First, the pumpkin mixture: Add 2 sticks of butter to a saucepan…
And melt them over medium-low heat.
Measure 2 cups of pumpkin puree (the plain puree, not pumpkin pie filling)…
And add it in with the butter.
Next, for a little spice, I added some pumpkin pie seasoning.
If you want to be all fancy, you can add your own mix of spices instead: cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom…whatever brings you an inner sense of pumpkin peace.
Whisk this to combine, and don’t be at all alarmed if it looks really weird and disturbing at this stage. It’s supposed to.
Next comes 3/4 cup boiling water! (The regular sheet cake recipe calls for 1 cup, but since the pumpkin naturally has some water in it, I decreased it a little bit.)
Whisk it all together and set it aside.
Now for the dry ingredients: Flour, sugar, salt…
And stir it together in a large bowl.
And finally, the wet ingredients: Measure a little buttermilk in a pitcher (or, if you’re me, some milk mixed with a little white vinegar.)
Whisk in a couple of eggs…
Some baking soda (I added 2 teaspoons instead of the 1 teaspoon in the original sheet cake recipe)…
Some vanilla extract…
So now it’s time to mix the elements together! I pour the pumpkin into the dry ingredients…
And stir them just to cool down the pumpkin a bit.
Pour in the buttermilk/egg mixture…
And stir it together…
Until it all comes together in a beautiful, orange batter.
Pour it into a sheet pan (actually, a “half sheet pan”) that’s been sprayed with cooking spray…
(Update: This is a half sheet pan at 13 x 18. You can use a slightly smaller jelly roll pan OR a 9 x 13 inch pan. The 9 x 13 cake will be quite a bit thicker and you might need to bake it a little longer!)
And smooth out the surface.
Then bake it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes until it’s lovely and golden!
You can’t believe how good the house smelled at this point. Have you ever noticed that the smell of pumpkin baked goods makes you feel like everything’s gonna be okay?
Now, let’s discuss the icing! You could do a seven-minute icing or a buttercream icing—both would be delicious. I decided to go the cream cheese icing route, because…well…
Because…well…
Because…well…IT’S CREAM CHEESE ICING! No other explanation is required.
Combine softened butter and softened cream cheese in the bowl of a mixer…
Then sift in some powdered sugar…
See how much you can sift in before it comes crumbling down!
I have these little contests with myself daily. “If this conical mountain of powdered sugar doesn’t crumble, I’m the coolest person in the world.”
If it keeps from crumbling, I high-five myself and say “YES!”
If it does crumble, I dismiss the whole exercise as silly superstition.
Mix it together until it’s smooth…
Then splash in a little half and half or milk…
Until it gets to the consistency you want. I like it nice and thick, but really smooth and luscious looking.
Plop the icing all over the cake…
Then smear it all over the surface.
Important Icing Note! I actually made double the amount of icing as in the recipe below. While it wound up being thick and delicious, it really was too much. If you like a whole bunch of cream cheese icing, you can double it as I did…but next time I make it, I’ll use the amounts in the printable. Cream cheese icing is rich, man!
Cut it into squares…
And serve it up!
It’s pretty much impossible to describe how delicious this was. But I’ll give it my best shot:
It was ding dang darn delicious.
Oh, and if you want to get all fancy-like, sprinkle on a little pumpkin pie spice!
Then dig in and enjoy every bite.
You’ll love it! It’s perfect for Thanksgiving!
It’s also perfect for the other 364 days of the year.