Pumpkin Thunder Cake

mmm......ok, here is the recipe for Pumpkin Thunder cake ( Hi Grandpa Joe!) from our party last night. I have to say it was delicious! Even better than the Summer Thunder cake that features tomatoes.

I started with this recipe from Country Living Magazine ( no, I haven't lost my mind, but they do have great recipes). I only made a couple of changes. Here is what I did.

1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup dutched cocoa

1/3 cup Hersheys extra special dark cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup canned organic, non spiced pumpkin
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
3 large (plus one yolk) eggs

1 pinch cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
Line the bottoms of two 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper and lightly butter.

Preheat oven to 375.
Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together.

Stir the buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla extract together in a small bowl.

Beat the butter and sugars together using an electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and yolk, one at a time. Reduce mixer speed to low and alternately beat in the flour and buttermilk mixtures in thirds.
Pour the batter into the prepared pans. Bake until a tester, inserted in the center, comes out clean--about 35 minutes. In my oven they were perfectly done at exactly 35 minutes.

Cool layers completely before icing.

The original recipe did not specify frosting so I made a standard cream cheese frosting but added some pumpkin for colour and flavour. I also added a fair amount of orange food colouring paste to get that jack-o-lantern colour.

Frosting.

1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese ( not the whipped kind) softened
1/4 cup canned pureed pumpkin

1/4 cup butter softened (1/2 stick)
1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 cups confectioners sugar sifted

1/4 tsp paste food colour. ( liquid will make it drippy)

Make the frosting: Blend the cream cheese, pumpkin puree, butter, orange juice, zest and vanilla in a large bowl using an electric mixer set at medium speed until smooth.
Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and creamy -- about 5 more minutes.

Top first layer with a thin coating of the orange frosting. Stack second layer on top and

frost all with a thin crumb coat. Allow to set in refrigerator 10 min. Then frost all over with a thicker layer.

then....

Chocolate Ganache. I like this recipe from Sallys Place.

8 oz/250 g Heavy cream or whipping cream

8 oz/250 g Couverture or the best quality, semi-sweet chocolate you can find.

Place cream in a saucepan over high heat and bring just to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat. Meanwhile, chop chocolate into small pieces. Place a damp towel on your counter, place pan of hot cream on the towel then add chopped chocolate to the cream. Beat chocolate and cream vigorously until thoroughly mixed. The mixture will solidify as it cools.

I used heavy cream and semi sweet ( peanut free!) Chocolate chips. I don't think the cake suffered because I did not buy Valhrona chocolate. Besides Valhrona has peanut residue....

Be sure and let the ganache cool until you can put a finger in it without burning. It has to be warm enough to pour, but not so warm that it will melt the frosting underneath. Pour into the center of the cake and use a spatula to spread it to the edges, then just let it pour over the edge. The chocolate covers up most faults in the frosting so you don't have to be too careful.

I would love to hear if you make your own. It was seriously some good cake! If you are interested in the story of the Summer Thunder cake you can read about Patricia Polacco's thunder cake story here and get the recipe here. This used to be Crusty Boys favourite cake, but I think the pumpkin version might have just edged it out!