pumpkin spice cake that LOOKS like a pumpkin!

it is late september, and autumn recipes are popping up all over the place.

i saw a recipe in a williams sonoma catalogue for a pumpkin cake - made of pumpkin and LOOKED like a pumpkin. so cool! they were selling some type of special pan for it - but, after doing some research, i figured i could do it in a bundt pan. and i think it came out awesome!!

here's the recipe - for the cake & the frosting:

1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg*
1 teaspoon ground allspice*
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon*
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt

*i ran out of allspice when i was making this. whoops.

but, most of these ingredients are what "pumpkin pie spice" is composed of. to make "pumpkin pie spice" you should combine cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and nutmeg. if you add a teaspoon of cloves, and then about 2 - 2 1/2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice instead of the others, it will come out just fine : )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease one 10 inch bundt pan.
Cream oil, beaten eggs, pumpkin and vanilla together.
Sift the flour, sugar, baking soda, ground nutmeg, ground allspice, ground cinnamon, ground cloves and salt together. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix until just combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let cake cool in pan for 5 minutes then turn out onto a plate.

For the frosting:

1/4 cup shortening
1/4-3/4 cup water (you decide how thick you want it)
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon clear imitation vanilla extract (i only had regular vanilla extract - but clear almond extract, so, i used that instead - came out wonderful)
1/2 cup butter
4 cups confectioners' sugar

With an electric mixer blend all ingredients until mixed.

Add food coloring as necessary! I used orange & green gels from Wilton's.

For the pumpkin stem, i used a waffle ice cream cone. i broke off the pointy end so it was slightly flat - and then covered it with green frosting. I put some bunched up papertowls in the middle of the bundt (under the cone) just so the cone wouldn't sink all the way down to the plate.

ta-da!