Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake

This blog post is going to be about a dessert….one of my favs, in fact.  But first I have to mention something about hair….my hair, in fact.  ( Am I allowed to use “in fact” like that in a sentence?) 

I have fairly curly hair.  Back in the day when I was a cosmetologist, people used to want a perm just like mine….but mine wasn’t a perm.  It was totally cool in the 90’s to have big curly hair like mine.  But now it’s just a mess.  Here’s a picture of me and my hair in Hawaii.

Sometimes I try and straighten my hair.  It’s pretty cool when I do that, but it takes me about an hour and that makes me crazy.

Mostly I just throw it up in a messy pony.  Like this morning, when my husband and I took the dog for a walk and I was thinking it looked pretty good…..ponytail with loose curly tendrils gently blowing in the breeze.  My husband even commented, “Nice hair.”  Evidently, I missed the sarcasm in his voice because when I looked in the mirror when I got home, this is what I witnessed……

Looks like I need a cup of coffee and some of the Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake that I made last night, for breakfast.

Gooey Butter Pumpkin Cake

TGFPD (That’s Thank Goodness for PaulaDeen)

Printable Recipe

Ingredients 

Cake:
1 18 1/4-ounce package yellow cake mix 
1 egg
8 tablespoons butter, melted

Filling:
1 15-ounce can of pumpkin
1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened 
3 eggs 
1 teaspoon vanilla
8 tablespoons butter, melted
1 16-ounce box powdered sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

To make the cake, combine all of the ingredients and mix well.  Pat the mixture into a lightly greased 13x9-inch baking pan. 

Prepare filling:
In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and pumpkin until smooth.  Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat together. Next, add the powdered sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and mix well. Spread pumpkin mixture over cake batter and bake for 40 to 50 minutes.  Make sure not to over bake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.  

Making a bad hair day better.....one blog post at a time.  Enjoy!

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Caramel Corn

Every year, my wonderful sister in law sends us a HUGE package of goodies for Christmas.  By goodies, I mean things like homemade toffee, gingerbread, and mini banana breads.  This may not sound like too big of a deal, but some years, depending on where we are living, she has to send the package half way around the world.  She lovingly wraps up the breads and cookies so they can make it to foreign lands….like Japan, Germany, and Mississippi. 

I should say we most look forward to this package because it is full of little pieces of love from home.  But if I be totally honest, the main reason that I want it is because it always always always contains Caramel Corn.

Inevitably I end up being all grinchy about this delicious stuff because there is simply not enough to stuff non-stop into my mouth, and still be able to share with the rest of my family.  So this year, I was forced to make my own.

This recipe is from Paula Dean, and not from my sister-in-law, but it tastes the same. (I don’t actually have the recipe from her.) I wouldn’t be surprised if my SIL was Paula’s personal recipe tester or something like that.  Carol….you are a baking/cooking superstar! 

Caramel Corn

Via Paula Deen www.foodnetwork.com

Ingredients:

• 1 cup butter
• 2 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup light corn syrup
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Preheat oven to 200 degrees F.  Over medium heat, combine first 4 ingredients and boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in baking soda. Stir well. Pour over 8 quarts popped corn. Stir to coat well. Bake in large roaster or pan(I used two cookie sheets) for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on waxed paper to dry.