Photo taken by thehipvegetarian

One of my inspirations for sharing recipes comes from a high school friend Valerie over at her 29 Days of Pumpkin blog.  Valerie has an ambitious month by committing to make a pumpkin recipe everyday until Thanksgiving.  She’s a trooper since no one else in her family likes pumpkin. Between you and me, they are missing out!

Here’s a recipe that I tried from her Day 5 Post — Gooey Butter Cake.

If you caught My Sunday Confession you would have read that I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie.  Though this recipe reminds me of pumpkin pie, it’s much better reincarnated as a cake.  I prefer to think it’s the cream cheese.  My theory is you can never go wrong with cream cheese.

In fact when I make this recipe again, I think I will place a cream cheese/sugar mixture between the cake batter and the filling.  Make it a three layered cake.  In my mind I can already taste it.

Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake

Cake Bottom:
1-18.25 oz package yellow cake mix
1 large egg
8 Tbsp butter, melted

Filling:
2 cups grated raw pumpkin
1-8 ounce package of cream cheese,
softened
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
6 Tbsp butter, melted
1 3/4 cup box powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/4 tsp salt

Garnish
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sprinkled on
top of each square of cake
1 dollop of fresh whipped cream per
serving

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place raw pumpkin in bowl and cook in microwave
for 5 min. Drain out excess water. Set aside.

Make cake by mixing cake mix, egg and butter. Lightly grease a 13 x 9 inch baking
pan, and pat cake mixture into bottom of pan. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat the pumpkin and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla, eggs, butter and beat. Mix dry ingredients of powdered sugar, cinnamon, salt, and pumpkin pie spice and add to cream cheese mixture. Mix well.

Pour mixture over cake batter and spread evenly. Bake for 35-45 , and be careful not to overcook as the center should be soft and gooey, as the title describes. Cut into squares and sprinkle heavily with powdered sugar. Place 1-2 pieces per plate for serving,and dollop fresh whipped cream in center.