About three years ago, I decided to try a recipe for 2 ingredient pumpkin muffins. While I’m a lover of just about everything pumpkin, I really tried it to see if it would work more than anything else. Because 2 ingredients? Are you kidding? How could that possibly work? But sure enough, it did. In fact, they were delicious…and supposedly a WW approved treat, so not so bad on the waistline either. As a new blogger at the time, I even decided to write a post about it (you can find it here – please pardon the not so awesome craptastic pictures, I really was a new blogger).
Nearly 3 years later, that post still gets a ton of views, particularly in the fall. As it saw it come up in my blog statistics last week, I remembered how delicious those muffins were and decided to put them on my fall baking list. But then I thought, why not do something a little different? People had emailed me letting me know that they had tried this recipe tons of different ways – they added raisins, nuts, cinnamon, nutmeg, you name it, people tried it. And although it upped the original ingredient count, they all sounded pretty delish! So I decided it was my turn to modify it a bit, and add some apples. And since we’d already done muffins, we’d do bread this time (I’m not going to lie, it also gave me a great reason to go out and buy that cute loaf pan that I’d been eyeing but didn’t want to spend $10 on because I already have a loaf pan).
Because I was adding an ingredient, I worried a bit about this recipe, but it turned out beautifully. It’s sweet and dense and pumpkin-y with a little touch of apple…it’s everything that a fall treat is supposed to be. My kids actually asked for it as their dessert after dinner 2 nights in a row! If you love pumpkin, you’re going to love this recipe!
You will need: (makes 2 loaves)
(2) Spiced flavor boxed cake mixes
(2) Cans pure pumpkin
(1) Can apple pie filling – I used a Comstock 21 oz can
Step 1 – Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Liberally grease the inside of two 9×5 loaf pans.
Step 2 – Pour the apple pie filling into a small dish, and using a knife (preferably serrated), cut the apples into smaller chunks. If you prefer larger apples, you can skip this step.
Step 3 – Place cake mixes and cans of pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and mix on medium-high speed until well blended (about 4 minutes). Gently fold in apples. Pour into 2 9×5 loaf pans.
Step 4 – Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, or until a toothpick/knife comes out of the center clean. I know that’s a long time to wait for bread, but don’t worry, it’s totally worth it!
Now if you’re someone like me, you might think this cake is missing something. You know, a little finishing touch…like…oh…I don’t know…a glaze? Yep, you can totally glaze this cake. And I did! 
To top it off with a delicious glaze you only need 5 more ingredients, for a total of 8, which I still think is pretty good. This glaze isn’t my recipe (I borrowed it from Martha), but compliments it perfectly. Why mess with a good thing?
Cream Cheese Glaze:
4 oz of cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (I substituted a small amount of lemon juice concentrate for this one)
3 Tbsp milk
Pinch of salt
Step 1 – Place cream cheese in a medium sized mixing bowl and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy. This took me no more than 1-2 minutes,
Step 2 – Add sugar and beat on medium-high until well combine. Then one at a time, add the lemon juice, milk, and salt, beating for approximately 30 seconds in between each new ingredient. After the last ingredient, beat on low speed until smooth.
Step 3 – Drizzle over cake. If too thick to drizzle add more milk until it’s the desired consistency.
Enjoy and Happy Fall!
