It happens every fall. Pumpkin Mania.
Pumpkin beer?
Check.
Pumpkin spice lattes?
Absolutely.
Pumpkin pie, cake, cookies and other traditional baked goods?
You bet.
My husband would eat pumpkin pie every day if he could. In a not-so-subtle hint, he devoted most of our large garden this year to pumpkins, now abundant on the meandering vines in varying stages of ripeness.
OK, we get it. We like the change of seasons and the associated dishes and flavors that each one brings. Pumpkin and its companion spices are not only universally pleasing, but they also evoke Americana (pilgrims and all that).
But anything can be overdone.
And frankly, when it comes to pumpkin foods, I'd rather just take to my kitchen and bake something from scratch.
And in that arena, I've always been partial to two classic pairings: pumpkin and chocolate and pumpkin and cream cheese. I can never stop with one piece of that classic, moist pumpkin sheet cake topped with a thick layer of cream cheese frosting. The pumpkin cake roll with cream cheese filling is another pumpkin siren song.
This recipe has been a favorite for nearly a decade. With its pretty swirls of chocolate amid the orange pumpkin batter, it straddles the line between quick bread and cake. Enjoy it with coffee or tea, or perhaps a pumpkin spice latte.
And if you really want to go pumpkin-crazy, you can bake it in a new loaf pan from King Arthur Flour; when you invert the bread, the top displays a raised pumpkin harvest scene design.
