Autumn Spice Cake Surprise with Pumpkin Cream Cheese Icing

2 cups King Arthur® white whole wheat flour
½-3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp. salt
2 ½ tsp. cinnamon
1 ¼ tsp. ground ginger
¼ tsp. nutmeg
Pinch of cloves
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
½ cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup almond milk plus 2 Tbsp.
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cups grated carrots and/or zucchini, finely chopped* (optional)
1/3 cup dried cranberries
For the Frosting:6 oz. low fat cream cheese
½ cup pumpkin puree
¾ cup powdered sugar
Cinnamon for dusting

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a large loaf pan with aluminum foil and coat with cooking spray. Combine flour sugar, baking powder, salt and spices in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix pumpkin, milk, applesauce, vanilla and eggs. Fold in carrots and cranberries. Stir into flour mixture. Pour into prepared loaf and bake for about 55-60 minutes toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on rack.

While cooling, combine frosting ingredients in medium bowl. Beat until light and fluffy. Transfer to a small serving bowl/dish and dust with cinnamon; refrigerate until ready to serve.

Once cool, slice cake into 12-15 pieces and serve with alongside frosting. Allow guests to smear a portion of frosting on their slice of cake.

*I prefer to finely chop the shredded/grated carrots to create small pieces that end up speckled throughout the cake. Also, if my hubby sees large pieces of vegetable in his cake, chances are he won’t eat it. Skip this step if you want.

I used a Paific Organic Pumpkin Puree, so the frosting has a bit of a yellow hue. This did not seem to bother my guests; they smeared it on without a care! THe hubby however, was not too thrilled lol.