Pumpkin Pie Cake

This was the one Lynn and I made for Claire's Open House.  The perfect dessert to serve in the fall. Super tasty- Like pumpkin pie, but with a yummy topping. Serve it hot or cold with a bit of whip cream.  I do find that it is better the first day because the crust does get a little soggy when it sits.

Pumpkin Pie Cake

Mix together:

Bottom Crust

1 box yellow cake mix

1⁄2 C. butter, melted

1 egg, beaten

Save one cup of this mixture and press the rest in bottom of buttered cake pan ( 9X13 or 10X15)

Filling:

1-29 oz. Can pumpkin

1 1⁄2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ginger

1⁄2 tsp. ground cloves

1 can evaporated milk

Mix and pour over crust.

Topping:

1 cup of the saved crust mixture

1⁄2 cup sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

1⁄4 cup soft butter

Mix topping and sprinkle on top. (Mine usually isn’t crumbly, so I make little pancakes of the topping

and drop it on top.) Bake at 350 degrees for 55-60 minutes or until knife test proves done.

Jan's Caramels

Jan's Caramels

My friend gave me some of these as a Christmas gift and I love caramel so I had to get the recipe. My daughter made some to give to her high school friends and they were a big hit there too - just a good, soft caramel chew.

1 Cup Butter plus a little more to butter pan
2 Cups Sugar
1-1/2 Cups light Corn Syrup
1 Can Sweetened condensed milk

Prepare a 10-1/2" X 6-1/2" or 8" X 8" pan by lining with tin foil and then grease generously with butter.  Melt the 1 Cup butter in a heavy pan then add the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil and cook until thermometer reaches 234-235 * F (at 4500' feet elevation). Pour into prepared pan. Don't scrape cooking pan.  Cool and  cut into bite size pieces and wrap in wax paper.

Buttermilk Syrup (Magleby Style)

My daughter Alyssa posted about this great syrup so I decided to try.  If you live in the Provo area you have probably heard of the Magleby Fresh pancakes with this sweet bit of heaven poured on.  I actually tried a couple of recipes for it.  One was labeled as "The Best" from the Thermador test kitchen.  I did not think it was the best.  It had 1 Tbsp. of baking soda in it and more butter.  Maybe people like the not as sweet taste and the extra foam but I though it was a little chemically tasting.  I went back to the one with corn syrup and not to much baking soda.  I got this off the Sugar N Spice recipe blog.
 


Buttermilk Syrup
1 cube butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup buttermilk
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 Tbsp. corn syrup
1/2 tsp. baking soda
Bring first five ingredients to a boil. Remove from heat immediately and add Baking Soda. To avoid boil over I use a fairly deep, heavy pan.