For November’s featured Member-Owner Tried & True Recipe, we’re absolutely delighted to share the ingredients and instructions for Daniel Flynn’s scrumptious Layered Pumpkin Cake with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting.

Many of you may already know Daniel Flynn (MO#1302) and his husband Najee Walker (MO#1394) for their leadership of Schenectady Residents for Responsible Development and their capacity to convene and host respectful civic dialogue about controversial community topics (as featured in August 2026 by the Daily Gazette).

Or perhaps you know him for his service on the Schenectady City School District School Board. 

Trained as a historian, Daniel is always one to contextualize current events within a longer view of time and the challenges, characters, and choices that shape the present. All of these layers reflect his love for democracy, education, and community life.  But did you know he is also a passionate baker?  

Let’s hear a bit more from Daniel in his own words – about his love for baking, and this month’s Tried & True Recipe.
 

Daniel Flynn on The Joy of Cake Baking

"I love baking cakes because baking is a form of alchemy. It is a scientific art form. Cakes are festive, decorative, and edible expressions of love, joy, and human connection. Baking cakes has become my way of expressing my love for other people in an elevated sense, even if it does thicken the bones, but especially because it thickens the bones of the people I care about. I bake so that I may enjoy those special moments that only a homemade cake can bring. The moment of delight when the first bite of cake is eaten, the period of collective glee when you share the cake with the people you love on a special occasion, and the moment of satisfaction when one feels completely sated and relaxed from enjoying a sweet treat. Suffer no guilt when you enjoy a piece of cake. Savor only the sweet memories of sharing an alchemical delight with the ones you love."
 

The Layered History of this
Decadent Layered Pumpkin Cake

"I hereby declare pumpkin spice the most delicious expression of a very complex history.

Consider the pumpkin: one of the Three Sisters, alongside corn and beans. For centuries, these companion crops have sustained Haudenosaunee communities in the ancestral Mohawk lands of this region. Grown together, they offer a lesson in reciprocity and interdependence: corn provides a structure for beans to climb, beans nourish the soil, and squash spreads across the ground, holding moisture and keeping weeds at bay. This nourishing agricultural tradition reflects values also central to Haudenosaunee governance under the Great Law of Peace: that a thriving community depends on mutual care, collective responsibility, and the contributions of many over generations.

And then there's the spice. Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves: fragrant reminders of ancient trade routes, colonial conquest, the Dutch East India Company, and the rise of global capitalism. Spices have inspired curiosity and exchange, but also extraction, monopoly, and empire.

And let's not forget sugar. That familiar sweetness carries its own difficult history of colonial plantations, enslaved labor, and global commerce. Even our sweetest pleasures can have complicated origins.

So here we are in Schenectady, where pumpkin and spice meet.

Perhaps there's something worth contemplating in this combination. The pumpkin carries the legacy of Indigenous foodways and the agricultural abundance of this region. The spices and sugar carry histories of global exchange and exploitation. All these histories find their way into the mixing bowl, along with the flour, eggs, and butter.

And what better way to hold all that complexity than with cake?

Perhaps eating a many layered pumpkin cake can expand our capacity to hold tension without breaking. To acknowledge that things can be delicious and complicated at the same time. That nourishment and contradiction can occupy the same bite. That we don't have to resolve every tension before we gather around the table.

A good cake brings together many different ingredients, each contributing something essential. Some provide structure, some sweetness, some lift, some spice. Together, they make something none could become on their own.

May we, too, cultivate the capacity to hold complexity, delight in our differences, and make something delicious together. And may there always be room at the table for everyone.

Ingredients

Pumpkin Cake

• 3 cups (360g) all-purpose flour

• 3 tsp baking powder

• 1.5 tsp baking soda

• 1.5 tsp salt

• 2 Tbsp Penzey’s Cake Spice (or 3 tsp ground cinnamon, 1.5 tsp ground allspice, 1.5 tsp ground nutmeg, and 1 tsp ground ginger)

• 1.5 cups (300g) brown sugar, light or dark

• ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar

• 1.5 cups (360ml) vegetable oil

• 6 large eggs, room temperature

• 22.5 oz (637.5g) canned pumpkin puree

• 3 tsp vanilla extract

Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

• 1.5 cups (340g) butter (3 sticks)

• 16 oz (453g) full-fat brick-style cream cheese (not the spread), room temperature

• 6-8 cups powdered sugar (720g-920g), to taste

• 3 tsp vanilla extract

• Pinch of salt, to taste

Instructions

Make The Cake

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF (177ºC). Prepare three 8-inch cake pans by spraying the sides with baking spray and lining the bottoms with parchment paper. Alternatively, you can butter and flour the pans.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and the ground spices. Set aside.

3. In a separate large bowl, add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, oil, eggs, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract. Whisk together until uniform, then add the flour mixture and whisk until smooth.

4. Pour the batter evenly between the prepared cake pans and bake for 32-36 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean or with just a few moist crumbs. Rotate the cakes halfway through baking to ensure even cooking. Cool the cakes in the pan for ten minutes before removing and transferring to a wire rack to cool completely to room temperature.

5. If you intend to finish the cake another day, wrap the cakes in two layers of plastic wrap, return the cakes to the cleaned pans, and stack them in the freezer. The cakes will keep for up to two months when they are frozen. When you are ready to assemble them with frosting, remove the cakes from the freezer and assemble them right away. You do not need to wait for them to come to room temperature except for when you intend to eat the cake. Assembling the cakes when frozen is actually much easier than when the cake is fresh and at room temperature. Freezing the cakes also traps moisture inside the cakes so they do not dry out. 

Make The Frosting

1. Prepare the brown butter by adding the butter into a large frying pan and cook over medium heat until the butter melts, stirring occasionally. The butter should fully melt within 2 minutes. Continue cooking for another 2-3 minutes while stirring constantly. The melted butter will start to foam on top as the water evaporates, it may also bubble and pop. Then, cook for 3-4 minutes more. The milk fats will sink to the bottom of the pan and will turn light brown in color and smell nutty. When the milk fats are fully browned, immediately remove the pan from the heat and transfer the melted butter to a heatproof bowl (glass or ceramic). If you burn the milk fats, the butter will taste bitter. Allow the butter to re-solidify for about 2 hours at room temperature or place it into the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. It should be completely room temperature and solidified (but easy to press a spatula into) before continuing on with the buttercream recipe.

2. When the brown butter has cooled to the ideal consistency, place it into the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or use a large bowl and hand mixer) and add the cream cheese. Mix on medium-high until fluffy and light in color, about 5 minutes, scraping down the bowl and paddle as needed.

3. Turn the mixer to low speed and add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down the bowl and paddle after mixing in each addition. Add the vanilla and salt and continue mixing on low speed until smooth and uniform.

Assemble The Cake

1. Before you assemble the cake, make sure the cream cheese frosting is stable enough for assembly. If the frosting is not firm enough to support the cake layers, refrigerate the frosting for 15-20 minutes to stiffen it up. If you froze your cakes, the chilled cakes will help keep the frosting stable as you assemble the cake.

2. Level the cake layers to your desired height. Add a swipe of cream cheese frosting onto a cardboard cake round and place one of the cake layers on top. Place onto a turntable with a non-slip pad underneath. Add cream cheese frosting on top of the cake layer and smooth it down until it is about ½ inch tall, then place the next cake layer on top and repeat. When you reach the final cake layer, place it upside down so that the bottom of the layer is the top of the cake. Then, crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of cream cheese frosting and refrigerate the cake for 15-20 minutes to let the crumb coat firm up. Add the remaining frosting to the cake until there is none left. Smooth the frosting until it is uniform.

Notes

1. The finished cake will last for 4-5 days in the refrigerator.

2. Before serving, bring the cake to room temperature. This should take one hour. 

3. Return the cake to the refrigerator after 2-3 hours at room temperature. This is necessary to prevent spoiling.

4. Brown butter is next-level when it comes to buttercream frosting. It is worth the hassle!