Chocolate Maple Pumpkin Cake

Last Saturday, our church had our annual chili supper. The women of the church all pitch in and make a variety of desserts for the dinner, and we had quite a selection! Since I love to bake, I made three desserts...banana cream pie (which you've seen), blackberry pie bars (which you've seen), and a chocolate maple pumpkin cake, which you're seeing tonight for the first time.
The banana cream pie and the blackberry pie bars were a little labor-intensive (especially since I started baking at 9:30am and needed to be at church at 3:00pm), so I needed something super-quick to put together. I found this recipe in the October issue of Country Living. You begin with a boxed German chocolate cake mix and make substitutions of real maple syrup for water and pumpkin puree for the oil (the original recipe called for pumpkin pie filling, which I didn't have, so I went with the pumpkin puree instead). Delicious! The flavors were subtle, but it was definitely more than just a plain chocolate cake. I iced it with canned cream cheese frosting and decorated it very simply with some little fall sprinkles. It was quick, tasty, and pretty. Just what I needed!

Chocolate Maple Pumpkin Cake

adapted from Country Living Magazine (October 2009)

1 box German chocolate cake mix

1 1/4 cup dark maple syrup (instead of the water)

1/2 cup pumpkin puree (instead of the oil)

Any other ingredients called for on boxed mix.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare cake mix according to package directions, making substitutions listed above. Distribute the prepared cake mix between two 8-inch cake pans coated with cooking spray. Bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees, then cool 10 minutes in pans before turning out on wire rack. Cool completely and frost/decorate as you like.