Pumpkin Peacan Cake with Salted Caramel Glaze

This recipe does involve some planning/doing ahead, so it can't just be scrambled together at the last possible moment (unless, of course, you have made and not opened a can of condensed milk caramel and left it sitting in the cupboard in case you felt like baking).  But pumpkin baked goods are worth planning ahead for, really.

For the cake:
2 sticks butter
1/2 to 1 cup chopped pecans
1 1/2 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling!) 
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 part each ground ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg
1/2 part cyan pepper
1-2 tsp vanilla extract
dash of salt
3 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tbl baking powder

Turn your oven on to 350 and get out a 9 x 14 cake pan (this makes a thin cake, you could use a smaller dish and get a taller cake if you like, baking time may vary).  Toast your pecans in a small sautee pan for a few mins, you will be able to smell when they are done. Add your butter and let it melt, and continue cooking butter and nuts until your butter starts to brown (this will give the cake a richer flavor).  Put your pumpkin puree in and cook for another 3 mins or so.  Add both sugars to the butter/nut mixture and stir, turning off the heat once they have melted in.  Put in vanilla and add spices a bit at a time, tasting as you go.  You want this mixture to be a bit over-spiced at this point because adding the flour will tone it down.

Let cool for a few mins then add in your eggs, one at a time, stirring as you go.  Once eggs are incorporated into sugar/butter/pumpkin mixture, get out a mixing bowl for your dry ingredients.  Whisk together your flour, baking powder, and salt.  Then pour in your wet ingredient mixture, stirring as you do.  Get everything incorporated but do not over mix.  Pour into the pan.

Bake for 25 mins or so for the larger/thinner cake, probably more if you are doing a smaller/taller cake. Let cool slightly before glazing.

for the glaze:
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1/2  cup of buttermilk
2-3 tbl salt

Boil the unopened can of condensed milk in a great big pot (seriously, you don't want it to be uncovered at any point in the boiling process, just us a big pot so you don't have to remember to replace water so often) for 3-4 hours.  Carefully remove and leave sitting in a cool place for at least a day before you open it to be safe. You can make a few cans of this at a time and keep them in the cupboard unopened pretty much indefinitely.  This will give you a can of very thick caramel. When it is time to glaze your cake, spoon the can into a baggie (because you do not want this mess sticking to a bowl) add the buttermilk and salt, close the bag and smoosh it around until it is well mixed.  (This cake would probably also taste good if you used bourbon as well, now that I think of it.)  Just open the baggie at the corner and pour your caramel glaze out onto your cake.