Pumpkin Lust Cake

I make the Pumpkin Dump Cake every year for our Thanksgiving dinner; it is heavily requested by my family. Last year, I wanted to try something new.  I caught sight of an amazing looking layer dessert on Facebook or Pinterest in October.  I couldn't find it again on my boards or my wall, but the name stuck with me; I turned to Google.

I found a few pictures and captions explaining the dessert. A few days before Thanksgiving I set out to find the ingredients...I could not find the pumpkin spice instant jello.  I know it exists because I've bought it before...so I improvised.  I added canned pumpkin to vanilla pudding in small amounts until I hit a good flavor.

Everyone who tasted the dessert loved it!  It was quite refreshing compared to the richer pumpkin dump cake.




INGREDIENTS:

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 8 oz cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 8 oz whipped topping, divided
• 2 small Jello instant vanilla pudding 
• 1/2 cup pure pumpkin (this gave a light pumpkin taste, you may want to add more)
• 1 T pumpkin pie spice
• 3 cups cold milk
• pinch of nutmeg

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Mix butter, pecans, sugar, and flour.  Press into 9 x 13 baking dish.  Bake 10-15 minutes.  Cool completely.
2. Mix cream cheese, powdered sugar, and 1 1/2 cup cool whip until smooth.  Spread over cooled crust.
3. Mix pudding with milk.  Add pumpkin and spice and continue to whisk.  Set in fridge 5-10 minutes to set.  Spread over cream cheese layer.
4. Top with remaining whipped topping.  Sprinkle with nutmeg to garnish. Refrigerate.

Difficulty: Medium; there are steps and cooling time to deal with
Time: 60 minutes
Source: adapted from a few recipes I found on pinterst