happy first full day of fall!!!

Autumn is hands down my absolute most favorite of the four seasons. It is also the only time of the year that I miss living on the East Coast. While Texas is beautiful, nothing compares to a drive through rural Pennsylvania in mid-October with the sun shining and the various colors of the leaves providing such beautiful scenery that you almost forget you’re in the 21st century. Texas tries, don’t get me wrong; we have pumpkin patches and such, but nothing close to the outdoor harvest festivals of PA/NJ that serve homemade apple cider and hand-crafted beers from locally grown ingredients. It’s also just hard for it to feel like fall here with the 95 degree temperatures instead of the crisp, cool mornings so common back East.

Last fall, Dan and I went to Boston with our friends Shannon and Ed to celebrate Shannon’s birthday. It was definitely one of the best mini-vacations ever! We had a great time with great friends, saw all the sights that could be seen (ps if you’re going to walk 15miles per day, wear appropriate shoes and no, flip flops are not appropriate shoes … whoopsie!), drank A LOT of Sammy A “LAH-guh” and most importantly, we rang in Shan’s birthday with a bang-bang-bang. As wonderful as the company was and as beautiful as the scenery was, I almost lost it over all the pumpkin-based products at every stop. Breweries had various pumpkin ales, bakeries had pumpkin everything and local ice cream shops had pumpkin ice cream (side note: if you’re ever in Salem, MA you must get the pumpkin pie ice cream at the little shop right near the ferry). Suffice it to say, if there was pumpkin on the menu, I had it. One may say my obsession with pumpkin* borders on the unhealthy, but I don’t mind, I love me some pumpkin!!!

To me, autumn truly begins on the Monday of Labor Day weekend. That day typically signifies the end of summer: you’re in pain from the weekend-long last blast before school starts back up again, it’s your last chance to hit the beach before packing up and heading back to reality, and it is sadly your last “holiday” from work until Thanksgiving. It’s also the day I usually start picking up cans of pumpkin in the grocery store. However, this year we experienced a pumpkin shortage. I went to the grocery store as usual with thoughts of pumpkin cheesecake dancing in my head, but I could not find pumpkin anywhere! I checked two other stores before heading to the farmers market then eventually the specialty food store but still no pumpkin. Ok, maybe it was just going to be a week late, two weeks late, three weeks late?? Those of you who know me, know that I almost fell into a full-blown depression over this. Then last week, I saw actual pumpkins in front of the store and flew to the baking aisle, but alas, there was still no pumpkin puree … I was sad. Thankfully, pumpkin has now made its grand appearance on grocery store shelves and I am ready to stockpile.

In honor of the first full day of fall, and thanks to a big can of pumpkin given to me by a fellow foodie, I made a pumpkin walnut cake with cinnamon butter cream frosting. I would normally have made this cake with cream cheese frosting, but I didn’t have cream cheese in the house and was too impatient to wait for Dan to go to the store to get me some so I subbed butter cream frosting instead. Over the next few months, I’ll use pumpkin in everything, sweet and savory, until Dan finally confesses that he’s had enough and begs me to please stop the insanity. Here are the recipes for the cake/frosting that I made to celebrate the coming of fall; they are super easy and this cake will fill your house with the most delicious aromas of autumn. I hope you give them a try!

After the cake was baked and almost cooled, I frosted it while still warm, gave Dan a sizeable slice then packed it up to bring the rest to work this morning. To quote two coworkers:
- It’s like pumpkin pie but richer; it is SOOOOOOOOO good
- I can’t believe Dan let you leave the house with this; I would’ve tackled you at the door and kept it for myself if I were him


*Remind me some day to tell you about my similarly unhealthy obsession with bacon and my trip to Montreal when I had bacon with every meal. Don’t judge, bacon makes everything better!! Dang it, all this talk about Montreal makes me want poutine.

Pumpkin Walnut Cake:
1 box cake mix – butter recipe (Moist Deluxe is best)
1 cup water
1 cup canned pure pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup chopped walnuts
cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg
1. Mix all ingredients except walnuts using an electric mixer; first on low speed for 2-3min then on med-high speed for 4-5 min
2. Stir in the chopped walnuts
3. Bake at 375 for 40-45 min (if using bundt pan; 30-35 min if using 2 rounds)

Cream cheese icing
1 stick butter (½ cup)
1 lb cream cheese (two 8oz pkgs)
1 cup powdered sugar (sometimes more)
1 tsp vanilla
**add about a teaspoon of cinnamon with the sugar if using to frost the pumpkin cake**
Cream the butter and the sugar together with an electric mixer, add cream cheese in chunks and blend on high until smooth, add vanilla and mix until fully incorporated.

Buttercream Frosting½ cup shortening (Crisco all-vegetable based)
1 stick (½ cup) butter (make sure it’s super soft but not melted)
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk (don’t use skim but 2% is ok)
**add about a teaspoon of cinnamon with the sugar if using to frost the pumpkin cake**
Cream shortening, butter and vanilla together then gradually add sugar, one cup at a time, beating well with each cup. After all the sugar has been added, it’ll look tough and difficult to spread so add the milk a little at a time until light and fluffy and spreadable.