A Little Help For a Friend

 One of my friends, that doesn't cook much, invited a bunch of people to her house for dinner and then panicked.  Some friends of hers decided to drop in while they were in town and she felt that she had to feed them.  She was beside herself trying to figure out what to do so my daughter and I came to her rescue.  Haha....I am always looking for a reason to feed people.  My daughter whipped up this fantastic cake for them.

It was a dark chocolate/raspberry cake filled with fresh raspberry jam, which she made,  and buttercream.  They said it was fabulous.

 I was already making tians so I gave one to her.

 It was a busy baking day. My plumbers were coming to do some work and I baked them an Appalachian sweet bread.

 I also baked hamburger buns for our Sunday dinner.

 Back to my friend's emergency.  I made pumpkin loaves using the Nordic Ware pan I found recently at the thrift store.  This is the best pumpkin loaf any of us have ever eaten.

This didn't really fit into the dinner and I think my friend kept it for herself.  I was jonesin' to use my new pan and make something pumpkin and I couldn't help myself.   She didn't complain.

The Recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups granulated white sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil 
• 2 cups pure, unsweetened pumpkin puree
• 2/3 cup water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9x5-inch loaf pans.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, baking powder and salt.
3. In large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and oil.
4. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Add the pumpkin and water and stir until combined.
5. Divide the batter between the prepared pans. Bake for 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

 I made her a loaf of my rosemary bread.

You can find this recipe by typing it into my sidebar. I made garlic butter to go with it.

 I had a very attentive audience.

For whatever reason, the smell of the pumpkin bread drove these two crazy.  And yes, they got a taste.