A Bohemian Wedding Cake

The other night, as I was laying on my floor paging through cookbooks like usual, I came across an interesting recipe that really struck my fancy. It was for “Bohemian Wedding Cake” and the cookbook was My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur.

Bohemian Wedding Cake.

Doesn’t just the name alone intrigue you?

Am I the only one who lays awake at night thinking about interesting new cakes?

I can’t be the only one!

There should be a support group for people like us.

This is essentially a pumpkin spice cake, made with half whole wheat flour, a whole can of pumpkin puree and a healthy dose of walnuts thrown in for good measure. I figured it was perfect for October and it makes a wonderful afternoon snack, served with a tall glass of cold apple cider. The recipe in the cookbook calls for cream cheese frosting, but I was out of cream cheese so I used The Pioneer Woman’s “best frosting ever” recipe and it was glorious. Simply glorious.

I’d like to dedicate this one to all you pumpkin lovers out there….this ones for you!

Gosh, I just love everything about this cake. Everything. I love the way it’s like a pumpkin version of a carrot cake, love the way it’s so rustic, dense and hearty, and love the use of the word “Bohemian” in the title….

I just love it. Please make it!

Here’s what you need to make your own:

No need to dirty your Kitchen Aid for this one—this cake comes together in the same method you would use to bake pumpkin bread and involves only two bowls, a measuring cup, some spoons and a whisk. I think it only took me about ten minutes to throw together…start to finish!

Just stir together the dry ingredients (white flour, whole wheat flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice, baking soda):

And then in a separate bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, eggs, pumpkin and molasses!

Molasses = amazingness. So glad I finally picked up some at the store. Now I can bake gingerbread!

After you combine the wet ingredients, dump the flour mixture back in and give it a good stir.

Now, fold in the walnuts….raisins, too, if you like! (I just use walnuts because I’m not a huge fan)

And pour into a buttered and floured nine inch cake pan. I think I’ve said this before, but I really don’t like cooking spray at all. Its made a bunch of my pans pretty gnarly and, personally, if I can’t pronounce any of the ingredients on the back of the Pam can, I don’t want to use it.

Plus, everything tastes better with butter.

Bake the cake at 350 for about fifty minutes, or until a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean. Let cool for about ten minutes (resist the urge…I know!) and then run a knife around the sides and invert onto a clean plate.

When it’s totally, one hundred and ten percent cool, plop some frosting on that bad boy and get at it. Like I said, I used Pioneer Woman’s frosting (which I highly recommend because that woman knows her frosting!), but you could really just use anything you want. Brown sugar buttercream would be stellar and so would just a basic cream cheese frosting. Or, if you are more of the minimalist type, just a dusting of powdered sugar would be a divine!

And don’t worry about being all perfect with the frosting application, either. This is supposed to be more of a rustic cake anyway. The beauty is in it’s imperfections!

Bohemian Wedding Cake

Inspired by My Nepenthe: Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur

makes 1 nine inch cake

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 15-ounce can pumpkin

1.5 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup (big handful) roughly chopped walnuts

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

1 cup canola oil

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup molasses

Preheat your oven to 350 and butter/flour a nine inch cake pan. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flours, pumpkin pie spice, salt and baking soda). Mix well.

In another bowl, whisk together the canola oil, eggs, pumpkin, molasses, brown sugar and vanilla. Add the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

Fold in the walnuts and then pour batter into prepared cake pan. Bake for about fifty minutes, or until the cake starts to pull away from sides of pan. Let cool for ten minutes and then invert on a plate and let cool all the way.

Frost as desired.

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Tagged as: baking, cake, pumpkin, seasonal ingredients