My husband had an invite for a "pig-pickin" as they call them here in the carolinas on the spir of the moment...or else, he failed to let me in on the invite and the promise of a dessert until the night before. Anyway, this cook on the fly thought about it for a while before falling to sleep and woke up with a plan. Usually, I process my jack-o-lanterns the day after Halloween, but I had to act fast and in the spirit of the pumpkin season, I had only 1.5 hours to accomplish this and it wasn't a group of people I knew, but my husband works with them....so it had to be good.
Pumpkin bundt was in order and it turned out very nice. I found a few bundt recipes in my cookbooks, but I wanted something less spicy, but with still a flare. Most recipe ask for more sugar than I think they need and canned pumpkin is lacking the depth of a homemade mash, that I make anyway, so here is what I came up with.
Pumpkin Bundt cake with flair
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp table salt
1/4 tsp cloves
1 15 oz canned pumpkin
Mix together, confectioners sugar, cocoa, and cinnamon in a shaker...I used 1/4 cup confectioners sugar to 1 tbsp cocoa and 1 tsp cinnamon. for the topping.
Preheat oven 350 degrees. Mix sugars, oil in a large mixing bowl until nicely blended. Add the eggs. Next in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients together with a whisk. Alternate the dry ingredients and the canned pumpkin mixing until all is incorporated. For your bundt pan, I crisco it thoroughly with a paper towel, then flour it. That way you can see where you missed with the shortening. Pour the batter in the pan and bake for about 55 - 60 minutes. Let cool for about 10 minutes before inverting cake onto a cooling rack.
Sprinkle with the sugar mixture on top and voila!