Gisela Lopez
English1A
Ms. Nylander
October 20, 2012 Pumpkin Pudding for the Holidays It is that time of year again, pumpkin season! Two pleasant holidays are just around the corner. This is the time; we spent Halloween or Christmas with our families to have an enjoyable holiday dinner or just to hang out. There is plentiful food cooked for dinner, but what is dinner without dessert? The most traditional holiday dessert is pumpkin pie, so how about spicing dessert up a little this year. Well, here is one way to do it, a tasty holiday dessert that the whole family will love, and it is quick and easy too!

The first step in baking, of course, is to gather all the ingredients needed for the task. Luckily, with this dessert, most of what you need, you will already have in your kitchen. Whatever you do not have, you can just get at the grocery store. The ingredients you will need are: 1 can pumpkin, 3 eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/2 tsp, salt, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 box spiced cake mix, 1 1/2 cubes margarine or butter, 3/4 cup favorite chopped nuts (if desired), and a 9 x 13 inch baking pan. You will also need a measuring cup and measuring spoons if you want to measure the ingredients evenly. In addition, you will need a small bowl to mix, and a large bowl to mix all the dry ingredients together.

Now that, you have all your ingredients, you can start on the fun, but first; preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Before you begin to mix all the ingredients, first combine the wet ingredients eggs, butter, milk, and can of pumpkin in the small bowl until they are well mixed. Now combine the dry ingredients, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar in the large bowl. You can use anything to mix it all with, a hand mixer, rubber spatula, wooden spoon, or if you do not have these items, a large spoon will do the trick. Be sure to mix everything so that it is combined evenly.

There is no need to grease the pan. Just pour the mixture into the baking pan. Pour it all in so that the pudding covers the pan evenly. Do not just pour the pudding all in one spot. If you cannot get it even while pouring, smooth out the top of the pudding with your mixing tool.

Put, the butter or margarine in a bowl and place it in the microwave. Be sure to place a paper towel over the bowl, so the butter does not splatter all over the inside of the microwave. Set the time between 30 seconds-1 minute, depending on how powerful your microwave is, to melt the butter.

While you are waiting for the butter to melt, sprinkle the spiced cake mix over the top of the pudding so that it covers evenly. You want the cake mix to cover every area of the pudding. Once you are done with that step, take the butter out of the microwave and pour it over the top of the spiced cake mix. You must be extremely careful with this step; pour slowly and pour as evenly as you can over the whole area of the pan. Next, add your favorite nuts (if you want). Just about any kind of nut will do. My children like my pudding without nuts, but if you like, nuts, walnuts or pecans would taste exceptionally pleasant.

Now you can put the pan, uncovered, into the oven for one hour. Once it is done, remove the pan from oven, cover the pan with foil, wait until it is time for dessert, and serve. When you are ready to serve it, place a spoonful of vanilla ice cream on it to give it some added flavor.

My children loved this pumpkin pudding dessert so much it became our family's traditional holiday dessert. This year, why don’t you make it your family's new tradition, as well.

work cited
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