Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Icing #BundtaMonth

 I love my bundt pans.  It all started with a sale at Williams Sonoma years ago.  I got this bundt pan that made pretty bundts with shapes of violets on cake.  It was so pretty when I took my very first bundt cake (lemon from a WS mix) out of the oven.  I had a bit of trouble getting it out without ruining the pretty flowers on my cake.  Unfortunately, while it was delicious, it got a bit marred.  The perfectionist me was scarred for awhile from making bundt cakes.

Last year or the year before last, I discovered the wonderful Melissa Block's All Cakes Considered.  Her very first cake was a detailed description of how to bake a bundt cake! I was excited to try again.  Thanks to her wonderful instructions, I got it right and turned out a bundt cake that was not marred but had the pretty top. Emboldened, I tried again with the banana chocolate cake posted by Heidi Swanson of 101cookbooks (love her blog, her recipes and her photos).  It turned out beautifully.  I have since acquired the Anniversary bundt pan.

dry ingredients for cake

When I read that there was a #bundtamonth going on, I wanted to join. This is being hosted by Cake Duchess and Baker Street. This month's ingredient is Pumpkin.  At the same time, what am I going to do with a bundt cake that serves 16?! I tend to give away my bake goods to friends and neighbors but everyone is on some kind of diet.  Then a friend invited me to her party and my contribution is the Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Icing.  My recipe is a conglomeration of a couple of similar recipes but mainly inspired by the recipe in Janice Cole's Chicken and Eggs. I wanted to make the salted caramel sauce in her recipe but I was missing some ingredients so I went with a simple buttermilk icing.Here again I used duck eggs like in my clafoutis. The cake turned out very moist and definitely has the taste of Fall - pumpkin. Mine does not have that porcelain white of that featured on Gourmet.com. If anyone knows how to achieve that white, please let me know.

batter in bundt pan ready for the oven

Pumpkin Spice Bundt Cake with Buttermilk Icing

Ingredients:
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 ts ground cinnamon
2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1 ts ground nutmeg
1 ts allspice
1/2 ts ground ginger
1/2 sea salt
2 3/4 cups sugar
1 cup sunflower oil (or canola)
4 eggs
One 15-ounce can solid-pack pumpkin

Icing:
1 1/4 cup confectioner's sugar
2 tbs well-shaken buttermilk

The Cake: Preheat the oven to 350 F.  Grease a 12-cup Bundt pan with shortening and flour it then tap out excess.  I find the easiest way to do this is to use a oil spray with flour.  Spectrum sells it and I believe Trader Joe's has a version too. You can also use a pastry brush to fully oil the pan's inside.
Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, nutmeg, salt, baking powder, baking soda in a bowl.
Combine the sugar and oil in a large bowl with an electric mixer at low speed, using the paddle attachment.  Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after adding each egg.  Beat in the pumpkin.  Slowly beat in the flour ingredients, beating until just blended and smooth.  No need to overbeat.  Pour into the Bundt pan.  Smooth the top.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a small skewer or cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Invert the cake onto the wire rack and remove the pan.

While cake is cooking, whisk together confectioner's sugar and buttermilk until smooth.  Drizzle over warm cake.  Continue cooling cake on rack.