Have Your Cake and Pudding, too

With fall just aroun’ th’ corner, think pumpkins and butterscotch and th’ flavors o’ th’ season. Tis National Butterscotch Day! Yo-ho-ho me matie! Nay party would be complete without a cake. So let’s have our cake and puddin’ too.

Oh, and one more bit o’ information about this day. It’s National Speak Like a Corsair Day. So swab the deck! I’d rather roll in a barrel o’ rum than walk the plank. What about ye? Seriously, it’s Speak Like a Pirate Day, so I was just having a bit o’ fun. This fall, we won’t be allowed to attend Pirate Day at a month-long Renaissance Faire. Hollister’s Northern California Renaissance Faire has fallen victim to the cancellation of gatherings to keep us all safe movement. Don’t get me started on this whole idea to stop living in order to live attitude.

Oh a happier note – every year I like to put together a fall menu to celebrate the harvest of another year. After all, isn’t that what the first Thanksgiving was all about? Giving thanks for our blessings and savoring the fruits of our labor with the land. I’m seriously considering adding this cake to my November table. It’s got pumpkin and the butterscotch colors of Autumn – yum!

Pumpkin Butterscotch Pudding Cake
1 (15 oz) box Yellow Cake Mix
1 cup Water
1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
3 large Eggs
1 (15 oz) can Pumpkin Purée
2 (3.4 oz) boxes Butterscotch Instant Pudding
4 cups cold Milk
1 (16 oz) tub Cool Whip, thawed
6 tablespoons Toffee Bits

Hea oven to 350 degrees. Coat the bottom only of 13-inch by 9-inch baking dish with margarine, then sprinkle with flour. Shake to coat, turn up-side-down to shake out excess. Set pan aside.

In a large bowl, beat cake mix, 1 cup water, oil, and eggs at low speed with a mixer until moistened. Beat on medium speed 2 minutes. Add pumpkin; beat on low speed just until combined. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, approximately 30 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack 30 minutes.

In a large mixing bowl, whip pudding mix with cold milk. Using the handle of a wooden spoon, poke holes in cake. Pour pudding over cake; tap pan twice on counter to settle pudding. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, approximately 6 hours. Spread whipped topping over cake. Sprinkle with toffee bits.