Pumpkin Orange Cornmeal Cake

The name alone, pumpkin orange cornmeal cake, just screamed out at me for Halloween.  My friend turned me on to a new baking blog, Lisi's Luscious Desserts.  This particular one sounded delicious....and it is.

• 2 sticks unsalted butter - room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. grated orange zest
• 1 large egg plus 2 large eggs separated
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup flour
• 2 tsps. baking powder
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1/4 cup fine ground yellow cornmeal
• Syrup:  1/2 cup fresh orange juice (roughly 2 oranges ) and 1/2 cup sugar

Butter a 9 inch bundt pant.  I'm a big fan of the bundt cake.  Make sure you really butter/spray it down. 

Separate the 2 eggs, leave the whites in a separate bowl. 

Beat together the butter and sugar about 3-4 minutes, light and fluffy.  Add the egg and then the 2 yolks, one at a time.  Beat well after each egg.  Scrape down and add the pumpkin puree and beat again.

I sifted the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt together in a bowl.  Add this mixture, mix in 1/3 at a time until completely incorporated. 

Beat the egg whites until they form soft peaks.  You can do it by hand but I'd use a hand held beater which is beyond easier. 

Add the egg whites to the cake mixture and mix together until you can't see the egg whites.  Do this by hand and just gently continue to flip the mixture. 

Pour into the bundt pan ( sort of thick ) and bake for about 40 minutes or until done.

Separately mix together the syrup, heat up until sugar dissolves. 

When the cake is done, let cool only about 10 minutes ( didn't wait long enough as you can see from the picture because bits of the cake stuck), flip onto a serving place and then pour or use a brush to coat the cake in the syrup.

Tasty!