Another Pumpkin Recipe

Only 15 days until Christmas! It’s amazing how times flies so fast during the holidays.

My husband and I took our annual trip to Branson over the weekend. We did some last minute Christmas shopping on the new Branson Landing and strolled around Silver Dollar City on Saturday night.

I’ve posted before about how wonderful and fun I think SDC is during the holidays before, but this year was even better.

There is a new section of the park open that is just for kids only! Great for the parents. Plus, a living Nativity show, the best lighted Christmas parade ever and the lights are always amazing.

If you have never gone to Branson during the holidays, it’s worth it! The kids will be amazed by the beauty and detail of the lights, as will you.

Last Friday was our company’s annual Snack Day Crawl. We have a little over 100 employees at Learfield. Each department was responsible for bringing in a few dishes and setting up an area in their section of the building to display their food. The “crawl” is a great way for all our employees to go around the building and mingle with one another. I think it’s one of the great team building events that we do within our company. My boss, Cyndi even did a post on the Brownfield Blog about the crawl.

I brought in some pickled okra, an olive tray, a large batch of Almond Bark Popcorn and a new recipe I tried out for the first time – Paula Deen’s Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake. Needless to say, there was none of this delicious cake left by the close of the work day on Friday.

Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cakes
By Paula Deen

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

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

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine the cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well with an electric mixer. Pat the mixture into the bottom of a lightly greased 13 by 9-inch baking pan.

To make the 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 overbake as the center should be a little gooey.

Serve with fresh whipped cream.

Variations:
For a Pineapple Gooey Cake: Instead of the pumpkin, add a drained 20-ounce can of crushed pineapple to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.

For a Banana Gooey Cake: Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.

For a Peanut Butter Gooey Cake: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter to the cream cheese filling instead of the pumpkin. Proceed as directed above.