Bourbon Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

A couple of weeks ago, one of my newfound Kentucky food blogger friends, Judy from The Southern Lady Cooks, posted an awesome-looking recipe for a Bourbon Pumpkin Spice Cake.  I had just bought a beautiful pumpkin from Marksbury Farm and thought, "This would be perfect!  I have all of the ingredients on hand.  I can whip it up this weekend!"  Two weeks later I finally found the time and energy to make it, but when I did, I found that I hadn't held enough pumpkin out for the frosting, that we were down to our last dregs of bourbon, and that my toddler son had finished off the raisins.  Not to be deterred, I forged ahead with what I had, and lo and behold, the cake was still delicious! 

Now Judy calls it a cake, but in my family, it's called breakfast.  We've been eating these mini bundt cakes all week for breakfast, and three days later, they are still moist and scrumptious.  If you want the version with bourbon-soaked raisins and a pumpkin and bourbon frosting, then head on over to the original recipe, but if you're like me and only have the basic staples, this is your cake!

Bourbon Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
Adapted from The Southern Lady Cooks

Cake:
1/2 cup bourbon
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup pumpkin puree

Cream Cheese Frosting:
3 Tbl cream cheese, softened
3 Tbl buttermilk
1-1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Cake:
Place the bourbon in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat.  Reduce to about 1/2 of the original amount.  Turn off the flame and set aside to cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray your pan with cooking spray or butter and flour it.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, oil and buttermilk until well mixed.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, allspice and salt and mix until everything is incorporated.  Add the pumpkin and the reserved bourbon and mix well.

Pour the batter into the mini bundt molds (about 2/3 of the way full) or pour all of the batter into a full-sized bundt pan.  Bake mini bundts for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Bake a full-sized cake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Remove from the oven and let rest for about 25 minutes in the pan.  Remove carefully and drizzle frosting over cake(s).

Cream Cheese Frosting:
Whisk the cream cheese and buttermilk until smooth.  Add about one cup of powdered sugar and whisk.  Taste for sweetness.  If you'd like it sweeter, add a little more sugar until desired sweetness.  If it's too thick, add a tiny bit of milk until it's thin enough.  If too thin, add a little powdered sugar until you reach the desired thickness.

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