Pumpkin Pound Cake with Cream Cheese Glaze

 So there is nothing I love more than pumpkin.  Well almost nothing, but pumpkin makes me very happy, not sure if it is the thought of fall or the yummy smell of it when you are baking.  Whatever it is, I love it!  So I knew that when I saw these super cute bake and serve mini loaf pans I had to make it pumpkin something.

Can you see all those eggs, 15 and three cups of butter.  Man there was so much, that should have clued me in before I started mixing it all together.

 Now I found these super cute pans at the local Winners which is like a warehouse, but not really.  They have home stuff, clothing and such and it is all brand name, just last years style and such.  Anyway, I love that store.  I went after Christmas and was digging and found about 8 packs of these things.  They were for $1.80 on mark down, so for 8 tins for $1.80 you cannot go wrong. They are all different styles, but who cares right? It means I don't have to wash tins and they are cute.  Win win people!

So I was stupid and used my hand blender to beat those egg whites, took forever.  Next time I just clean out my kitchen aid bowl.  And I love how I say next time, like I would do something this stupid again.  Never mind, I probably will.

So to start I sort of wanted to do a bread, but a sweet one.  So pound cake is what I thought of. And so I went on line and looked for the perfect cake.  Basically it had to have pumpkin in it, so it was not too hard to find.  I found this.  The Streaming gourmet made it sound yummy, and easy.  And I also figured I needed to triple the batch.  Sometimes I am just stupid, this is one of those times.

The batter really lightened up with the egg whites, but it was so hard to mix by hand.  Stupid wimpy arms.

Pumpkin Pound Loaf
By the Streaming Gourmet( altered slightly)
This makes one loaf, I tripled this.

-1 cup butter
-2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
-1 TSP baking powder
-1/2 TSP salt
-2 TSP pumpkin pie spice
-1 cup sugar
-5 large eggs, separated
-1/2 cup pureed pumpkin
-2 TSP vanilla bean paste

Pre heat oven to 350 and prepare your pans, if using paper ones like I did no need to prepare them other than putting them on a cookie tray.

Sift all dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream the butter then slowly add the sugar and cream together. Blend in egg yolks one at a time, making sure to fully mix after each one. Add the pumpkin and vanilla and fully mix.

Add dry ingredients in three additions mixing by hand, I used the machine, there was a lot of batter.

In a different bowl beat egg whites until they form soft peaks.  Once done fold into the pumpkin batter to fully mix it.  At this point I was swearing up a storm, there was so much batter and I was getting tired.  But it turned out okay, maybe not as fluffy as was intended but it worked.

Place into your pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. It took about 20 minutes for my mini ones, she said over an hour for the large loaf pan. Allow to fully cool.

I just used a larger ice cream scoop, and filled them like I do my cupcakes.  I did use the back of a spoon to spread it out a bit as the batter was super thick.

  So I wanted to triple the batch so I could have enough to share with lots of people.  This meant I called Hubby in a panic needing more eggs, I needed 15 and only had like 13.  I may have also been in my sweat pants and tank top, after changing after work. I never thought I would need that many, so that is why a normal person would fully read the recipe before they start.  Also if I had only made one loaf the can of pumpkin I had would have been way too much so it made sense at the time.  I swear.

See how pretty?  I have a convection oven so they baked pretty evenly, but if I did it again I would turn the pans half way, the ones at the back were darker than the ones at the front.

I ended up with 32 of these little cuties.  I ate one right out of the oven because I was not convinced it was baked through.  It was but it was light and I was sad, I thought a pound cake should be dense.  And it was not.  Oh well I figured no one else had to know, I would just tell them it was pumpkin loaf, not pound cake.  But after they cooled over night they became perfect, so I was thrilled.

Oh gosh, don't you just want to eat that with a spoon. I wonder what it would be like to freeze cream cheese icing and make it sort of like an ice cream.  I now have a new mission, cream cheese ice cream.  I can feel my tummy hurting already!

 I wanted to frost them, but not too much. So I decided on a glaze.  A cream cheese glaze.  I could have eaten just that, but then I would have probably been sick for days. So I refrained, I have some control you know.

Cream Cheese Glaze
by me, just tossing stuff in a bowl

-1 block cream cheese
-1 TBSP vanilla bean paste
-milk and icing sugar as needed

So cream the cream cheese.  And yes I know that sounds redundant, but cream cheese really isn't creamy if you get me. Anyway, do that, then add your vanilla.  Once you have done that add a few TBSPs of milk and then add sugar.  Add sugar until it is thick as you like, I wanted it to have some body, not a watery glaze, so it was spoon able  but it was really thin.  Does that make any sense?  No?  Well just do what you like, I won't judge you; too much.

I kept getting glaze on my fingers putting these into the bags.  And then I got lazy and just started wiping them on my pants because I was going to bed right after so they would be in the laundry.  I was so tempted to just keep licking my fingers, but I figure that is gross, and well, gross.

So once that was done I put them in clear plastic bags that I pack my cookies in.  They are pleated so they flared enough so that the cake fit perfectly. Then I just tied them with ribbon and put them in the fridge to set up.

See how pretty?  You just pull up the white frill on the wrapper and it pulled apart, there was some glue so you had to work at it, but it was still not too bad.

I took a bunch to work, and they were eaten and loved.  Or so I am told, one guy said his co workers were mean and gave him the one with the least icing.  I felt badly, but not badly enough to share the one I had packed in my lunch.

See how cute it is? 

These are great to eat out of the wrapper, just pull it apart and eat.  I liked slicing it up like a big loaf cake and eating each slice like it was huge, and then I felt like I was pigging out, when really I wasn't  Well not as much anyway. I think these would make cute gifts for the holidays, which I am sure those wrappers were really made for. Either way, I loved them, but would not triple the batch again, because I thought I was going to die mixing it all.  And no cake is worth death, even if it is covered in cream cheese icing.

I couldn't eat a whole one at one sitting, it was too much, but I sure tried.