Until the age of 22, I had roughly zero interest in cooking. My mom was a good cook, and the cafeteria food in college suited me just fine.
There was, however, something I always deemed worthy of cooking time–baked goods. Even as a 22-year-old without cooking skills, I knew that some things are just better right out of the oven.
Enter my first ever successful recipe–Pumpkin Spice Cake with Chocolate Chips. Someone older and wiser (I believe she was approximately 25 at the time) made these at home, brought them to Sunday school to share with the poor college students, and the rest is history.
Do you want to know the true genius of this recipe? You only need to buy three things to make it happen–a box of spice cake mix, one can of pumpkin puree, and as many chocolate chips as you want to add. That’s it! (Okay, you can use some spray to prevent the yum from sticking to the pan. But you could try it without that if you’re feeling brave.)
The pumpkin has enough moisture to make the mix work out right, and you just have to know ahead of time that it won’t fluff up quite as much as a recipe with eggs might. It’s still moist and wonderful tasting when it comes out of the oven, so the lack of eggs never hurt my feelings.
The best part of this recipe? The taste. Definitely the taste. And as one of my college roommates recently reminisced, “They’re crack cocaine addictive.” While neither of us has ever done crack cocaine, I’m going to agree with her wholeheartedly.
Pumpkin Spice Cake with Chocolate Chips
Ingredients
- Spice cake boxed mix
- 1 can of pumpkin puree
- Chocolate chips to taste
- Oil spray or muffin papers, depending on how you want to bake this
Instructions
Preheat the oven to desired temperature (depends on your baking vessel and the cake mix you picked). Stir the cake mix and pumpkin puree in a medium bowl until the cake mix is moistened throughout. Then add chocolate chips and stir a bit more. Pour mixture into muffin tins (don’t forget the muffin papers for this or some oil spray) or a cake pan. I usually go with a 9×13″ pan because it’s simple. Bake according to cake mix instructions and then think about all of the pumpkin you’re consuming while you eat every last bite. This is clearly a vegetable side dish, not a dessert.
Small, but valuable. 