Sharon Souza's Pumpkin Coffee Cake

Sharon K. Souza is the award-winning author of Lying on Sunday, and Every Good & Perfect Gift. Her Contemporary Women's Fiction deals with tough issues: infertility, infidelity, extreme loss, but she tempers it with a good dose of humor. Her characters will draw you into their stories and not let go at the final page. She and her husband, Rick, live in northern California, surrounded by family. Rick travels the world, physically and strategically building the kingdom of God. While Rick lives the adventure, Sharon is happy to create her own through her novels. Visit her at www.sharonksouza.com and at the blog she co-writes with 5 other authors www.novelmatters.com

Sharon's latest release, Unraveled, is the story of Aria Winters, an idealistic young woman who seeks a new adventure in her very privileged life. She travels to a country she knows nothing about, meets people who change her life in uncomfortable ways, and faces a crisis that nearly undoes her. In the process she learns important truths about herself and God. View the Unraveled trailer on YouTube.

Sharon's Pumpkin Coffee Cake

This is a delicious fall recipe that you and your family or your guests will love. It will bring fall into your kitchen.

Cake:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

15-oz can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)

3 large eggs

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

Streusel Topping

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter, melted

1/3 cup chopped walnuts

In small bowl, combine dry ingredients; add the butter and mix until crumbly. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a Bundt pan. In large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add pumpkin and eggs, mix well. In medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Add the flour mixture to pumpkin mixture; mix until well blended. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan. Sprinkle Streusel over cake batter. Bake 50-55 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes, then remove from Bundt pan.

Brown Butter Icing

1 1/2 tbsp butter, melted

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

whole milk

Combine melted butter and powdered sugar, mix well. Add 1 tbsp of milk at a time until it reaches the consistency where you can drizzle it. Drizzle over the top of the pumpkin coffee cake.