Pumpkin Crunch Cake

Merry Christmas! 

This is my favorite time of year! Are ya'll as excited as me?!

I try and celebrate the holiday traditions as much as I can, although it gets harder and harder every year as my schedule gets busier and busier!

Christmas shopping, baking, school, work, parties! It gets crazy!

But that's why I love baking cakes such as this one, where I get to celebrate the holiday flavors and relax and enjoy them.

This cake was amazing. It was gone within two days.
Yeah.
You should try it.

This cake is by no means healthy, but it's absolutely to die for around the holidays and a definite crowd pleaser with all the layers.

Pumpkin cake with a walnut brown sugar vanilla wafer crunch baked into it, and cream cheese frosting... Yum!

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

(Adapted from Ask Chef Dennis)

Crunch Topping

3 Cups (450 g) walnuts, finely chopped

3 Cups (360 g) vanilla wafers (about 75 cookies)

3 Cups (540 g) brown sugar

12 oz (340 g) butter

Pumpkin Crunch Cake

1¼ (250 g) cup sugar

6 oz (168 g) softened butter

1 16 oz (425 g) can solid pack pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

2½ ( 300 g) Cups flour

½ Cup (96 g) Greek yogurt

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) pure vanilla

1 Tablespoon (15 g) pumpkin pie spice

2¼ Teaspoons( 12 g) baking powder

¾ Teaspoon (4 g) baking soda

½ Teaspoon (2.5) Salt

4 Large Eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting

16 oz (454 g) cream cheese

8 oz (227 g) mascarpone (or cream cheese)*

8 oz (227 g) softened butter

2 cups (150 g) confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon (15 ml) pure vanilla

Instructions

Crunch Topping

Melt Butter

In a food processor, pulse cookies to a fine crumb

Then Pulse walnuts to a fine chop

Add in Brown Sugar and mix well.

Add in Melted Butter and blend together.

Divide mixture into 4 Coated Cake Pans (One very full cup per pan), pressing into bottom and spreading it evenly into the cake pans. Reserve about 2 cups of the mixture which will be baked to use on the sides of the cake.

Set pans aside and begin cake.

Pre heat Oven to 350 degrees.

Pumpkin Cake

In your mixer beat sugar and butter for about 5 minutes until light and fluffy, scrapping down the bowl frequently .

Add In Pumpkin and all the rest of the ingredients, except the eggs. Mix just until blended.

Add in the Eggs, one at a time just until blended.

Divide batter equally into your 4 prepared cake pans, smooth it out and make it as even as possible in the pan.

Place remaining crunch mixture in another cake pan or pie dish and allow to bake for the smae amount of time as the cakes.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If you use 2 racks to bake on in the oven, at the halfway mark rotate the pans .

Allow pans to cool about 10 minutes, then turn them out onto a wire racks and allow to completely cool.

break up the extra crunch mix to very small bits to use to decorate the cake with.

while your cakes are baking prepare a Cream Cheese Frosting.

Cream Cheese Frosting

Whip the cream cheese, mascarpone, and butter till very smooth and creamy

Slowly add in the 10x sugar while mixer is on low setting

Add in Vanilla and mix well. Set aside till needed.

Assembly

After your cake is completely cooled ( you can even refrigerate for a few hours) begin frosting the layers and putting the cake together.

When you have assembled all the layers with some frosting between them, start to spread the remaining frosting on the sides and top.

When finished frosting, coat sides and top with your extra crunch mixture*