PUMPKIN HONEY BUN CAKE

 I hope you aren't tired of pumpkin recipes, but this is the last one for a while. Well, maybe for a post or two.  This Pumpkin Honey Bun Cake was the last dessert I made for our pastors for Pastor Appreciation Sunday (month). Pastor Jess ended up with this one. He ended up with it because it and the PUMPKIN CRUNCH were what was left after Lead Pastor Yvi chose the PUMPKIN and SOUR CREAM COFFEE CAKE. He said to let Pastor Choongho's wife Hannah and son Stephen choose which one they wanted and he would take the other one. They chose the Crunch so Jess got the Honey Bun Cake. Stephen couldn't wait to get the Crunch home to eat it. 

Jess thanked me for it the next time I saw him and told me what had happened. He cut the cake in half and left half of it at the church for the office staff. He said they had been enjoying it all week and raving about it. Jess said even though the Honey Bun Cake was called a cake, he thought it was okay to eat it for breakfast and that what he and his family had been doing.

He excused me for not running the knife a little "rougher" through it so the top was disturbed more and looked more like a honey bun. I was disappointed it didn't look more like a bun, but he said it didn't change the taste anyway.

This is another recipe from the Given to Hospitality II, another collection of recipes from the ladies of the Ozark Mennonite Church and School cookbook and was attributed to Melissa Burk.

PUMPKIN HONEY BUN CAKE

Cake:

2-1/4   cup flour

1         cup sugar

1         tablespoon baking powder

3/4      teaspoon salt

3         eggs

1         cup buttermilk

1         cup pumpkin

1/2      teaspoon cloves

1/2      teaspoon ginger

1         teaspoon cinnamon

Crumbs:

1-1/4   cup brown sugar

1/2      cup nuts

4         teaspoons cinnamon

1/2      cup raisins

Glaze:

1         cup powdered sugar

2 - 4    tablespoons milk

1/2      teaspoon vanilla (use clear vanilla if you want the glaze to be white)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 

Measure the dry ingredients into a bowl and blend with a whisk.

Add eggs, buttermilk, and pumpkin and stir with a spoon

until smooth.

Pour half of the batter into a 9 x 13 - inch pan or Bundt pan.

Combine all of the crumb ingredients and

sprinkle over the bake batter.

Pour remaining batter over the crumbs

(make sure you use a spatula to get every bit of batter in the bowl.)

Gently swirl with a knife. (That's what I did and so my finished cake was mostly smooth on top after it baked.)

Bake in oven for 35 to 40 minutes. 

Prepare the glaze

and pour over the warm cake. Cool cake in pan on wire rack. There were no instructions for using the Bundt pan, but if you used a Bundt cake pan, I would probably cool the cake for 10 - 15 minutes on a wire rack and then remove it from the pan to drizzle the glaze over it. I would also grease and flour the pan. 

This is the first time I have made three different desserts and taken to the ministers. I really spent all day in my kitchen, but was pleased with how they turned out and all three ministers were surprised and thankful.