Pumpkin and Spice

Right now, I'm in my very last class in pastry school. I've been in classroom classes for the past few blocks, and they really do require a differnt level of work. Not that they're hard, but there's homework, tests, and quizzes to finish and study for. Currently, I'm in a cost control (read: math) class and a wines class. I love the wine class- I'm very interested in wines, and Kyle and I are members of a wine club, so this class is extremely engaging and informative. Wines class is also very time consuming, as there is a lot of studying.

This week, in between studying, work and class I found some time to play around in the kitchen and made the most amazing pumpkin coffee cake. My mom makes a coffee cake every year at Christmas, and while hers is a little different from most coffee cakes, it has sort of spilled over that all coffee cake makes me think of Christmas morning. With its pumpkin, cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices, this smelled like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one. As it baked, I felt like I should be decorating a tree and wrapping a present.

This cake was moist, lightly sweet, cinnamony... so delicious! It was perfect with a cup of coffee, and made a great snack or dessert. The best part was that it has signifigantly less fat than most coffee cakes. For the whole 9x13" cake, there's only one stick of butter! You'd never know it, though, as it is so fabulously  moist!

Pumpkin Coffee Cake
Makes one 9x13" cake

• 1 stick butter, at room temperature
• 1c sugar
• 1c brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 whole eggs
• 2 egg whites
• 1 1/2c (about 1 can) pumpkin puree
• 1 c non-fat greek yogurt or sour cream (I used non-fat Fage Greek Yogurt)
• 2t vanilla
• 4c flour
• 2t baking powder
• 1t baking soda
• 1t salt
• 2t cinnamon
• 1t ginger
• 1/2t nutmeg
• 1/4t cloves

For the swirl

• 2T cinnamon
• 3/4c brown sugar, lightly packed

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare a 9x13" pan by buttering it. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and the two sugars. Add the eggs one at a time, incorporating each before adding the next. In a separate bowl, mix together the pumpkin, yogurt and vanilla. In another bowl, sift together the flour, spices, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine. Add half the pumpkin mixture and combine. Repeat with the rest of the flour and the remainder of the pumpkin. Pour a alittle less than half the batter into the pan and spread out. In a small dish, mix cinnamon and brown sugar. Sprinkle the about 1/3 of the sugar mixture on the batter in the pan. Plop a few blobs of batter evenly around the pan. Dust with more sugar. Pour out the rest of the batter and smooth as best you can (it'll be tricky, because it won't stick to the batter below it.) Evenly sprinkle the remainder of the sugar over the whole top of the cake. Bake for about 40-45min, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.