Luke Skywalker is a Complicated but Very Sweet Autumn Fruitcake
Henry David Thoreau once wrote the famous piece of advice: Simplify, simplify, simplify.
He'd likely be patently horrified by this recipe, I should think, because I took the idea of a two-ingredient cake (which involves mixing a can of pumpkin with a can of spice cake and baking it until it's done) and turned it into what amounts to carrot cake that lacks carrot but has a bajillion other ingredients in it instead.
Whoops.
The cake's super good, though! I made the first one with a spice cake, and it was all right, then I made the second one to the specifications you see here, only I'd had a really trying day at work and was exorcising my anxieties via baking, and there was definitely a glass of very potent wine involved somewhere along the line, and so at some point I discovered that not only is it TOTALLY possible to separate your thumbnail from the rest of your thumb by picking at the frilly butt-end of a granny smith apple, it really bloody hurts because apple juice is acidic and not friendly.
Don't drink and bake, kids, you'll come to regret it later in life. Like for the week it's taking my thumbnail to reattach itself to my thumb, which I'm not entirely sure it's going to do, honestly, I've never peeled a nail off a finger before, and man, I hope never to do it again.
Title comes from the fact that Mark Hamill is an autumn baby and Luke Skywalker has no canon birthday, and if you don't like it you can go peel your nail with an apple, see if I care. (I do care, actually, please don't peel your thumbnail, you'll have a bad time if you do.)
Ingredients
Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 hearty tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
Pinch of salt
1 granny smith apple, cored and diced
2/3 cup raisins
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
Butter for greasing the pan
Frosting - Non-vegan version
1/4 cup butter (that's a half-stick, for my reference), softened
2 oz cream cheese (that's a quarter package, for my reference), softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Frosting - Vegan version*
4 cups confectioners' sugar
4 Tbsp lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325*F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix and spices.
- Dice your apple. I slice mine, then dice the slices. Say that out loud, it's fun.
- Toss the apple and raisins in the dry ingredients until they're coated.
- Add in the pumpkin and mix with a spatula until it's all combined.
- Dump into a buttered 9x9" baking dish.
- Bake 50-55 minutes, or until the center is actually baked through. I underbaked the first version of this. It was fine, but way better when it wasn't, y'know, goop in the middle.
- While it's baking, make the frosting.
Frosting - Non-vegan version
- In a small mixing bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, and vanilla.
- Add the confectioner's sugar, stirring with a spatula until the sugar isn't dry anymore. Dry sugar likes to fly around and make messes.
- Beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer 2-3 minutes, or until fluffy.
Frosting - Vegan version*
- In a small mixing bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
- Whisk until smooth and lovely.
- Once the cake comes out of the oven, frost immediately, then allow it to cool completely. This will melt the frosting so that it'll have this nice smooth glaze look to it when it re-sets. Very lovely.
I'd like to tell you that we aren't horrid pigs who eat this cake in like 4 sittings between the two of us, but that would be a filthy lie. At least it's got fruit in it, so it's kinda healthy?
*Note as of 15 July 2017: I haven't yet tried this with the vegan glaze, but I plan to for our Let's Try a Vegan Thanksgiving for Science lunch, scheduled for 30 July 2017. I'll edit as needed after I've given it a go.
He'd likely be patently horrified by this recipe, I should think, because I took the idea of a two-ingredient cake (which involves mixing a can of pumpkin with a can of spice cake and baking it until it's done) and turned it into what amounts to carrot cake that lacks carrot but has a bajillion other ingredients in it instead.
Whoops.
The cake's super good, though! I made the first one with a spice cake, and it was all right, then I made the second one to the specifications you see here, only I'd had a really trying day at work and was exorcising my anxieties via baking, and there was definitely a glass of very potent wine involved somewhere along the line, and so at some point I discovered that not only is it TOTALLY possible to separate your thumbnail from the rest of your thumb by picking at the frilly butt-end of a granny smith apple, it really bloody hurts because apple juice is acidic and not friendly.
Don't drink and bake, kids, you'll come to regret it later in life. Like for the week it's taking my thumbnail to reattach itself to my thumb, which I'm not entirely sure it's going to do, honestly, I've never peeled a nail off a finger before, and man, I hope never to do it again.
Title comes from the fact that Mark Hamill is an autumn baby and Luke Skywalker has no canon birthday, and if you don't like it you can go peel your nail with an apple, see if I care. (I do care, actually, please don't peel your thumbnail, you'll have a bad time if you do.)
Luke Skywalker is a Complicated (but Very Sweet) Autumn Fruitcake
Cake
1 box yellow cake mix
1 hearty tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/8 tsp cloves
Pinch of salt
1 granny smith apple, cored and diced
2/3 cup raisins
1 15-oz can pumpkin puree
Butter for greasing the pan
Frosting - Non-vegan version
1/4 cup butter (that's a half-stick, for my reference), softened
2 oz cream cheese (that's a quarter package, for my reference), softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup confectioners' sugar
Frosting - Vegan version*
4 cups confectioners' sugar
4 Tbsp lemon zest
2/3 cup lemon juice
Instructions
Cake
- Preheat oven to 325*F.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine cake mix and spices.
- Dice your apple. I slice mine, then dice the slices. Say that out loud, it's fun.
- Toss the apple and raisins in the dry ingredients until they're coated.
- Add in the pumpkin and mix with a spatula until it's all combined.
- Dump into a buttered 9x9" baking dish.
- Bake 50-55 minutes, or until the center is actually baked through. I underbaked the first version of this. It was fine, but way better when it wasn't, y'know, goop in the middle.
- While it's baking, make the frosting.
Frosting - Non-vegan version
- In a small mixing bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, and vanilla.
- Add the confectioner's sugar, stirring with a spatula until the sugar isn't dry anymore. Dry sugar likes to fly around and make messes.
- Beat on medium-high speed with an electric mixer 2-3 minutes, or until fluffy.
Frosting - Vegan version*
- In a small mixing bowl, combine confectioners' sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice.
- Whisk until smooth and lovely.
- Once the cake comes out of the oven, frost immediately, then allow it to cool completely. This will melt the frosting so that it'll have this nice smooth glaze look to it when it re-sets. Very lovely.
I'd like to tell you that we aren't horrid pigs who eat this cake in like 4 sittings between the two of us, but that would be a filthy lie. At least it's got fruit in it, so it's kinda healthy?
*Note as of 15 July 2017: I haven't yet tried this with the vegan glaze, but I plan to for our Let's Try a Vegan Thanksgiving for Science lunch, scheduled for 30 July 2017. I'll edit as needed after I've given it a go.
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