The Pumpkin-Ripper!

Yes little pumpkins all over the world, be prepared to meet your exterminators!! Fall has come to the land of the living, and families everywhere have come to pick your gourded-bloatedness, gutting your innards into pureed sweetness. Now that you are unable to look at a vegan in the light of vegetable killers, the season still surrounds you with the craving of pumpkins and fall leaves. Through your veins run the ache to slide the knife both under and over the rounded head of these plumb, orange, vine-ripened plants and as you cleave off an opening into these Cinderella carriages, you find a forest of veins that streusel themselves around the interior. Dipping your hand into the stringy appendages of this seasonal fruit, you may find your fingers coldly encased with the seeds of life that make up these pleated, orange balls of the patch. Like Garden Witches and Nomadic Gnomes, in search of divination from the entrails of their prey, you gently lay out the gory interior that used to be life beating for this silent squash. But hope remains, for soon you will weave your magic and create a work of art that will come to life at night, lighting the way for unwanted seekers, ever watching, guarding homes like vegetable gargoyles on a Castle wall. Beware these glowing lanterns, for they have been created at a high price, and death does not sit with them well…

Besides the life giving property of their seeds, the internal flesh that clings to the rind of the pumpkin is fantastic for pies and cakes. Rich in vitamins, the pumpkin becomes a harvest of natural goodness, rich in essential properties, such as magnesium, phosphorus, iron, folate, vitamins E and B6, niacin, thiamin and pantothenic acid , low in salt, cholesterol and saturated fat. It is also a rich source of Vitamin A and C as well as antioxidants.   As far cakes are concerned, the nutritional value may be outweighed by the prosperous amounts of fat and sugars in the food pyramid. But, if you need to take your anger out this season on a vegetable, the Pumpkin is your primary component!

Four-Layer Pumpkin Cake

(Thank You Kraft)

What you need:

1. 1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix

2. 1 can  (15 oz.) pumpkin, divided

3. 1/2 cup milk

4. 1/3 cup  oil

5. 4 eggs

6. 1-1/2 tsp.  pumpkin pie spice, divided

7. 1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

8. 1 cup  powdered sugar

9. 1 tub (8 oz.) COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed  (or) 2 quarts of whipping cream (whipped).

10. 1/4 cup  caramel ice cream topping

11. 1/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans

Make it:

HEAT oven to 350°F.

BEAT cake mix, 1 cup pumpkin, milk, oil, eggs and 1 tsp. spice in large bowl with mixer until well blended. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.

BAKE 28 to 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 min. Remove from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

BEAT cream cheese in medium bowl with mixer until creamy. Add sugar, remaining pumpkin and spice; mix well. Gently stir in COOL WHIP. Cut each cake layer horizontally in half with serrated knife; stack on serving plate, spreading cream cheese filling between layers. (Do not frost top layer.) Drizzle with caramel topping just before serving; top with nuts. Refrigerate leftovers.

Bewitched Tips!

How to Slice and Stack Cake Layers:

Place 1 of the cooled cake layers on serving plate. Make 2-inch horizontal cut around side of cake, using long serrated knife. Cut all the way through cake layer to make 2 layers. Remove top layer by sliding it onto 9-inch round cardboard circle. Frost cake layer on plate with 1/3 of the COOL WHIP mixture. Slide top half of split cake layer from cardboard circle onto frosted layer on plate. Place the remaining unsplit cake layer on a cutting board. Cut into 2 layers as done for the first layer. Repeat process of transferring cake layers to stacked cake layers on plate using the cardboard circle.

Substitutions:

Omit caramel sauce. Microwave 10 cubed Caramels and 1 Tbsp. milk in microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until caramels begin to melt. Stir until caramels are completely melted. Drizzle over cake just before serving; top with nuts.

...a dash of thought.

"Men are like pumpkins. It seems like all hte good ones are either taken or they've had everything scraped out of thier heads with a spoon." ~ Anonymouse.