After many hours of working in my garden, it’s completely planted.

Tomatoes are getting golf-ball size, and zucchini are coming on.

What few peas germinated are blooming, and a few pods are showing.

Green beans (six rows) and lima beans (eight rows) are looking good.

Sweet potatoes, corn and lots of volunteer gourds are doing great.

Two rows of sunflowers are three feet tall.

Yesterday, I planted more gourds and several packets of assorted pumpkins, plus eight more rows of beans. I tilled all the weeds between the rows.

Now I have time to spend in the kitchen.

I found a new recipe somewhere, and it had both “pumpkin” and “cake” in the name.

That was good enough to get me to try it.

I noticed it said Bundt or fluted tube pan also. I like baking in those. It just has a different look than a 9×13 or two- or three-layer round cakes.

Back when I was in the single-digit age group, and I was just learning my way around the kitchen, Mom always baked angel food cakes and had four or five of those pans in the kitchen.

She would place the cake upside-down on top of a coke bottle to let it cool.

Rich’s Pumpkin Cake

1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cream Cheese Frosting

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

chopped pecans, optional

Directions: In a large bowl, beat the pumpkin, sugar, eggs, and oil until well mixed. In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt and nutmeg. Gradually beat these dry ingredients into the pumpkin mix until blended. Pour into a greased and floured 10-inch fluted tube pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 60 minutes until cake springs back when lightly touched. Cool for 10 minutes, then remove from pan and place on wire rack to finish cooling.

In a small bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat until smooth. Frost cake. Add chopped pecans if desired.

NOTES: The recipe calls for 15 ounces of pumpkin. I always buy mine in 30-ounce cans, so I usually make two cakes, one for CVS pharmacy and the other for Hacienda Vieja. Or one for our grandson if we are going to see him. Or one for the neighbor who does hard labor for me. Occasionally, I keep a few slices for Susie.

When I make two, I don’t double the recipe as it is too hard to work with. I have enough bowls, measuring spoons, etc., and an extra cake pan, so I make the second one while the first is baking.

Usually, if I add pecans, I just put them on half the cake. When I’m sharing, often someone doesn’t like nuts and they can eat off the other side.

Besides angel food cake, Mom made a lot of carrot cakes. Like me, she shared with everyone. I guess that’s where I learned from.

I helped her make these, but just did the steps she told me to when she was busy. I never looked at the recipe. I don’t think she did either. Like many ladies years ago, she didn’t measure or go by a recipe. But it still seemed to always come out the same.

After she died, I looked for her recipe so I could continue baking her carrot cake. I couldn’t find it. I asked my sister if she had it. I don’t know why I asked her. I never saw her in the kitchen when I was growing up. I finally found a recipe in one of the cupboards and tried it. It didn’t taste the same. I talked to a lady at church who knew Mom well. She said Mom used half all-purpose flour and half cake flour. I tried that. It still didn’t taste the same.

Recently, my daughter gave me a carrot cake recipe from a guy with whom she works. She told me it tastes almost like my mom’s cake. I tried it. It was really close. I think the only difference is Mom always put chopped walnuts in her cake. I didn’t like them and always picked out the large nut chunks. Perhaps that changed the flavor of the cake.

Anyway, I made the new recipe several times, really like it, and I was going to share it with you readers. Unfortunately, I lost the recipe. Our daughter wrote it on both sides of a scrap of paper off her desk. I knew I should have immediately recopied it on one of my recipe cards, but didn’t do it. I hope she can get it for me again.

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