Lazy Cooking: Pumpkin Cake

Jane Deere, one of the foodie blogs that I read, shared a great recipe that I just had to try out last night.  It technically requires only 2 ingredients however, since we can't make things too easy... I used 5. 

Cake Ingredients:

- 1 box cake mix (I used spice cake as it is my favorite, though Jane Deere says you can use Vanilla, Chocolate, Buttered Pecan, or Carrot)

- 1 15oz can pure pumpkin

- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice (optional)

- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)

Basically you mix all the ingredients together in a bowl until all the lumps are gone (I did this by hand and it took awhile).  Then you spoon the mixture into a well greased bundt pan and bake it at 350 degrees until a skewer or toothpick comes out with just crumbs on it.  Jane Deere recommended 20-30 minutes baking time, but I found I needed 40 to have the skewer come out cleanly.   So, I recommend that you start with the 20 minutes, poke the cake and stick it back in for 5-10 intervals until it's done so you don't accidentally overcook it. 

Rather than dusting with powdered sugar I opted to make a quick icing to dribble over the cake slices.  Consisting only of powdered sugar and water (and perhaps a little vanilla) this icing is super easy!  You start with about 1/4 cup of warm water and slowly add powdered sugar until you have a drippy, lump free consistency that you like.  I found that putting the mixture in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time to help the sugar dissolve removed almost all of the lumps without having to sift the powdered sugar beforehand.  Then all you have to do just drizzle it over the whole cake or just the individual slices.  I brought this cake to my office and the general consensus was that it was Yum!!!