Weekly Recipe - Pumpkin Nutella Snack Cake Plus How To Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree - A Week of Recipes Coming Up

I haven't posted a recipe is soooooo long, that I decided this week I will only post recipes, so if you like to cook and eat, stay tuned...

My newest creation was inspired by the name of someone else's recipe. It piqued my interested but when I read it there was WAY too much sugar and only white flour in it. I tweeked it and ended up with a moist, amazing, and healthier cake. It is delicious without any frosting.

One of the reasons I stumbled on the other recipe was that I had some leftover pumpkin I wanted to try to puree, so I am also including instructions on how to puree fresh pumpkin, although this cake is also good, and quicker and easier, if you use canned pumpkin.

How to Make Fresh Pumpkin Puree
by Tiffany Teske

The average pie pumpkin (which is kind a funny thing to say since they are all different) makes about 3 cups of puree. I used half a pumpkin and indeed I had 1.5 cups.

1. Wash and dry your pumpkin. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut the top off your pumpkin and discard it. Now cut your pumpkin in half, remove the seeds (which you can roast) by scrapping with a metal spoon, then cut each half in half again.
3. Place your pumpkin quarters on a cookie sheet, cut side down. You can cover them with foil (I did this in my toaster oven and didn't cover them, which worked fine). Bake for 35 - 45 minutes, until the meat can easily be scraped from the shell.
4. Let the pumpkin cool. Scrap the meat from the shell.
5. Put the meat into your food processor and puree. If it is thick you can slowly add a teaspoon or so of water at a time. Mine was very wet without any additional water. Mine looks a bit like applesauce but the color will vary.

I wish I had a picture of this cake but I made it at night, wanted to photograph it in daylight, then we ate a bunch and took the rest to friends, and I never got a photo... I think that is a first!

Pumpkin Nutella Snack Cake
By Tiffany Teske

1 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 c whole wheat pastry flour (this is finer than whole wheat flour so not as heavy)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 lb (or 2 sticks or 8 oz or 1 c) butter, at room temperature
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 t real vanilla extract
1 1/2 c canned or fresh pumpkin puree
1/2 c Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9-by-13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugars until smooth. Beat in the egg and vanilla until well blended. Add the pumpkin puree and Nutella. Reduce speed to low, and mix in the flour mixture until just combined.
4. Spread batter evenly into the prepared pan.
5. Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until the sides pull away from the pan and a toothpick comes out clean. Place cake on a wire rack and cool completely.

Bon appetit!