SPLENDA®, Part Deux

Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

 

After the great success I had using SPLENDA® Sweetener in the Apple and Squash Bake recipe, I decided to tackle the Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting recipe found on the splenda.com site...and I'm glad I did! OMG, this cake is amazingly moist! I brought it into work and it all disappeared in minutes. Everyone commented about the moistness and I had three people ask me for the recipe. SCORE! Now keep in mind I'm not much of a baker, meaning I make a cake/muffins/cookies about twice a year. And even I nailed this one!
INGREDIENTS
1 cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1 cup egg substitute
1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin puree
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
Frosting
1 (8 ounce) package reduced fat cream cheese
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 drop imitation maple flavor
1/2 cup SPLENDA® No Calorie Sweetener, Granulated
1/2 cup powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly oil or spray a 13X9 inch pan with baking spray. Set aside.
To make the cake: Place SPLENDA® Granulated Sweetener, brown sugar, oil, egg substitute and pumpkin puree in a large mixing bowl. Mix until well blended. Add remaining ingredients and stir well. Pour cake batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated 350 F oven 25-30 minutes or until when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake.
To make the frosting: Place frosting ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix on medium speed until well blended. Ice cake when cake is completely cool.
Optional garnishes: Sprinkle finely chopped walnuts or crushed ginger snaps over the top of the cake.
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I love that you mix all the wet and dry cake ingredients in one bowl, unlike most recipes that require two.

After pouring the batter into a 9x13 pan, I mixed up the frosting. I did use more maple extract than called for, probably 4-5 drops or so. The recipe says 1 drop. ONE drop??? Really, nobody is gonna taste that. No need to skimp!

My cake was done after 22 minutes. I'm glad I checked it early! I'm pretty sure I would have cried if I baked it too long. Admit it...that would have been a tragedy. I thought it possibly maaaaybe kinda sorta looked dry when I pulled it out of the oven, but boy was I wrong. The hardest part was letting it cool so I could frost it.

And here we have the final product. Isn't she a beauty? No one at work could tell it was made with SPLENDA® Sweetener. I could taste a bit of a difference, but maybe that's just because I knew what went in it. Either way, this cake is a winner! I was told to bring it in anytime at work!

This cake paired perfectly with a nice warm cup of Chai Latte. I substituted the white sugar in the recipe with SPLENDA® Sweetener with really good results. I also tried this recipe using coconut milk and it was really tasty.

Hope you love this cake as much as I did!

 

* I participated in a campaign on behalf of allrecipes.com for SPLENDA® Sweetener. I received samples to facilitate my unbiased review as well as promotional items as a thank-you for participating.