Praline Pumpkin Cake with Pumpkin Whipped Cream

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I bring you an iced double-decker vegan praline pumpkin cake.  Say that three times fast!  😉

I made this cake a few weeks back to take to a friend’s house, and it was a hit!  At the end of the night, we only had two slices left…whether it was because there were that many people eating cake or because it was that good…you’re guess is as good as mine! 😉 Either way, we were the lucky ones and brought the extra cake home!

Originally, I was going to just make pumpkin cake with the icing, but that seemed a little boring.  I’ve been snacking on praline almonds, so my wheels started turning.  Praline almonds?  Not for this cake.  Praline pecans?  Perfect!  There’s something about butter, brown sugar, and pecans that just seems oh so right.

While pulling out spices for making the cake batter, I remembered that I had just received a shipment of new oils in the mail.  I got a little excited and pulled out some of my new “spicy” essential oils, using a combo of cinnamon bark, clove, and ginger.  The smells—oh the smells!  This is my absolute favorite time of year to whip up fall scented treats, and this cake did not disappoint.  And let’s not forget about the icing—pumpkin whipped cream?  Absolutely!

 

• Difficulty: medium
• Print

For the Praline:
½ cup Earth Balance Butter
¼ cup almond milk
1 cup brown sugar
¾ cup chopped pecans

For the cake:
4 cups flour
3 ½ TBSP baking powder
1 ¾ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup cane sugar
1 ¾ cup canned pumpkin
1 cup almond milk
1 cup water
1 ½ TBSP vegetable oil
3 ¼ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ TBSP apple cider vinegar
1 ½ tsp caramel extract
6 drops Young Living Cinnamon Bark Essential Oil
3 drops Young Living Nutmeg Essential Oil
2 drop Young Living Ginger Essential Oil
1 drop Young Living Clove Essential Oil
2 TBSP Ener-G Egg Replacer plus 3 TBSP water to fold into the batter

For the icing:
2 cans full fat coconut milk (chilled in the fridge overnight)
8 oz pumpkin puree
¼ tsp pumpkin pie spice
2-3 droppers vanilla stevia drops
Pinch of salt

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350. Cut two round pieces of parchment paper to fit into two ungreased 9 inch round cake pans with parchment paper (this will make it easier for the cakes to come out of the pans).
2. In a heavy saucepan, combine the Earth Balance butter, almond milk, and brown sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, just until the butter is melted.  Pour evenly into the two round cake pans.  Sprinkle evenly with pecans.
3. Combine the dry cake ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Toss well.
4. Combine the wet ingredients, except the Ener-G egg replacer, and fold into the dry ingredients.
5. Fold the Ener-G egg replacer into the cake ingredients.
6. Spread the batter into the two prepared cake pans, smoothing out the top. The batter is a bit thick, so be sure to smooth it out.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes, or until the edges start to brown.
8. Cool the cakes completely before turning out on racks or cake plate.
9. Prepare the Pumpkin Whipped Cream: Without shaking or disturbing, remove the chilled cans of coconut milk from the fridge.  Using a small can opener (the “old school” kind that is a pointed triangle) to puncture a drainage hole in the bottom of the can.  Do this over a separate bowl!  Allow the coconut water to drain out of the bottom of the can.  Once all of the water is drained, flip the can over, open and scoop out the thick coconut cream to a large bowl.  Repeat with the second can.
10. Whip the coconut cream until it starts to firm up. Add the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, sweetener, and salt.  Whip until you have soft fluffy peaks.
11. If you haven’t already, place one cake round onto your cake plate. Layer half of your pumpkin whipped cream on top of the first cake round, and then place the second cake round on top of the cream.

We loved this cake so much that I’ll be making it to bring to Thanksgiving this year!  We do have some allergies in the family, so I’m working on a nut-free cinnamon swirl version…spoiler alert family members!  🙂

What are you making for dessert?

Pecan Pie Cookies

It happened—I knew it would at some point—I missed a week! My goal has been to post twice a week while being okay with the once a week posts that typically happen. Last week came and went with no post, and I feel so guilty…probably to no one but myself…but guilty nonetheless! In my defense, I was home with the kids for a week, so we tried to jam the days with fun activities and games. We made an outdoor waterbed, PVC bows and arrows, and sidewalk chalk paint. At the end of the week, we were even able to make a trip out of town!

My family has a cabin down in southern Colorado, and we try to make it down at least once a year. We so love going down there and being totally disconnected from the “real” world (another reason I haven’t posted—excuses, excuses). While we’re there, we have no TV, no phone, and no internet. I love that we have to create our own fun, and it’s fun with no interruptions—we go hiking, read books, play darts, practice “fishing” (it’s not really fishing when you’ve got five kids, two working poles, and no bait :-)), and play a ton of board games. The best part is that we always come back feeling recharged and reenergized as a family unit. Sometimes we just need a bit of that!

One of the other super fun things about going out of town is that it means there’s one more excuse for yummy treats (because clearly…I look for excuses for yummy treats). The hubs loves pecan pie, but the poor guy only gets it twice a year—Thanksgiving and Christmas. What a fun surprise I thought that it would be for him to get a taste of pecan pie in the summer—but in a cookie format. Yep. That’s our kind of fun.

For the “pie” crust of the cookie, I opted for a sugar cookie molded into a mini-pie shape and then filled them with gooey yumminess! I’ve seen the posts on Pinterest where someone much more clever than me put cookie dough on the outside of the muffin tins to make little cookie cups for ice cream, and I’ve wanted to try it for ages. Instead of using a cookie cutter (because who can find one when they need it?) I placed different cups on the outside of the muffin tins to find the cup that would give me the right size for my tin—just fitting over the tin. It took a bit of trial and error getting the height of the sides of the cookies right, but I figured, who really cares if a cookie is high on one side and low on another if it tastes good all around? We certainly don’t!

The filling for the cookies is super easy to make, takes just a few minutes, and settles into the cookie cups beautifully. The stage of the filling that was the most work was chopping the pecans (I recommend buying chopped pecans…that’s what happens when you send the hubsters to the store with an order for pecans), but after that, it’s smooth sailing. I, of course, had to taste-test a few right away…and a little later for quality control. Let me just say that the quality stayed the same from beginning to end to the next day.

• Servings: 36
• Print

For the cookie cups:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups sugar
¼ cup light brown sugar
2 TBSP water
1 cup Earth Balance butter

For the filling:

6 TBSP Earth Balance butter
1 cup light brown sugar
2/3 cup corn syrup
3 cups chopped pecans
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Flip your muffin tins upside down and place your muffin tin liners on the outside of the muffin tins.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
3. Blend the sugars and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and blend until pale and fluffy. Mix in water. Reduce speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture.
4. With your hands, divide the dough into two mounds. Lightly flour your countertop or other flat surface and roll dough out to ¼ inch thick. Dip the rim of your cup or cookie cutter into a bit of water, and cut out cookie circles. Center cookie rounds on top of the outside of muffin tins, and using your fingers, gently fold the dough over the edges and up the sides as needed. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the muffin tins.
5. While the cookie cups are cooling, prepare your filling. Place the butter, light brown sugar, corn syrup, salt, cinnamon, and vanilla extract in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn on medium heat and boil for 2 minutes.
6. Remove from heat, stir in pecans and vanilla.
7. Place 2 heaping tablespoons of pecan filling into each deep dish cookie.
Allow filling to cool and set up before serving.

These babies didn’t last long, so grab a tall glass of milk, sit back, and enjoy!

Have you made cookie cups before? I may be hooked and looking for inspiration 😉 So, what did you fill yours with?

**If you have left over cookie cups, freeze them for later, fill them with ice cream, but just don’t throw them away! I froze mine for a treat later on! 😉