But what about the rest of the week—or the entire months of October and November—when you want something a bit lighter than pie?

King Arthur Flour solved our dilemma with their delicious Pumpkin Streusel Cake Mix. We stocked up last year after Thanksgiving, when it was half price; but it’s $9.95 full price at KingArthurFlour.com is still worth it.

Why pay triple the price of a supermarket cake mix? It’s all in the quality of the ingredients.

The King Arthur mix is made with real pumpkin and Vietnamese cinnamon. Even the flour in the mix—the highest grade milled—is better, as fans of King Arthur Flour can tell you.

The mix includes a packet of cinnamon-streusel filling to make the swirl in the cake. You add butter, eggs, sour cream and water.
 
 
TO MAKE A COFFEE CAKE

 
As an alternative, you can turn the mix into a pumpkin streusel coffee cake (photo #3).

[2] The cake made in a Heritage bundt pan, also called a swirl bundt pan, from Nordicware.

Streusel is a crumb topping made from butter, flour and sugar. It can also contain chopped nuts or rolled oats.

It’s used on cakes and pies alike.

Pronounced SHTROY-zul, the word derives from the German “streuen,” meaning to sprinkle or scatter. The American mis-pronunciation “STROO sul?” Fuggedaboudit.

Streusel is used as a topping for a variety of pies, fruit crisps, cakes and pastries, most notably coffee cakes. A pie with a streusel topping is sometimes referred to as a “crumble pie.”

Some people like big streusel crumbs, others prefer fine crumbs. The choice is yours as you pinch the crumbs together.

[4] …Pumpkin Streusel Cake Mix (photos © King Arthur Flour).

 
Preparation

1. COMBINE the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a medium bowl. With a pastry blender or fork, cut in the butter until fine crumbs form.

2. USE your fingers to squeeze the fine crumbs into large clumps (or smaller as desired—we like large crumbs). Sprinkle over the top of the pie and bake per the recipe instructions. That’s it!
 
 
THE HISTORY OF BUNDT CAKES

First, there was the Austrian kugelhopf, a sweet yeast bread similar to brioche and panettone, made in a pan shaped like a chef’s hat or a turban.

A Viennese specialty, it was a favorite of the Austrian Archduchess Marie Antoinette, who became the wife of King Louis XVI of France in 1770.

Fast forward 180 years: Some Jewish ladies in Minneapolis couldn’t find any kugelhopf pans in the U.S., pans with pleated folds that their families had in the Old Country. They turned to a local manufacturer and convinced him to create a version of it. The bundt cake was born.

The name bundt is a derivation of the German word for a gathering of people—exactly what you’ll have when there’s a bundt cake to be enjoyed.

Here’s the history of the bundt cake.