“I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then, I just ate.”

– Julia Child, chef

Preparing the sweet came easier to me than the savory, which probably explains my mouth full of metal. A cavity here, a root canal there is no match for a scrumptious dessert prepared with tender, loving care.

This bundt cake recipe is a constant reminder of that. In my early thirties, I accepted my kitchen as my own and slowly learned culinary basics. I scoured the web (and pestered my sister) for easy recipes that would buoy my confidence.

And in the beginning, there was bundt cake. (Or, more specifically, a bundt pan handed down from my late grandma, Dorothy Townley.) Ever so carefully I experimented with a variety of bundt cake recipes, knowing full well that the pan makes it pretty.

The Fall Time Pumpkin Cake recipe carefully clipped from a newspaper coupon many years ago has proven to be both foolproof and one of my favorites. When your pallet craves something sweet that’s beyond chocolate, consider this squash-inspired dessert.

Fall Time Pumpkin Cake

1 package yellow cake mix

3/4 cup sugar

1 can pumpkin, 15 ounces

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla

4 large eggs at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a bundt pan. Combine all ingredients in the order listed above until well blended, by hand or using an electric mixer. Transfer batter to bundt pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Allow cake to completely cool before removing from the bundt pan. Serve with whipped topping.