As a new baker, I wanted to challenge myself and, at the same time, wanted to surprise my dad with a homemade cake for his birthday this year. I have never baked a cake before, so I opted to pick a box mix (but I wanted to elevate its flavor). Are you still there? Great, I promise this cake tasted terrific, and I will also share the quick icing that I used for the decoration.

My parents don’t like sweet desserts that much, so I tried my best to limit this cake’s sweetness. If you’ve used a cake mix before, there’s a suggestion of ingredients on the back of the box (typically with water, eggs, oil, etc.). I used 3 eggs, substituted the water with almond milk, and used butter instead of oil. I also added 1/2 canned of pumpkin puree. I only used half because I did not want to overpower the cake with too much pumpkin flavor since I added pumpkin spice truffles on the icing. I also rough chopped a handful of pecans to mix into the batter and for toppings.

Ingredients:

CAKE:

• 1 box of Duncan Hines Spice Cake mix (season favorite)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 (15oz) Libby’s Pure canned pumpkin puree
• A handful of pecan halves (unsalted, chopped to get small to large pieces)

ICING:

• 1 1/2 cup confectioners (Lakanto Monkfruit Sweetener)
• 3-5 TBSP almond milk
• 1 TBSP butter (melted)
• 3 TBSP pumpkin spice baking truffles (melted)

TOPPINGS:

• A handful of pecan halves (unsalted, chopped to get small to large pieces)
• 1-2 TBSP confectioners (dusted for extra decoration)

What to do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
2. Prepare cake mix in a bowl with a hand mixer or stand mixer:

+cake mix

+ eggs

+ Almond milk

+ butter

+pumpkin puree

3. Once the cake mix is all mixed + pecan pieces

4. Grease the bundt cake pan (I used butter to grease a 9in pan)

5. Bake at 350 F, 33-35 minutes

Cool the cake completely before putting the icing.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the icing and toppings:

In a bowl whisk:

+confectioners

+almond milk

+butter (melted)

+pumpkin spice baking truffles (melted)

Put icing inside a pitcher or a container with a spout for easy pouring on top of the cake.

**chopped pecans + confectioner sugar (set aside for toppings)

Decoration time:

• Place the bundt cake on a serving plate
• I did not have a spinning cake stand, so I slowly poured the icing on top of the cake while slowly spinning the plate around (for the natural drips on the side of the cake).
• I topped the cake with the chopped pecans and dusted it with some confectioner sugar, and voila!

I purposely did not make too much icing to fill the middle of the bundt cake because I added a bottle of Corona beer in the middle as it’s my dad’s favorite beer, and after all, it’s his birthday cake.