Recipe review: Pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting

This recipe came up on AllRecipes when I was looking for a sheet cake to make for a potluck, but it's actually for a 10x15 cake pan. Maybe "sheet cake" means different things in different parts of the country, but here in Kansas, it means a very thin cake -- about 1" deep -- baked in a rimmed cookie pan. This time, though, I made it in two 8" x 8" foil cake pans, so as to not have to retrieve my pan. It worked for that, too.

Several reviewers commented that the cinnamon was too weak in its given amount and that it needed other spices; others opined that the frosting needed more cream cheese flavor. So I made some tweaks, and it turned out perfect!

Here is the original recipe, and here is my edited version...

Pumpkin Cake

1 (15 oz.) can canned pumpkin puree
2 cups white sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
cream cheese frosting (see below)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour (or spray) a 10 x 15" cake pan.

In a medium mixing bowl, beat pumpkin, sugar, and oil. Add eggs, and mix well.

In small mixing bowl (a 4-cup measuring cup works nicely), combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, and stir till well combined. Add these dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture: pour in a third, and stir a bit; a third and stir a bit; the rest, and stir gently until well blended. Do not overstir.

Pour batter into a greased 15 x 10 inch baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry. Cool completely before frosting.

Spread frosting on top, then sprinkle with nuts, if desired.
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Cream cheese frosting

 1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened
 1/2 cup butter, softened
 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 - 3 cups powdered sugar

Using a mixer, blend the cream cheese, butter and vanilla; mix well. Add in powdered sugar gradually. At about 1.5 cups of sugar, taste test, and continue gradually adding and tasting until it's to your desired sweetness.

*Note: If made in a full-size cookie pan -- also called a jelly roll pan -- this could be used to make a pumpkin roll. Once baked, the semi-cooled cake is turned out onto a clean, flat dish towel, then gently rolled up while it cools. Once cooled, you would unroll it, spread it with cream cheese frosting, then roll it back up, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or more. To serve, cut in 1" slices. See Libby's website for how-to details.
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The sheet cake image is from AllRecipes. The pumpkin roll image is from Libby's website.
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