“Mama, I spilled some drink on your papers. But don’t worry! I set them to the side, and they’re dry now.” That was Pfeiffer last Sunday afternoon.

“Oh. That’s OK. What papers were they?”

“Uhh… your chef papers.”

Zack and I looked at one another. My chef papers? What could she possibly…?

Recipes, y’all. They were recipes I’d printed to try.

But am I calling them my chef papers from now on?

You bet your bippy I am.

And on one of my most recent chef papers, I had this recipe.

It’s a pumpkin recipe, so it’s even seasonally appropriate… y’all know how I love to give you recipes that call for strawberries in the dead of winter, but I thought I’d actually try to hit the mark this time. So, of course, I messed it up royally.

As in, I forgot an ingredient.

And the ingredient was sugar.

And the dish was a dessert, so leaving out the sugar was kind of a big deal.

Luckily, the texture didn’t suffer too much because of the omission. Leaving out sugar in a cake or cookie might result in disaster, but reducing or eliminating the sugar in a creamy dessert is much easier to pull off.

Julia and Zack even ate full servings before it had cooled completely. I hadn’t added the final layer for fear that it would melt on a hot cake.

But don’t worry, Gentle Reader. I did make that final layer and try it as a topping to be sure I wasn’t leading you astray.

The whole thing together is, in fact, delicious, even with the missing sugar.

It has that rare quality of pleasing those who enjoy pumpkin desserts (a subset of the population whom I do not understand, though I love some of them dearly) and those who couldn’t care less about pumpkin spice season (ahem, yours truly).

For that reason, it seems like one of those desserts a person could take to a Thanksgiving gathering to rave reviews. In fact, I might take it to my next extended family gathering, especially if I can track down some gluten-free cake mix.

PUMPKIN LAYER DESSERT

Ingredients
Layer 1:
1 can pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 can evaporated milk
4 eggs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 cup sugar (this is optional. Evidently. I will probably cut it back to about 1/2 cup next time.)

Layer 2:
Yellow cake mix
1 cup (that’s 2 sticks) butter, melted

Layer 3:
1 (8 ounce) brick cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 (8 ounce) carton whipped topping, thawed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
■ Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Oil a 9-by-13-inch baking pan. Melt butter in a mug or bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar and seasonings. Pour into bottom of prepared pan.
■ Sprinkle cake mix evenly over pumpkin layer. Do not mix. Pour over melted butter. Do not mix. Place pan into oven and bake for 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven. You can be done at this point, but if you like to live dangerously, don’t stop yet.
■ Let dessert cool completely. In a mixing bowl, mix together cream cheese, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Fold in whipped topping. Spread evenly over top of dessert.

Amelia Plair is a mom and high school teacher in Starkville. Email reaches her at [email protected].

Amelia Plair is a Starkville resident who writes occasional food columns.