Gluten-free pumpkin cake!

I could not find any gluten-free recipes that used non-canned pumpkin puree! So I experimented and it turned out GREAT! I took a recipe I found online and changed a whole bunch of stuff to fit our needs as well as what I happened to have in my kitchen:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cup (340g/12 ounces) granulated sugar (I used brown sugar)
½ cup (100g/3.5 ounce) brown sugar (I used coconut sugar)
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
1-teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon freshly graded ginger (okay - ya right - I used 2 tablespoons of "pumpkin spice" from Trader Joes grocery store instead of all the spices seperately)
4 large eggs, room temperature (nope - mine were cold from fridge)
1-cup (8 ounce/237 mL) oil (I used 3/4 grape seed oil and 1/4 applesauce)
1 and 1/3 cup pumpkin puree (yes, real fresh pumpkin puree!)
2 cups (240g) gluten-free flour (I used 1 & 3/4 cups Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose Gluten-Free flour and 1/4 cup coconut flour)

Preheat the oven to 350F
sprayed olive oil in pan. I just used a rectangle glass pan but you can get "fancy" and us a bunt cake pan instead if you want!
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Mix wet ingredients in different bowl. Mix in dry ingredients slowly into wet ingredients. Pour all of it into the pan.
Bake for 60-70 minutes in a conventional and 50-60 minutes in a convection oven or until a cake tester (I used a toothpick) comes out clean
Let the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes (then turn it out if you used a bunt).

Icing: Mix some maple syrup with some powdered sugar and softened/melted coconut oil and pour over top of cake. I also added melted butter to the mix but that makes it have casein. I just make it to taste. Some people like a little and some people drench their cake in icing.

Gluten-free baked pumpkin-apple oatmeal (from scratch)

I thought it would be fun to let the kids scoop out and carve pumpkins. Eh - wrong. They were all grossed out and didn't want to get the "yucky" stuff out. So I did. And I cut the pumpkin in half and baked the halves upside down on a cookie sheet then scooped out the fragrantly soft flesh and pureed it and then it sat in my fridge waiting for me to figure out what to do with it.

Last night I made a very delicious gluten-free pumpkin cake (that one is coming next, promise!). But I still had plenty of left-over pumpkin puree AND two more pumpkins to cut, bake and make more puree with! I had to think fast as to what I can put this pumpkin puree into! Then it hit me - I had planned to make yummy gluten-free oatmeal for breakfast - why not add pumpkin to it? So - here you go!...

Get a glass loaf pan (I used the loaf pan to make regular oatmeal and used a smaller glass bowl to make my son his gluten-free oatmeal in simultaneously). Fill it at least 3/4 full of gluten-free oats (I used Trader Joes GF oats for my son's bowl and Trader Joes organic oats for the loaf pan).

Add 1 tbsp of cinnamon

Add 2 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice (or add pumpkin pie spices separately - oh and I use a lot so if you want less flavor don't put as much)

In a small bowl add 3-4 tablespoons maple syrup (and since real maple is expensive I also sub a little of that with brown rice syrup - actually it's a "natural" Log Cabin brand syrup with maple, brown rice and a little, gasp, brown cane sugar in it). Since my son is sensitive to cane sugar I only used pure maple syrup in his smaller bowl.

1 tsp real vanilla extract

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/3 cup apple sauce (okay I cheated here - it was pre-made organic unsweetened apple sauce). What is REALLY wonderful is to grate an apple (with a cheese grater) and add that - yum! But I didn't have time this morning to do that so...

add 1/4 - 1/3 cup of raisins, if desired. Also optional is adding some slivered almonds or walnuts, etc...

Then I fill up almost to the brim with water (for those doing casein-free) or milk (or like this morning I used lowfat buttermilk in the big one.

I placed both glasses on a cookie sheet and put in the oven on 350 for 45 minutes. Sometimes it takes a little while to really get it fully baked up. Sometimes I'll bake it for an hour or as long as I can without burning the top. Take out and let cool a bit. Enjoy!