Pumpkin Pie Crumble Cake

I started this venture with cakes in mind and initially concentrated on cakes and coffee cakes. But the book does say cakes, bars, cookies, and desserts. I would place this one in the dessert category.

A little more labor intensive than previous recipes I've tried, the result is a very nice pumpkin dessert welcome at any gathering.

The crust is something between a cake and a soft cookie and I like the way it is a distinct and substantial layer- about 1/4 to 1/2 in thick. Spreading it in the pain was a challenge- the dough is very soft and sticky. I tried my wooden spoon, rubber spatula, and long frosting spreading blade. No good. You have to use your hands, as the recipes instructs, imagine that! But you'll also want to dust them (and re-dust them) with floor to aid in the spreading of the crust dough.

The filling had that wonderful creamy, smooth texture of pumpkin pie filling, but not as intense a flavor. If you want the filling to taste more like pumpkin pie, I recommend adding a little nutmeg and ginger along with the cinnamon.

The crumble top- perfect! It crumbled!! I liked that it was plentiful making it easy to cover the cake completely. I was concerned it would bake into a more solid top, almost like a top crust. But it didn't. I love crumbles on top of cakes and donuts so this was perfect.

Lethal Chocolate Peppermint Cake

I'm a little worried about this one. The cake appears to be great, but I believe I messed up the peppermint frosting. I didn't measure carefully and, if it's possible, I think I had the butter too "soft". Even after adding more confectioners sugar, the frosting was not substantial enough. The layers were sliding apart. I've carefully pieced it together and placed it in the refrigerator to, hopefully, setup real good. Will let you know tomorrow!

:/

I cut the cake and put it out in the employee lounge after lunch and it was gone in no time. Because I had refrigerated the cake the ganache got a little hard and it was a little difficult to cut. The ganache broke into pieces and fell away from the cake. However that didn't seem to slow anyone down.

With a name like lethal chocolate peppermint cake I expected the peppermint to be a little overpowering but it wasn't in fact it was quite subtle and very complementary.

Begin again.....

I recently decided to revisit this too long ignored blog and check out any possible activity as well as remind myself why I abandoned it to begin with.   I'm currently sitting in a hotel room, waiting for time to pass so we can join family at breakfast ( we are from a different time zone but the body doesn't realize that).

So it has occurred to me to start up this blog again.  To try again to reach the goal of getting through one and on to another of Anne Byrn's wonderful cookbooks.  Obviously, I won't be making a cake here in the hotel room today.  But check back in a few days- my new goal- at least one per week. And, in the meantime, I did find this YouTube video of  tips from Anne Byrn.  Like her recipes, these are simple, but good (true)!
3 tips from Ann.