Autumn Delicious Cake

When the calendar changes to September, the days begin to quickly change. The neighborhood kids walk to school with brand new backpacks and shiny lunch-boxes, and I can hear the morning announcements from the elementary school one block from my house. The leaves will soon turn oranges, golds and browns and slowly drift from the trees, and the air will turn brisk and nippy… okay, well maybe not here in Los Angeles, but it’s happening somewhere besides my imagination. Autumn is a time of renewal, exciting and fresh with lots of possibilities.

Passing Labor Day for me still means putting away my white clothes…although here in Southern California we never really put away our summer clothes… working on holiday projects and planning new menus.

I re-evaluate and update my goals for the year, and I remind myself to count my blessings, as we head toward the end of the year.

So now that Labor Day has passed and the days are moving quickly toward autumn, have you paused to take stock of your goals and count your blessings and do you put away your white clothes for another year (or is that just me)?

Before I began writing fiction I was a food writer. I thought I’d share one of my favorite autumn recipes with you.

Autumn Delicious Cake

Cake:

1 spice cake mix

1 small box instant vanilla pudding

4 eggs

1 cup canned pumpkin

½ cup water

½ cup vegetable oil

Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

1-2 T cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°. Spray a Bundt pan with cooking spray.

Combine cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Put cake mix, pudding mix, eggs, pumpkin water and oil into a large mixing bowl and beat on low speed until combined, then on high speed for 2 minutes. Spread half of batter in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with ½ of the cinnamon sugar, then top with the remaining batter spreading it evenly over the sugared layer, reserve half of the cinnamon sugar.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a fork or skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes, then flip onto a serving platter, sprinkle with remaining cinnamon sugar and cool completely.  Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.

Taste autumn!