Pumpkin Cake

Sometimes I just need to get rid of the can of pumpkin and some of the ten bags of nuts that have managed to accumulate in my cupboard.  Luckily, the Pumpkin Cake was the perfect thing to get rid of some unused ingredients.



Before starting in on Rose's Heavenly Cakes, I had never realized how much a quick roast in the oven improves the flavor of nuts.  It's really amazing how the flavors are drawn out and made infinitely more delicious after a swift roast.  The walnuts smelled and tasted heavenly after coming out of the oven.



The cake isn't anything very special.  The batter is simple to put together.  Rose's recipe makes use of the Nordic Ware 3D Pumpkin Pan, but I'm cheap and a regular bundt pan does the job just as well.



The buttercream for this came together perfectly, but it somehow began to melt a bit after standing in my kitchen for a few minutes.  It went onto the cake a little...  weird.



I'll be the first to admit that this doesn't look like it's going to taste amazing.  That color is just unappetizing.  Rose adds orange food coloring to her pumpkin-shaped cake, but again, my cheapness prevented me from doing this.



Fortunately, the cake inside was delicious and moist.  The contrast of the light-colored frosting and the darker cake was surprisingly nice to look at.  My only complaints with this cake are that the pumpkin flavor wasn't very strong and that it was a bit too sweet for my taste.  Other than that:  SUCCESS!