Pumpkin Cake...kinda

Let me start by saying that I do not like pumpkin.  Not pies, breads, muffins, scraping the yuck out of a jack-o-lantern...none of it...blech.  So, when I kept hearing the suggestion of making a cake mix with nothing but a can of pumpkin I thought I'd never try it out.  Everyone said that you could not taste the pumpkin..."yeah right" is what I thought.  But...I will admit it...a couple years after I first heard this suggestion, I tried it and ya know what?  It's not half bad.

I have only tried this one other time prior to today.  I believe I used a spice cake mix with the can of pumpkin and threw in a few chopped walnuts.  I did them as muffins and everyone liked them....even me.  I had done the muffins because the WW's meeting that I was in that finally convinced me to try this out had been discussing how it takes a very long time to get the middle of a cake done when you make it in a 9x13 pan and sometimes it was impossible to get it done at all.  

The thing with me and muffins is, I usually end up not getting through a whole batch of them before they need to be tossed.  Sure, I could freeze them but then they'd sit up in my freezer and I would forget about them and they would end up getting tossed once freezer burn has taken over anyway.  Today I decided to brave it and try this recipe in a 9x13 pan to see what would happen.

Here's how the experiment went down:

1 box Betty Crocker Triple Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
(evidently, you can use any flavor)
1 15 ounce can of Libby's 100% Pure Pumpkin (NOT pumpkin pie mix)
2 egg whites
2 ounces chopped walnuts

Let me explain about the last 2 ingredients....

In the meeting that convinced me to make this, they suggested using about 1/4 cup of water to thin down the batter some.  I did do that the first time but as I considered making this today, I thought to myself that instead of using water that maybe a couple egg whites would not only help with thinning out the batter, but maybe it would help with the rise of the cake as well.  When I made the muffins they did not rise too well and were pretty much the same shape as they were when I plopped the batter down into the muffin tins...they did not mound up and have that typical muffin top shape.  Secondly...the nuts...I love nuts and knowing that this tends to make a more dense type of cake, it seems appropriate to me to throw some in like you'd throw nuts in brownies.  You don't have to add either of these last two ingredients but they are my addition to the basic recipe just because I like nuts and was experimenting with the rise of the cake.  If you want to do it the way the recipe generally gets told, you just take the cake mix and the can of pumpkin and mix it up...simple as that...you add nothing more at all.

Okay...so...I threw everything into the bowl of my Kitchenaid mixer and mixed it up till it was thick and smooth.  I sprayed a 9x13 glass baking pan with Baker's Joy trying to mostly just get the bottom of the pan hoping to help again with the rise of the cake.  Then I spread it out evenly and gave the pan a few good shimmies and shakes to help even the batter out before I placed it in a 350 degree oven.  I set the timer for 20 minutes and then checked with a toothpick in the middle of the cake...it was still wet.  It looked done all over but the toothpick did indicate I'd need to cook it longer...I was hoping I was not going to have a problem getting the middle done as I had been warned.  I set the timer for another 5 minutes, tested again and voila...DONE!

I pulled it out of the oven and it had a nice rise to it...as you can tell, that was very important to me.  The one thing about altering cakes when you are making them "better-for-you" is that sometimes you lose what makes them cakey...I hate a flat cake.  I let it cool a bit and then could not resist anymore...carefully cut a piece and sprinkled some powdered sugar over it.  It was a bit crumbly which may be because it was not completely cooled but I have a feeling it will be more crumbly than a regular cake even when cooled completely.

So...how does it taste?  YUM!  I like this SO much better than the diet soda cakes I'd made for years.  They somehow never quite hit the spot.  The texture was off and they always seemed mushy instead of having a nice crumb to them.  Don't get me wrong...I'd eat it...but it never filled the cake need that I so often get.  The pumpkin cake is very moist and like I said, a bit crumbly but it has a very good texture to it.  You cannot taste the pumpkin while eating it but I do have to say, there is the teeniest of a tiniest bit of aftertaste that indicates something is not typical about it and I'm guessing it's the pumpkin.  Other than that...wonderful.  The nuts are subtle as there are not that many of them in there and I chopped them up pretty small.  It would easily take some Cool Whip or a smidge of whipped frosting on the top...I just put some powdered sugar on my piece so I could really get an idea as to how the actual cake turned out and not have it covered by something that would cover up the taste or texture. 

I will definitely make this again and in the 9x13 pan.  I'm not sure what made mine get done in the middle when so many have apparently had issues with it.  The only thing I can think of, is that I took a couple steps to help it rise more (the egg whites and not spraying the sides of the pan) and that helped it to somehow help with making the cake being less dense and therefore, cooking more evenly...maybe...it makes sense in my head anyway!

Enjoy........