You won’t believe how easy this Pumpkin Gingerbread is to make! It’s a one-bowl small bake with no mixer required. Packed with warm, fragrant spices and complemented by smooth, creamy white chocolate, it’s rich, moist, and tender. 👩🏼🍳
This Pumpkin Gingerbread is a simple, straightforward cake that’s great as a dessert or an afternoon nibble with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s handy to have around during the holidays! Made with pumpkin purée, instead of butter or oil, it comes in at less than 270 calories per serving! 🤩
Welcome to the Good and Good for You™ newsletter, a quick 5-minute read with ideas and info on ways to help improve your life – including a tasty and healthful recipe. 🍽️
Good and Good for You™
I’m a French-trained, post menopausal Southern chef who lost 65# and has kept it off for over 5 years. If I can change my life and improve my health, you can, too!
This issue shares:
- Best Life Living Tip: All-Natural Fat Replacements in the Kitchen 🧈
- Self-Care Strategy: The Goldilocks Approach
- Ideas and Inspiration: “Leaf” it all behind…
- Good and Good for You™ Recipe: Pumpkin Gingerbread 🫚
Thanks for reading! I’m glad to see that this newsletter is making life better in some little way for so many readers. ☺️
We’re heading into the holidays — and we all can use a little boost. Please forward or share with a friend who could use some positivity, too. 🙌🏻
Read on for more — including this Pumpkin Gingerbread. You need this rich and delicious Pumpkin Gingerbread in your baking repertoire!
Best Life Living Tip
Healthy ingredient swaps let you enjoy foods more often with fewer calories. Natural fat substitutes in cooking and baking can cut calories, boost nutrients, and support better health. You may have heard of using applesauce and bananas. Guess what? You can use pumpkin puree, too!
All-Natural Fat Replacements in the Kitchen 🧈
Pumpkin is an excellent, healthy substitute for oil in baking, adding moisture, fiber, and nutrients while reducing fat and calories. It has a high moisture content and works as a binding agent while also adding fiber.
- 1:1 ratio: Use an equal amount of puree for the oil called for in the recipe. For example, if a recipe calls for a 1/2 cup of oil, use 1/2 cup of pumpkin puree. This works best in dense baked goods like muffins and quick breads.
- Partial substitution: For best results, especially when experimenting or in recipes where texture is critical, like cookies, replace only half the oil with pumpkin puree and keep the other half as fat.
- Adjust other liquids: Since pumpkin puree adds moisture, you may need to slightly reduce other liquids in the recipe to maintain the right batter consistency.
Food science and common sense tell us canned pumpkin is not going to taste the same as rich, creamy butter. The results are similar, but different. Give it a try!
Self-Care Strategy
I’m big on delay, not denial. With that sentiment in mind, I’m also a fan of a judicious amount of fatty or high-calorie ingredients like fat and sugar. I call it the Goldilocks Approach.
The Goldilocks Approach means it’s got to be just right. Just enough of the indulgent to make it satisfying — not so little that you feel deprived and start to obsess, and not so much that it undoes your good intentions. It’s about learning what “enough” feels like, both on the plate and in life.
The judicious amount in this recipe for Pumpkin Gingerbread is the white chocolate. I’ve added just enough, and the sweet, creamy, rich white chocolate pairs perfectly with the spiced cake.
Practicing the Goldilocks Approach helps you:
- Ditch all-or-nothing thinking. Life isn’t a diet! It’s a balance of nourishment and pleasure.
- Reduce guilt and shame. There’s no “good” or “bad” food, only choices. Food is not a sin.
- Enjoy food again. When you stop fearing indulgence, you make room for satisfaction, connection, and pleasure.
Self-care isn’t about deprivation – it’s about making choices that are good and good for you. Finding that sweet spot, that just right, is where peace and pleasure meet.
Ideas and Inspiration
Fall leaves are turning color now around Atlanta, and I want to preserve some in art projects. I came across @tidy_wild on IG and love her work!
When life feels too big or too busy, small art can be just right. Little creative projects like making potholders, painting note cards, and making ornaments can offer BIG rewards with minimal stress.
- Built-in relaxation – Small, simple projects don’t require perfection. They soothe rather than stress.
- A sense of accomplishment – Finishing something, even tiny can boost mood and confidence.
- Heartfelt giving – Handmade gifts carry emotional value that store-bought can’t match.
- Connection through creativity – Making art for or with others deepens bonds and spreads joy.
Flex your creativity and take a break from doomscrolling. Give it a try!
Good and Good for You Living Spotlight
Sharing the OG this week!
A good towel is key to success in the kitchen. What better way to get you cooking right than with a cotton towel?
Check out my “Bon Appétit, Y’all” organic cotton kitchen towel.
Make it Count
I hope you enjoy this Pumpkin Gingerbread as much as I do! I served it as a birthday cake for a dear friend who loves all things gingerbread, and she loved it.
The pumpkin keeps it from drying out, and it’s a great small bake cake, perfect for the weekend. Bonus: it’s not one of those annoying recipes that uses a partial can. This Pumpkin Gingerbread uses a whopping 15 ounces – leaving no bits to manage later.
Thank you for reading. For more tips, inspiration, and healthy recipes, follow @virginiawillis on Instagram.
Progress, not Perfection
Remember, if you do what’s Good and Good for You™ most of the time, you’re headed in the right direction!  Little things add up – you’ve got this!
Bon Appétit, Y’all!
Virginia Willis
Pumpkin Gingerbread
Ingredients
- 1 cups granulated sugar
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin purée
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ginger
- 1 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 cups white wheat, golden wheat, or all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 cup white chocolate chips divided
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8" square pan with nonstick spray. Set aside.
- Combine the sugar, pumpkin purée, spices, and salt in a medium bowl. Add the egg and stir to combine. Add the flour, baking powder, and white chocolate chips. Stir until smooth.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth it into an even layer.
- Bake until set and the edges are pulling from the sides of the pan, 30 to 35 minutes. Remove from the oven to cool completely while you prepare the white chocolate drizzle.
- Place the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat for no more than 20 seconds at a time. Each time you heat the chocolate, take it out of the microwave and stir. Continue to heat and stir until the white chocolate is fully melted. Transfer to a sealable plastic bag and snip the end. Drizzle over the cooled cake.
Nutrition
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