After having a brief mini-meltdown, I made a double batch of consolation pumpkin muffins (recipe needs work, stay tuned) and decided to post this anyway.  The cake was delicious and the recipe was already typed out, so up it goes.  GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!  Apologies for the photoless post.  Anyone know anything about digital camera repair?

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Now, I love making layer cakes, but you don’t really come across that many reasons to make them in everyday life.  So I had to take advantage of the office Halloween potluck.  We’re pretty serious about our potlucks.  Three big tables of food, decorations, little kids in costumes trick-or-treating around the office, the whole nine yards.  The perfect excuse for a cake!

I don’t have one of those cake carriers, so I brought the cakes, frosting, and plate separately and assembled the cake there.  It worked out pretty well, and my friend Sasha helped me decorate it, but note to self: get one of those!  It turned out really cute.  Wish you could see it . . .  =(

Pumpkin Spice Cake
adapted from Bon Appetit

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 3 tsp ground allspice
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup (packed) brown sugar (whichever kind you have)
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 1 15-oz can pure pumpkin
• 1 Tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp orange zest

Put the oven rack in the center and preheat to 350.  Butter 2 9-inch cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment, butter the parchment, and flour the pans.  (Save the parchment scraps!  They will come in handy for frosting.)  Sift the flour, baking powder and soda, and salt into a medium bowl.

In a small bowl, mix the spices together.  Reserve one teaspoon for the frosting, then add to the rest of the dry ingredients.  With an electric mixer or in a standing mixer with paddle attachment, mix sugars and oil in a large bowl – it will be grainy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing in well after each one.  Add pumpkin, vanilla, and orange zest, and mix well.  Add flour and mix until just incorporated.

Divide batter evenly between prepared pans, and smooth out the tops.  Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.  Cool completely in the pans on a rack.  When cool, loosen the edges with a table knife and invert the cakes onto a rack or a plate.  Peel off the parchment.  If the cakes are really round on top, you can flip them over and trim down the domes using a serrated bread knife.  Since that’s the cook’s treat, you’re really hoping for domed cakes…

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
adapted from Cooks Illustrated

• 10 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces, softened
• 2 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 16 oz (2 pkgs) cream cheese, cut into 4 pieces each, softened
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• zest of one orange

Using either a standing mixer with paddle attachment or an electric hand mixer, beat butter, sugar, and reserved spice mix until light and fluffy, 1-2 minutes.  Add cream cheese, one piece at a time, beating well after each addition.  Add vanilla and orange zest, and beat until no lumps remain, about 30 seconds.

Place one cake right-side-up on your serving plate.  Tuck parchment scraps leftover from baking under the edges of the cake, to catch stray frosting.  Plop a big dollop of frosting in the middle, and use an offset spatula or a table knife to spread the frosting evenly toward the edges, stopping just a little short of the edge.  Put as much or as little as you want in there, but remember you still need to frost the outside!  Keep a glass of hot water nearby, and if your knife is sticking to the frosting, give it a quick dunk into the water every now and then.

Place the second cake top-down on top of the frosting, making sure it’s centered and even.  Frost the top, again from the center out.  Now the sides.  I like to go around, section by section, just to slap enough on there to cover – don’t worry about neatness yet.  Just get enough on there so the dark cake doesn’t show through.

When the cake is evenly and fully covered, take the spatula or the flat side of the knife and smooth out the top and sides of the cake.  I (actually Sasha) decorated mine with halloween candy we had sitting around, but candied orange peel or candied pecans would look really nice.  When you’re all done, gently pull out the parchment scraps from under the cake and your plate should be nice and clean!

Now, imagine that there’s a picture of a moist, rich, fluffy, autumny cake right here.  Sigh.

Happy Halloween!

Important tip from the farmers market – the nectarines with freckles will be the sweetest.  No freckles, and they won’t be as sweet no matter how long they ripen.  Good to know!

Btw, this pic was taken with my awesome new (used) camera!  Yay!

You know you’ve been in California too long when you start making your own granola.  But readers, that is what has happened.  I find that store bought granola is generally too sweet and has weird things in it.  This is a delicious old family recipe supplied by my mother-in-law.  Clearly, not my side of the family – since Asian people don’t have a tradition of making granola.  Our old family recipes are of like miso paste and dumplings.

Rollefson Family Granola
(Notes are from Grandma D)

• 1 – 42 oz. box old fashioned Quaker oats
• 12 oz. jar wheat germ (or 12 oz. rolled wheat, rye, bran etc.) – I always use wheat germ
• 1 cup raw sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds
• 2-3 cups nuts (I chop them coarsely; Aunt Betty doesn’t chop them – your call)  - I usually use walnuts and pecans but almonds work too

Mix the above.  Then in a blender combine:

• 12-16 oz. jar honey – I use 12 oz of honey (or 3/4 c. light molasses + 1/4 c. honey , or 1 c. malted barley + 1/4 c. black strap molasses)
• 1 cup safflower oil
• 2/3 cup water
• 3 Tbsp vanilla (yes, that is really tablespoons!)
• (optional: 2 T. cinnamon – I never have used this)
• 1 tsp salt

Blend the liquids until smooth, then mix with the dry ingredients.  Add raisins here if desired.

Spread on cookie sheets (2 large cookie sheets on 2 shelves of the oven). Bake at 175-200 for 3-4 hrs. max. (what I do) OR at ~250 for 1-2 hours.

My breakfast of yogurt, granola, bananas and maple syrup. Yum.