Pumpkin cake for the current me

I love pumpkin. Growing up I couldn't get enough of if, because it seemed that the only time we had anything pumpkin was between about mid-October and Christmas. Which, by the way, is historically the season to have pumpkin unless you canned it. Commercial canning and out of area growing made year-round pumpkin even more possible. Of course now what is labeled pumpkin may actually be a winter squash mix....but I digress.

After leaving home decades ago I found that pumpkin wasn't just for that tiny window and so started collecting pumpkin recipes. One of my favorites was a pumpkin cake that had orange juice and orange zest in it. It was heavenly and I made it often, even adapting it various ways. Time passes and for whatever reason, that recipe was replaced by others. But when invited to a dinner last evening, I decided it was a perfect time to bring that wonderful pumpkin cake as a dessert. So I dug out the recipe and rolled up my sleeves yesterday morning to make the cake.

HORRORS! I read the recipe and it called for a stick of butter in the cake AND a stick of butter for the frosting! Had I really eaten that? Yes I had, and loved every minute of if. Today though, I don't eat so much fat (or try not to) for various reasons. And I don't even try to fool myself into thinking I can do it occasionally. Of course I can, but I don't want to. So what to do?

My solution was to leave the butter in the frosting since I didn't have a good idea of what might substitute (sorry - fat free creme cheese doesn't do it). That left the batter. Often I've used apple sauce to replace a fat in baking. So this time I used some recently canned pear sauce (just like apple sauce only I think a milder flavor) and wondered what would happen. Yes, it's risky to try new things when you are bringing a dish to a dinner, but why not get feedback from people who you know enjoy and know food? So I dove in and made the recipe with the substitution.

At dinner I didn't say what had changed in the recipe, only let people know there had been a change and asking for their thoughts. Seriously, there were moans of "yum" "ooohh, this is so good" and the like. I actually thought they were putting me on so I tasted it. It was good - very moist and delicate and 50% less fat than the original recipe. I learned that I can use pear sauce just as well as apple sauce and not risk so much at all. And since I made the pear sauce with pears from a nearby friend, I knew it didn't have gobs of sugar or anything else in it either.

I've shared the recipe on the Recipes page of this blog. I apologize in advance because I don't know where the original one came from. But with this adaptation, I guess it becomes mine :-)