Fall in love with Fall Spice Cake

As fall comes into season I immediately start looking for new festive ways to bring in the season.  I found a quick & easy pumpkin muffin recipe, which sounded delish, but I wanted to do something more to satisfy my annual pumpkin craving than make muffins.  So I followed the 2 step directions for the muffins & added my own touches, which is my favorite thing about cooking.  Make things your own, by adding what you like to any old recipe-within reason.  :)

All you'll need to make this wonderful pumpkin spice cake is, 1 box of spice cake mix, 1 can of pure pumpkin, 2 eggs, & 1 cup of water.  The box cake mix calls for more egg, oil, & more water, but I found that the mixture I used worked fine.  The cake was moist without using oil, but I don't see why making the spice cake mix as directed on the box then adding the pumpkin wouldn't work. (I'm just telling you what I did. :))  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, mix all the above ingredients together, add the cake mixture to a 9in. by 9in. baking dish & bake for 30 min or until you can insert a knife & have it come out clean.  Watch your cake, time limits can vary.

To make the frosting I used 1 package of cream cheese, 1/4 cup of butter, 1 cup of powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon of vanilla, & 1 tablespoon of cinnamon.  Mix the ingredients together & you should then have a creamy, cinnamony frosting.  If you'd like to take a short cut to get cinnamon cream cheese frosting, just buy a packaged cream cheese frosting & add cinnamon to taste.   Either way will work!  Remember to wait till your cake cools to add the icing.

I wasn't sure about how this pumpkin spice cake was going to turn out when I first tried it, but I'm glad I did.  It's extremely simple, but perfect & exactly what I was looking for to indulge my pumpkin craving.  Plus I had a sweet aroma swirling throughout the house.  Get the season started tonight with my "Fall in love with Fall Spice Cake!"