Pumpkin Raisin Cake

This is just flat out delicious. I have been making it for years, but it has evolved quite a bit. It evolved into “Squash Cake” on Saturday when I last made it because I still have a whole lot of squash to use up before Larry starts growing more. Squash, pumpkin – doesn’t matter, it’s good either way. You could use leftover sweet potatoes probably. [hey! that sounds good!] It is an easy, quick cake because you don’t need to mix some stuff in one bowl or sift and mix up some stuff in another bowl – just throw it all in together, beat it with the mixer a bit and you are all set. That way you can save your energy for a couple of ingredients that really make this cake something special – but we will get to that in a minute.

2/3 cup of raisins
1/4 cup boiling water
1 tablesoopn molasses
Put all of that in a small bowl and allow to sit for about 30 minutes before you start the cake. You want the raisins to get nice and soft. You can also add a couple tablespoons of bourbon in there which definitely improves things quite a lot.

In a large mixing bowl measure:
2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg [fresh grated if possible – it is not that expensive and pre-ground nutmeg loses it’s flavor about 10 minutes after they seal up the bottle]
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger. [this sounds like a lot of trouble maybe, but really it is not. You can get fresh ginger in just about any grocery store. You just peel it and grate it with whatever grater you own. A microplane is nice to have, but your regular grater will work very nicely. It is so good you will not believe you didn’t get some a long time ago.]
OR
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon grated lemon or orange peel
Stir all of that together a bit and then add:
1 & 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin [or squash] [or sweet potatoes maybe if you want to keep on evolving]
2 eggs
1/2 cup dark molasses
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup sour milk [or regular milk with a teaspoon of vinegar mixed in] [or buttermilk] [or sour buttermilk which is what I used because it had been in the fridge a little longer than I realized]

Beat with a mixer at medium speed until it is all nice and smooth. You can put the raisins in before you beat it all together, but they get a little abused that way – it is just as easy to beat everything else together first and then stir in the raisins and their liquid with a wooden spoon. Either way, dump it all into a greased 9×13 pan and spread it out evenly. Bake at 350 for about 35 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke it. Cool completely. You can eat it plain because it is moist and yummy just like this, or you can frost it with

Cream Cheese Frosting
6 ounces softened cream cheese
3 tablespoons butter
about 3/4 lb of 10x or confectionary sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
pinch salt
enough milk to make spreadable.
Beat the cream cheese and butter on medium speed until well mixed and fluffy. Add the vanilla, salt and the sugar, 1 cup at a time and beat until combined. Add about 2 tablespoons of milk to start and beat more – if it isn’t spreadable, add more milk a teaspoon at a time until it is how you like it. It softens a bit as it sits, so you want to tend toward a firmer consistency that you would with other frostings.

Spread the frosting over the cake right in the pan – I topped the one in the picture with some toasted walnuts. Because of the cream cheesing in the frosting, you want to store this in the fridge. It is actually better the next day, but you won’t want to wait that long before diving in.