Cooking and baking are my therapy, my outlet. Everyone has something they love to do. I have always enjoyed baking and cooking for my family. When my husband and I got married, my Mom told me, “If you can read, you can cook.” That has given me so much confidence in the kitchen. I try recipes I may not have tried otherwise.
Since last fall cooking and baking have helped me tremendously deal with my postpartum depression. While I praise the Lord the dark days are gone, I still have days here and there that are not good. When those days hit, I tend to bake. It’s amazing how the process of creaming butter and sugar and taking basic ingredients and turning them into something edible is therapeutic.
I know that it is not fall yet. I realize that we are still just in the middle of August, but the weather here in our part of Virginia has been cool and very fall-like. Whenever the weather starts to change, if even for a day or two, I always get a craving for pumpkin baked goods and a big bowl of chili. Well, the chili didn’t happen but the pumpkin did!
It’s never too early for pumpkin! I could eat it all year. This Pumpkin Sheet Cake is moist, while still being light and fluffy. It is super easy to throw together. When I made this, I was able to mix all the ingredients up quickly while my kids played upstairs for a few minutes. The only hard part about this cake is waiting for it to cool to frost it with the cream cheese frosting. I usually keep this cake in the refrigerator because I find the icing holds up better, and because I just LOVE cold desserts.
So as you start to crave all things fall, try this Pumpkin Sheet Cake. It will satisfy your pumpkin cravings!
What do for your outlet? Do you cook and bake like me or do you sew, clean, read, or do something else?
- For the cake:
- 1 (15 ounce) can solid packed pumpkin
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 cup vegetable oil
- 4 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 4 ounce cream cheese, softened
- 5 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1½ teaspoons vanilla
- 1¾ cups powdered confectioner’s sugar
- 2-4 teaspoons milk, as needed
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a large cookie sheet with cooking spray and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl, add the pumpkin, sugar and oil. Mix until combined. Add eggs and mix well.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt. Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat on low until combined.
- Pour the batter onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread evenly.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until done and toothpick comes out clean. The top of the cake be golden and spring back when touched.
- Cool the cake and then cover with a light towel about 15 minutes into cooling period. Cool completely before frosting.
- For the frosting, add cream cheese, melted butter and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer or other large bowl. Beat until mostly smooth. There will be some clumps but that is ok, the mixture will become smoother as you add the powdered sugar. Gradually add the powdered sugar, beating until frosting is completely smooth (a couple of minutes). Add milk as needed (I didn’t need to use but ½ teaspoon of milk).
- Refrigerate cake to allow frosting to set. Serve.
Recipe Source: Tammy’s Recipe’s - A great food blog (one of the first I ever started reading). Take some time to look around her blog!