It’s that time again! A new season approaching and Fall cleaning continuing as the Autumnal decor goes up, the crafting bug starts again & yard work begins to prepare for the next season in the garden. I am always reluctant to release my grasp onto summer, but around this time in September, I begin getting excited for Fall scents, baking, ready to snuggle up by the fire and binge watch Fall movies, especially marathons like “Harry Potter” series and read old favorites. I have already done some craft projects with pumpkins, made a pumpkin bundt cake, decorated and watched some movies. My husband, son & I have already started the Harry Potter series. I am now ready for Fall!! I haven’t tackled the outdoor decor yet and not quite sure what I’m going to do yet. I do like simple now. I’m tired of clutter and have been very particular about not taking up every available space with decor.

Stage One of Fall decorating:

I’ve been shopping to replenish some pillows and blankets on Amazon & Home Goods. Is everyone decorating and baking for Fall yet, or do you think it’s still too early for that yet?

Today the pool is getting winterized and closed up for the cold seasons, and more yard work to be done. We cleared the side garden where the raspberries were and have redesigned the space. It has much more designing to go but it’s all cleared now. I’m happy to see that coming along! This season we’re also repainting our cottage home and changing the color from a dark blue to a dark grey. We’re working on building new shutters for the house too! This will take a month or so – we’re very busy with many projects, but very excited! Can’t wait to see the results!

This weekend after doing a lot of yard work, I made for breakfast and for tea time, a pumpkin bundt cake! It was so lovely to smell the beautiful aroma of the pumpkin and spices emanating from the oven in the kitchen!!

Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

2 cups stevia

1/4 cup Swerve granular sugar substitute

1 cup coconut oil, melted and cooled

3 eggs, room temp

2 1/2 cups gluten free all-purpose flour

2 tsps baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp ground pumpkin pie spice

1 can pumpkin puree

2 tsps vanilla extract

Topping:

1 tsp Cinnamon

4 Tbsps stevia

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray bundt cake pan well with coconut oil spray.
2. Combine in a large bowl, stevia and swerve sugar with coconut oil and stir with a rubber spatula.
3. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition well.
4. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt, all of the spices.
5. With a hand mixer, beat on medium speed while pouring into the wet mixture, pour in some of the flour mixture and alternating with the pumpkin, mixing until each addition is just mixed in, keep alternating ending with flour. Add in vanilla extract & blend just until blended. You don’t want to mix too much as to make the cake dense.
6. Using a rubber spatula, pour mix into the greased bundt cake pan and bake for 60 mins.
7. While the cake is baking, make your topping by stirring together the cinnamon & stevia.
8. When the cake is done, by checking the doneness with a toothpick inserted at the end & it comes out clean, transfer while still in pan to a cooling rack for 15 minutes. Sprinkle some of the topping while in pan.
9. Transfer the cake out of the pan to finish cooling completely on rack & sprinkle the topping on the other side.
10. When almost cooled completely, serve. We had ours at breakfast & again at tea time with tea or coffee.