So Blake, my almost 2 year old, is very very observant. He always notices if I’ve hung a new picture or decor on the walls.. It always makes me feel good when he walks in the room and says “whoaaa” and then precedes to tell me what it is he sees. When I decided to finally get out my fall decorations a few weeks ago I waited until Blake was taking his afternoon nap so that when he woke up he’d be excited seeing all of the new decorations everywhere.
Just as I expected he walked into the living room with big eyes, pointing at everything he saw. “Whoaaaa punkins!” “leaves!” *pointing and laughing at the pilgrim dolls* “whoaaa”. He is especially obsessed with the pumpkin salt & pepper shakers on our kitchen table, the “little punkins”. After seeing how excited he was with all the fake pumpkins everywhere I picked up a little, real pumpkin for him from Publix because I knew he’d love it, and he did. He carried it around the house all night and then brought it to bed with him.
After a few days of the pumpkin sitting on my counter and me trying to think of a way to use it, I decided on making pumpkin cake. And what’s more fun than eating pumpkin cake baked in a pumpkin? This recipe is fairly easy, and if you’d like to make it even easier you could always use canned pumpkin, but for the sake of the holiday season and not wasting perfectly good pumpkin I used fresh.
Pumpkin Cake Baked In A Pumpkin
Ingredients:
1 small pumpkin
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg (not pictured. Oops)
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 cup pumpkin
1 & 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
1/2 tsp maple extract
Marshmallows, enough to cover top of cake
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Cut pumpkin in half and scoop out insides. If using fresh pumpkin, prepare it at this time.*
Mix dry ingredients.
Add remaining ingredients and mix until combined.
Divide batter between the two pumpkin halves.
Place in a shallow baking dish, pour water in dish half way up pumpkins.
Bake on 350 for 35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean when inserted.
Place marshmallows on top and return to oven on broil for about 30 seconds.
Take pictures and post them on social media because they’re beautiful and you’ll want everyone to see.
How to easily prepare pumpkin
After scooping out the seeds and stringy stuff, carve as much of the pumpkin out that you can get.
Place in a small microwaveable bowl.
Add 3 tablespoons of water.
Heat in microwave for 2 minutes, till soft and you can easily stick a fork through it.
Mash with a masher.
Done.
I got about 1/3 cup out of mine. For this particular recipe since you only need 1/4 cup you don’t have to worry about scooping it all out. Whatever you leave in the pumpkin will cook with the cake, and if you’re lucky when you take a bite you’ll get a little layer of fresh pumpkin with your cake, as pictured above.
