My step-son’s birthday is today and so I thought that I would make a Spiced Pumpkin Layer Cake with White Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream and Rum Raisin Caramel Sauce.

I think that I’ve made two cakes in my entire life and so this was a bit of a challenge for me. If I were to do this type of cake again I would definitely leave the raisins out of the batter because they made it difficult to slice the cake into even layers. Perhaps freezing the cake prior to cutting would of made it easier—so instead of eight layers it turned into a four layer cake.

There are several different methods for making buttercream icing and I prefer the Italian Meringue Buttercream method where you heat the sugar syrup to 245 degrees and slowly pour it into stiffly beaten egg whites and whip the mixture until cool before adding in softened butter. If you heat the sugar syrup to the correct temperature then the rest is easy and you’ll have a beautiful, silky buttercream that won’t become stiff or runny. And for someone like me who doesn’t have a lot of experience with layer cakes I need an icing that is easy to work with. To flavor my buttercream, I folded in a teaspoon of vanilla extract, one tablespoon of orange zest and a 1/2 cup of melted and cooled good quality white chocolate. Another option instead of white chocolate would be to add softened cream cheese which would work nicely with this cake as well.

So Happy Birthday Jerm! I’ve saved you a piece in the freezer and will bring it with us on our next visit to Portland.

Enjoy!