My Very Own Pumpkin Spice Cake

Researched, tested and crowd approved! This pumpkin cake recipe is a keeper. It is moist and full of flavor... and the calorie count isn't too bad either — only about 275 calories in a slice! Gotta love baking with low fat buttermilk, you'll never miss the extra fat.

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin*
1 cup low fat buttermilk
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 light brown sugar
2 large eggs
canola oil spray

Icing:
1/4 cup low fat buttermilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 — 2 cups confectioners' sugar

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350ºF. Spray bundt pan lightly with canola spray and set aside.

Whisk flours, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, whisk together pumpkin*, 1 cup buttermilk and vanilla.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter and sugars on high — until light in color and fluffy (about 3 – 5 minutes). Add eggs and beat another minute. Reduce speed to low and alternate adding flour and pumpkin mixtures (be sure to start and end with flour). Mix until just comined and smooth.

Pour batter into pan, smooth out the top and bake 50 — 55 minutes, until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool cake in the pan for about 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack and allow to cool completely.

While the cake cools, whisk together buttermilk, cinnamon and vanilla. Add enough powdered sugar to make the icing pourable, but not runny. Pour over cake and allow to harden slightly.

Serves 12

* Cooks Note:
I used Farmer's Market Brand organic canned pumpkin from Whole Foods Market for most of the cakes I made. I did substitute a different brand for a couple cakes and notice that the pumpkin was much thicker and had a lot less moisture content and those cakes fell somewhat after cooling due to lack of liquid. If you notice that the pumpkin you are using is really firm and the mixture of pumpkin, buttermilk and vanilla is thick like a batter itself, add more buttermilk to make the consistency more like a thin milkshake that pours easily.