My Turkey Day Duties

For this year’s Thanksgiving, I was in charge of making an appetizer and a dessert. I love showing my family that healthy can equal delicious, so I chose two recipes that would do just that. On Thanksgiving Eve I made the dessert: Pumpkin Chiffon Cake by Rachael Ray. I’m not usually a fan of RR or her recipes, but this one caught my eye bc a)the name sounds fancy and b)it was lightened up.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs, separated, plus 5 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1 cup canned pure pumpkin puree
• Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325°. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the pumpkin pie spice, baking powder and salt.

2. In a medium bowl, combine the egg yolks and pumpkin puree. Stir the pumpkin mixture into the flour mixture until smooth.

3. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the remaining 9 egg whites at medium speed until foamy, about 2 minutes. With the machine on, gradually whisk in the remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar; increase the speed to high and beat until stiff but still moist, 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Add one-quarter of the egg white mixture to the pumpkin batter, folding with a rubber spatula just until no streaks remain. Fold in the remaining egg white mixture in the same manner. Pour the batter into a 10-inch tube pan with a removable bottom and bake until springy to the touch and a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 55 minutes.

5. Let cool in the cake pan for 5 minutes, then invert the pan onto a narrow-necked bottle and let hang upside down until completely cool, about 1 1/2 hours.  (I REFUSED to put a hole in my cake, so I let it cool on top of cans.)Place the cake right side up and remove the pan. To serve, dust the cake with the confectioners’ sugar.

For a beautiful cake, this was quite easy! While it baked, Lucy and I did some Christmas decorating and arts & crafts. I picked up these mugs for our nightly tea seshes. So adorbs!! I am the penguin and she is the snow(w0)man.I also found place mats. Target has the best seasonal crap. Omggggg I’m obsessed.

And for $2, I found crafts! This kept me busy and away from the oven window.

Here’s the finished product hanging on our front door – inside and outside. I’m sure the neighbors think we’re 5-year-olds.So back to the cake. The pumpkin cake made the twenty-six mile drive safely!

This was one of the best desserts I have ever made. My family is full of chocolate fanatics, but every single one of us loved this. Even the baby ate two slices! At only 122 calories per slice, this is the perfect indulgence. We could not get over how light and moist it was. Move over pumpkin loaves and cookies, the pumpkin chiffon cake is the best yet!As if you could even focus on a vegetable right now, I do want to show the app too. I simply took a bunch of fresh asparagus, snapped off their tails, and parboiled them for a few minutes. I wrapped them in prosciutto while drinking a mimosa…and then roasted them in balsamic and honey with pistachios. Easy and delicious!

Hope everyone had a fatttttttttttttttt Thanksgiving!