Pumpkin Power
Pumpkins have long been a fascination for me. Like my daughter is now, I was once obsessed with Cinderella and I think that was my first exposure to pumpkins. What a fascination to have too, something that could be turned into a carriage fit for a princess. My kind of vegetable (fruit?) There's always been something magical about them!
Growing up in 80's Ireland, pumpkins were nowhere to be seen. Nor did we carry around a hollowed out turnip (rutabaga/swede to Americans/Brits) - those things are hard enough to cut never mind hollow out! My first exposure to the jack-o-lantern was my first Halloween in America. I had joined the girl scouts and we were carving them for Halloween. Imagine my surprise when I found out I had a severe topical allergy to them. My hands swelled up like balloons when I scooped out the seeds. This put me off eating them as God knows what would happen to my insides.
It was only a few years later when I accidentally ate pumpkin soup that I realised I was in no danger. I am not a fan of pumpkin pie at all, but on my first Thanksgiving as a new wife, I felt obliged to provide my husband with traditional pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving dessert. I had it all prepped and ready to go the night before. It included the addition of a streusel topping half way through baking. I asked Paul to help me lift it out of the oven to apply said topping and it spilled all over the place. When we moved out three years later I found bits of pumpkin still behind the oven!
Never fear though, as I was prepared. I made the whole thing again and this time managed to get the streusel on. I got it out of the oven and tripped as I carried it to the counter. Argh! BUT we were in America and 24 hour supermarkets reign supreme, even on national holidays (thank you capitalism) so off I trotted Thanksgiving morning to get more pumpkin. I got home and made the pie and it survived until dessert... where everyone hated it. So that's it. No more pumpkin pie for me.
Yesterday's fun monday involved holiday traditions and I was so caught up in adding to the list tht I never did my own post. So what I will post is this fabulous pumpkin recipe that I hope will become a part of our family Thanksgiving traditions. I had to test it before Thanksgiving and the girls can talk of nothing else it's moist and delicious. Not too spicy or pumpkin-y - just the right balance. Moist enough to be served as is, but I can't help but enjoy it more with a thin smear of good Irish butter! I'd say it would be delicious with plain cream cheese or cream cheese frosting.
I've had this clipped out for years and never made it. I don't even recall which magazine it came from, but I am guessing an old copy of Food and Wine, as I was a subscriber, although it could be Martha Stewart too. So without further ado here is the most amazing pumpkin bundt cake. You could also use two loaf pans and make bread instead.
Ingredients:2 cups pureed pumpkin
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 1/2 cups plain flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp mixed spice
Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Grease and flour a large bundt cake pan or two loaf pans.
Mix eggs, sugar, oil, water, vanilla and pumpkin in a large bowl. Mix until no lumps remain. Whisk dry ingredients together and gradually incorporate into wet.
Mix thoroughly until there are no lumps and everything is combined.
Pour into prepared pan(s)
Bake for about an hour until a toothpick comes out clean.
Turn out cake and dust with icing sugar. Serve alone, with butter, or sweetened cream cheese.
P.S> I'm having PC issues again... think I need to get some IBM memory. If you are not getting a response, that's probably why. I hope to catch up soon! Sorry!
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