Pumpkin Cake

You've all heard the phrase...Like Mother, Like Daughter. Wow, this week really describes that adage.

My awesome daughter was asked to make a dessert for a youth event on Wednesday night. She was so responsible about it - she made sure we had the ingredients in advance and started on the task right after school. She called me in exasperation, "Mom, does 2 c. pumpkin mean 2 cans of pumpkin or 2 cups of pumpkin?" I thought to myself, "I hope she's asking me before she added the pumpkin". Wishful thinking.

She added two 29 ounce cans of pumpkin to make one pumpkin cake. She felt terrible. Oh well, a few eggs, some sugar and 2 cans of pumpkin down the drain. At least she didn't make the complete cake and bake it, thinking all is well. At least we had more pumpkin in the pantry. "Let's look at the bright side", I told her. She started over and had  delicious cake to serve for the event. 

Two 29 ounce cans of pumpkin in one pumpkin cake

Fast forward to yesterday...I had four pumpkin cakes to make for an event. The "Series of Unfortunate Events" started from the beginning:

1. I got out the sugar and there was two cups. Not enough to make four cakes! No problem - ran down to the pantry. No sugar. Great - overlooked that one in the food storage. I called my awesome neighbor - you know, the one you always call to borrow an egg - the one you can always count on to have what you need. Perfect, she sent down 6 cups of sugar and I sent her a bag of brown sugar. At least I had some kind of sugar in the food storage!

2. The first two cakes were in the oven...started on the second two. I looked down at the recipe and panicked. I put baking powder in the first two instead of baking soda. Result - two flat, dense pumpkin cakes. A great afternoon snack for kids - not a great cake to take to a bake sale. Fabulous - two more cakes on the horizon...

Two flat, dense pumpkin cakes.

3. Started on cake #5 and cake #6. Time to add the sugar. You guessed it...no more sugar. Yah, I needed to go the store anyway. I stocked up on sugar.

4. All cakes are cool. Frosting is made. I leave the kitchen for a minute and come back to my lovely two year old picking in one of the cakes. Great - I can't send a cake like that. No, I'm not making another darn cake. I was out of pumpkin anyway and out of time. Solution: I cut out the two pieces that got picked in, frosted the cakes, decorated them and took them to the bake sale - 3 full cakes and 1 full cake less two pieces.

By this time, I was so thankful to be finished with the project - I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. Oh well...if you've seen a pumpkin cake, you've seen them all. But, you can't say that about tasting pumpkin cake. This pumpkin cake is amazing...you truly haven't tasted pumpkin cake until you've had this one. (Recipe at the end)

Back to my glorious advice about "Let's look at the bright side":

At least I had a friend I could swap sugar with so I didn't have to go to the store at 8AM when two little people were still asleep. At least I had more pumpkin to make extra cakes with, and the first two cakes were not wasted. They are still good and eight children will be very happy to eat it for the next few days. At least there is a store two miles away, I have a car to drive there and I could stock up on sugar so this doesn't happen again. (At least with sugar) At least the "picked in cake" wasn't completely ruined. At least I was able to get the cakes to the event on time!! At least I have a husband who mourned with me about it. 

At least I can tell my daughter that Mom makes mistakes, too, and we can laugh together about our unfortunate events with pumpkin cake.

Pumpkin Cake Recipe (I have this memorized now!)
4 eggs
2 c. pumpkin (cups, not cans)
2 c. sugar
1 c. oil
1 t. vanilla
Mix wet ingredients together then add -
2 c. flour
2 t. cinnamon
1 t. salt
1 t. baking soda (NOT baking powder)

Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until done in the middle.

Cream Cheese Frosting

1 pkg. cream cheese
1 cube butter
1 t. vanilla
Cream together then add -
4.5 cups powdered sugar

Frost cake when cool. Decorate with candy pumpkins and candy corn.

More to Come...but until then, Stick-to-it!