Pumpkin Coffeecake with Cream Cheese

Nothing says autumn more than colorful fall leaves and Pumpkin Coffeecake with Cream Cheese swirls and pecans. With the leaves still falling at the inn, I just had to make an autumn breakfast treat for our guests. One mention of it on Facebook and Twitter made for recipe requests. This recipe was just invented last night and deserves to be shared. Enjoy the taste of autumn!

Pumpkin Coffeecake with Cream Cheese

Pumpkin Cake

Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon allspice
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Spray baking spray into a 10 or 12 inch round cake pan (I used a 12-inch tart pan – the kind that the bottom is separate from the edges). Place butter & sugar into the mixing bowl. Beat together. Add wet ingredients into mixer & blend. Add dry ingredients & mix until combined. Stir in pecans. Pour into pan and set aside.

Cream Cheese Swirls

• 2 eight-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
• 3 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 2/3 cup of sugar

Mix well & place it into a pastry or decorating bag. Decorate pumpkin cake with swirls (or just drop by tablespoons full all around the top of the cake).

This is why they call it baking with love. It takes time and lotsa dirtied bowls to create masterpieces.

Streusel

Place ingredients in a food processor.

• 1 stick of cold butter
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 egg

Pulse food processor until streusel forms into crumbly pieces. If it forms into a ball, you have pulsed it too long. If you end up with a big ball of streusel, it’s okay. It happens to the best of us. Just make tiny pieces & sprinkle over coffee cake.

Finally, bake your lovely autumny coffeecake for about one hour, checking occasionally with a fork. Poke a fork into coffeecake & when the fork comes out of the pumpkin cake clean, your loveliness is ready to come out of the oven.

Frosting

• 2 cups of powdered sugar
• A couple of tablespoons of water

Place powdered sugar and water into a bowl & stir well. Add additional water a teaspoonful at a time if needed until it reached a pourable yet somewhat think consistency. Allow coffeecake to sit for about 30 minutes & then drizzle the icing all over the coffeecake.

Taste autumn. Serve to guests & wow friends.