Pumpkin Spice Cake Revisited

Okay folks, so I think the Pumpkin Spice Cake came out much better this time around. I chose to substitute Splenda for the sugar and am picking up a bit of the Splenda taste when I eat the cupcake/muffin. In the future I might do a 50-50 split with sugar/Splenda which would add 1 point to each serving. I also absolutely HATE the muffin cups I have right now, the paper sticks horribly to the muffins and I find I have no choice but to refrigerate the muffins then heat in the microwave for about 10 seconds to remove the paper. The mini loafs I made were 8,000 times easier to get out of the pan after a light spray of cooking spray.

As I'm typing this up I'm thinking that next time I might choose to make a cake and then make a whipped cream cheese topping to put in between the layers of cake or as a frosting.

1 c whole wheat flour

2 c all-purpose flour

2 c Splenda or other sugar substitute

1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice

1 tsp baking powder

15 oz pumpkin puree

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 c fat-free milk

1/2 c unsweetened applesauce

1. Preheat oven to 375. Spray cake/muffin pan - or insert paper cups - with nonstick spray and lightly dust with flour (I skipped the flour and my mini cakes came out of the pans just fine).

2. In large bowl mix whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, and sugar. In a medium bowl, mix pumpkin puree, eggs, vanilla extract, milk, and unsweetened applesauce.

3. Add wet mixture to dry mixture. Stir until just blended - do NOT over-mix or dough will become tough.

4. Pour batter into pan. Bake. If using cake pan bake for 55-60 minutes. Muffin pans take about 25 minutes or until toothpick inserted in muffin comes out clean.

5. Cool.

Yield: 18 servings = 2 points per serving -- if you add a glaze or cream cheese as a topping you will need to add additional points :)

Remember -- if you chose to do a 50-50 sugar mixture you will need to add 1 point per serving.