It’s the November edition of the Wisconsin Whisk All Whisked Up Challenge! How this works is that Members of the Wisconsin Whisk group are blindly sent a blogger by the organizers and sent their info via email. We are to wander through their blog, learn about them, and cook one of their recipes.
This month, I was given YummySprout as my blind blog. Tara, from the Madison area, creates her own recipes, with the occasional inspiration from other recipes she finds online. She also teaches cooking classes at Whole Foods in Madison for children and adults. I love that she is getting the kiddos active in cooking at such a young age. This really instills great food choices at a young age.
Tara and her girls have some food allergies and intolerances that put them on a stricter diet — soy-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free. Tara‘s blog is filled with amazing recipes that don’t lack flavor or fun even with these restrictions.
Because I am a lover of all things pumpkin, when I came across her recipe for Pumpkin Honey Cake. I don’t have a gluten intolerance so I used regular all-purpose flour in my recipe but that was my only edit to keep it as true to the original as possible.
The other great thing about this recipe is that I had all the ingredients in my house. My guy just moved in with me on Halloween weekend and that meant an influx of food items. I was very happy to make this cake to help empty my pantry.
I mixed all the wet ingredients together in my “new” bowls. My guy had some really wonderful bowls so I gladly donated my college-era bowls to Goodwill and used these wonderful ceramic bowls.
Cooking with pumpkin makes such a beautiful colored batter, don’t you agree?
Something new that I have never done with a recipe before but might do this from here forward, putting some butter in the pan and place the pan in the oven while it preheats. This allows the butter to melt and coat the pan.
I couldn’t help but watch this cake rise while baking in the oven. There was no need to burn my pumpkin candles while this was in the oven. My house smelt like absolute heaven!
I pulled it out at exactly 40 minutes and my toothpicks came out clean. The cracks on the top also let me know it was done.
I let it cool just a bit on the stove before sneaking a piece. I drizzled some honey over and dug in. This was excellent. It wasn’t as sweet as a typical cake, but I didn’t mind. The honey added extra sweetness to it.
My guy and the girls had a piece before school this morning and they too liked it. My guy told me it was more of a savory and not overly sweet treat but he liked it. I liked that there wasn’t processed white sugar and instead used honey for sweetness. We did think that cream cheese frosting or a powder sugar drizzle would be awesome on top of this cake. This will definitely go on my list of fall treats!
I love being paired up with other Wisconsin blogs. It opens my eyes and belly to other’s cooking styles and let’s my kitchen adventures continue. So far, I am two for two on recipes that were enjoyable. Last month’s Loaded Cauliflower Casserole will be added to the Thanksgiving table this year!
