Itsy Bitsy Spiderweb Pumpkin Cake

I found this pumpkin bar recipe from Life's Simple Measures last week and had to give it a shot since I had some leftover pumpkin to use up. She listed a delicious sounding maple cream cheese frosting to go on top of hers, but I didn't have any maple extract. Boo. It is now on my list to get before holiday baking begins! Eeee! Super excited!




I cut the recipe that Jess posted for the pumpkin bars in a third, so here is what I used, which made just the right amount baked into a 6 inch cake pan. (Note: This is not cake like, but a very dense moist bar. I just wanted to put a cream cheese filling in so I used a circular pan. Plus I only had enough pumpkin for a smaller batch of batter.) For the full recipe and beautiful pictures check out Jess's recipe at Life's Simple Measures.

10 oz. can pumpkin puree
1/4 c. canola oil

1 large egg

1/2 c. sugar
2/3 c. all purpose flour
2/3 tsp. baking powder
1/3 tsp. baking soda
1/3 tsp. salt
2/3 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp. ground ginger
1/3 tsp. ground nutmeg

Heat oven to 350°F. In large bowl, combine pumpkin puree, canola oil, eggs, and sugar until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes).

In medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg. Slowly pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and fold together until completely combined.

Pour batter into 6 inch cake pan. Bake at 350 for about 25-28 minutes, until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

After letting it cool, I cut it in half and used the cream cheese recipe from Life's Simple Measures to fill in between the layers. Now, I needed a frosting to cover the two layers and filling.

I thought about how much I love chocolate and pumpkin together (see: 3 Ingredient Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies), so why not add a chocolate frosting to the pumpkin bars? Enter: my Pinterest Cupcakes Board, where I knew I had pinned some frosting recipes to try. You would have pinned this too, right? Gorgeous chocolate buttercream for piping.

Photo credit: Alice @ Savory Sweet Life

I used the chocolate buttercream recipe shown above from Alice at Savory Sweet Life. It is deeeeeee-licious and so easy to spread.

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (or 1 teaspoon almond extract)
4 tablespoons heavy cream or milk

Cream butter for a few minutes in a mixer on medium speed.

Sift powdered sugar and cocoa into the mixing bowl. Mix together . (It will be a little lumpy at this point.)

Add vanilla extract, salt, and milk/cream and beat on medium for 3 minutes. Now frost away!

Then I took some of the leftover cream cheese frosting and piped two X's one on top of another. Then, just circles about a half inch apart. Finally, take a knife and pull the frosting starting in the center to the outside. These defining spiderweb lines would have been more dramatic if I had made my initial X's and circles thicker.


Thanks for sticking it out this far if you've made it to the end of the post :) I hope you've enjoyed my little mash up of recipes!


This post is linked up to some of the parties listed under my Show & Tell tab at the top of the page. Go check them out for more inspiration!