Cooking With C.C. ~ Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

It's time for the 5th installment of Cooking with C.C. On a Thursday in October, we made a Gluten Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing for Damaris' 12th birthday party.


So let's gather all our ingredients and get started.


Beat 3 eggs in a mixing bowl until they are light and frothy.


Add 2 cups of light brown sugar (not packed).


Beat until smooth.


Add 1/2 cup olive oil,


a 15 ounce can of unsweetened pumpkin puree,


and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract.


Beat until smooth.


In a separate bowl, combine 2 cups gluten free flour,


1 teaspoon xanthum gum,


1 teaspoon baking soda,


1 teaspoon baking powder,


2 teaspoons ground cinnamon,


1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice,


and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt.


Whisk these dry ingredients together.


Add the dry ingredients into the wet mixture a little at a time.


Beat well after each addition.

Turn on the oven to 350* so it can preheat.


Beat to combine for 2 minutes.


Spray 9X13 cake pan with your preferred cooking spray.


Pour batter into the cake pan.


Smooth with spatula.


Bake for 30 minutes or until the cake is firm and a wooden pick inserted into the center emerges clean.


Allow cake to cool.

Not sure how we missed taking pictures of mixing up the icing. It's pretty easy to make though. Beat 8 ounces of softened cream cheese and 3 1/2 tablespoons of softened unsalted butter. Add 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup and 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract. Add powdered sugar (3 cups total) 1 cup at a time and beat until smooth. You can add add more maple syrup and/or sugar to thicken if needed. My brilliant thought was going to be to frost the cake with the white icing and save a bit of the icing to tint pink with food coloring. Then I was going to use the pink to write on the cake. Only, when I tried that, the pink icing started to run together.


So I squeezed out all the pink icing on the cake spread it smooth.


Here is the final decorated cake. If you look closely, you can see the white icing peaking out from underneath the pink.

Regardless of the icing incident, the cake turned out amazing. It was so yummy! Most of those who ate couldn't even tell it was gluten free. I would highly recommend this cake especially this time of year when pumpkin is so appropriate for your menu.

This recipe came from the Gluten Free Goddess. Check out her blog which is full of tons of great recipes. We did make a few edits to the recipe so if you want the original, you'll want to visit her website to get it.

Hope you've enjoyed this episode of Cooking with C.C. Let me know if you try this cake. I want to hear what your experience is. I'll be back soon with another recipe. Enjoy!