Buttermilk Pumpkin Spice Cake

Searching for a recipe to use up some buttermilk (from the lemon bundt cake) and some pumpkin (had frozen and then thawed it. didn't want to refreeze), I found a Buttermilk Pumpkin Spice Cake recipe in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. My parents got me this book years ago and it's favorite "old standby" recipe source. It's got a solid recipe for just about every American standard. Once, I found the edition from the year I was born and it was a trip. Hello, '70s earth tones!

Anyway, the spice cake... perfectly good. But what was interesting was the frosting, a browned butter and powdered sugar mixture. My friend Will brought over a block of creme fraiche caramel he had made and we mixed it right into the frosting. You can see pictures of us melting and blending the caramel below. Man, did that change everything. Of course, all of the comments I got from people who tried the cake were about the frosting. Oh, was there cake in there too?