 A simple craving for pumpkin cream cheese. What to spread it on… pumpkin loaf cake. I’ve been craving pumpkin cream cheese for the past two weeks. There is a bagel shop a few towns north of mine that used to make pumpkin bagels and pumpkin cream cheese. I haven’t been there in awhile and I’ve been resisting the urge to get a bagel. However, I did have some cream cheese leftover from a recent recipe and a can of pumpkin in my pantry. I was going to bake an autumn loaf or make pumpkin-walnut flapjacks, both I have made before, but I wanted something more like a pumpkin bread. In Jean Anderson’s “The Grass Roots Cookbook,” I found a recipe that seemed to be what I was after. Ms. Anderson got this recipe from Mrs. Willard (Mary) Lourie of Bennington County, Vermont for Pumpkin Cupcakes. She described the cupcakes as not particularly sweet, which was perfect for my plan to top with pumpkin cream cheese. For the recipe you’ll need, butter, sugar, eggs, unseasoned pumpkin (or winter squash), all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, ground nutmeg, milk and either chopped pecans or walnuts. The recipe takes approximately 10 minutes to prepare. The bake time for cupcakes is 25-30 minutes, however, I make a loaf cake and it took approximately 35-45 minutes to bake. Now for the cream cheese! I found a recipe using the balance of the leftover pumpkin. I was two ounces short on the cream cheese. Despite this minor inconsistency with my ingredients, I forged ahead. For the recipe you’ll need one block of cream cheese, brown sugar, honey (or agave nectar), canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon and vanilla. The cream cheese came out wonderful! Although not spreadable, it was a wonderful cream sauce pourable on my slice of pumpkin loaf. The pumpkin loaf had the taste of fall with the warm spices and the cool pumpkin cream cheese sauce was a wonderful accompaniment. Pumpkin Cupcakes “The Grass Roots Cookbook” By Jean Anderson © 1977 Times Books, a division of Quadrange/The New York Times Book Co., Inc. Approximately 20 Prep: approximately 20 minutes Bake time: 30-45 minutes “These pumpkin cupcakes have somewhat the texture of a fruit-nut bread. They are not particularly sweet, so frost them, if you like, using any favorite orange butter-cream or brown-sugar frosting.” Jean Anderson ½ cup butter, margarine or vegetable shortening 1-1/3 cups sugar 2 eggs, beaten until frothy 1 cup mashed, cooked, unseasoned pumpkin or winter squash 2-1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt ¾ teaspoon ground ginger ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg ¾ cup milk ¾ cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
Note from Donna: I used unsalted butter in my batter. Instead of cupcakes, I used a large loaf pan. I baked at same temperature as above, but set one timer for 30 minutes and another for 45 minutes to make sure I allowed enough time for the cake to bake thoroughly. 
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Spread/Dip From the website Gimme Some Oven/adapted from Pinch My Salt Prep time: 5 minutes Total time: 5 minutes Yield: 8 servings INGREDIENTS 1 block (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened 3 Tbsp. brown sugar 1 Tbsp. agave nectar (or honey) 1/2 cup canned pumpkin 1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 tsp. vanilla extract
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