Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Before I get to my recipe, I'd like to take a moment to say I hope that everything is OK with Sheryl from Lady Behind the Curtain. I'm not sure she'd ever see this, but you've been in my thoughts. And with that, I would also like to thank Kristen from Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker for taking over the Improv Cooking Challenge.

What is the Improv Cooking Challenge? Every month the host gives you two ingredients you must use in a recipe and a date by which you have to complete your recipe and blog post. The goal is to see the many creative ways people combine the two ingredients and share lots of delicious recipes!

The month of November the two ingredients were pumpkin and cream cheese.

I made a Pumpkin Apple Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.

Cake Recipe
The Ingredients: 
Apples

• 3T unsalted butter
• 4 Granny Smith apples (peeled, cored and diced)
• 3T sugar
• 1t cinnamon

Cake

• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) room temperature unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 1/2 t salt
• 3/4 cup canned pure pumpkin
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2T granulated sugar
• 2t pumpkin pie spice
• 1t baking soda
• 2 eggs

The Instructions:

Apples

• Melt butter in a large, nonstick, pan over medium-high heat
• Add the apples and cook 5-7 minutes until the apples begin to brown 
• Add the sugar & cinnamon & cook another 3 minutes or so until golden brown
• Set aside in a bowl to cool (and try not to eat it all!!)
• Time saving hint: make the day before or substitute a large can of apple pie apples. Just make sure to chop them up a bit smaller and be careful not to get too much of the syrup. I strongly suggest making your own apple mixture, although I may be biased!

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Butter a 9-inch pan, a springform would probably be best, but I didn't have one so I used a 9" square pan (I also sprayed some Pam after I buttered the pan which worked out well, because upon cooling the cake started to recede from the sides)
• Combine flour, brown sugar, butter & salt into a mixing bowl and beat until crumbly
• Set aside 2/3 cup of the mixture for topping
• Beat pumpkin, sour cream, granulated sugar, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda into the remaining flour mixture
• Beat until smooth (there may be some butter lumps, that's ok) and then beat in eggs
• Pour patter into the buttered pan
• Sprinkle apples evenly over the top and then sprinkle flour topping over apples
• Bake about 50 minutes, or until the top is brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out clean
• Cool for at least 20 minutes
• Try and ignore the cute begging puppy at your feet 

Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

The Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup confectioners (powdered) sugar
• 3 oz cream cheese
• 1 t vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup (or more) heavy whipping cream

The Instructions:

• Blend sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla in a blender/processor alternating between on/off  (I used my Vitamix, it was perfect)
• Blend in cream to form a thick, but pourable icing
• Do not overmix

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My husband, who refuses to eat anything with a mention of pumpkin or cream cheese really enjoyed this dessert (fine, I didn't tell him what was in it ahead of time). I think I will make it again for a Thanksgiving dessert! 

Check out the other recipes as part of this challenge below

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