Falling into Autumn

Autumn is a second spring, where every leaf is a flower. -Albert Camus (French Novelist, Essayist, and Playwright, 1957 Nobel Peace Prize for Literature)

I LOVE Autumn. It is my absolute favorite season of the whole year. I feel so much more creative and productive- ideas just flow so easily for me this time of year.  Also, its the time of year that just makes me want to cook and bake even more. There is something about the mixture of cool fall air and the smell of bread baking in the oven, or the warm aroma of of pumpkin pie. Mmmmm! So, today, I share with you one of my favorite (and easiest) Autumnal recipes, A Spiced Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Citrus Glaze- credit goes to Sandra Lee of the Food Network, from whom I got this recipe last year. I’ve made it 3 or 4 times now with great success- but I make a couple minor changes.  For the citrus glaze, Sandra uses 1/3 cup of storebought orange juice, and 3 teaspoons of orange liqueur- I squeeze my own orange and add to that some orange zest- I find that it makes for a brighter citrus flavor, and its less expensive, too! She also adds food coloring to the glaze to make it bright orange- I just think thats silly and unneccesary… besides, I don’t want to eat all that food dye. For your culinary enjoyment, the recipe is as follows:

Spiced Pumpkin Bundt Cake with Citrus Glaze:

Cake:

• 6 Eggs
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 cup canned pumpkin pie mix
• 2/3 cup water
• 2 tablespoons pupkin pie spice
• 1 box moist spice cake mix
• 1 box moist yellow cake mix

Glaze

• 1/3 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 teaspoons orange liquer
• zest of 1/2- 1 whole orange, depending on how much you want and how big the orange is
• 1 pound powdered sugar

Cake: Preheat Oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 12-cup bundt cake pan. In a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, oil, pumpkin pie mix, water, and pumpkin pie spice. Beat until well blended. Add the cake mixes and stir to combine. Transfer the mixture to the prepared pan and bake for 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Invert the cake onto a cooling rack.

Glaze: Whisk together the powdered sugar, orange juice, liquer and zest in a saucepan on low heat for 5 minutes, or until the sugar melts. If the glaze seems too dry, add more orange juice or water to reach the right consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cake.

Voila! Its a very quick, easy, but very tasty cake. I’m usually not a big fan of Sandra Lee’s “Semi-Homemade” disasters, but I think this is one of the few that actually turn out nice. Using the boxed cake mix speeds things up quite a bit, but still leaves you with a nice end result. I’ll be making one of these on Thursday for an upcoming Soiree with friends- I’ll take a picture and post it so you can see the end result.  Till then, adios, and Usta and Oscar Kitty both say hi.

PS: Stacy is right, I got Oscar in June, not May