Pumpkin Cake

Making cakes is a fun hobby and a way to recognize people on special occasions. When I was working, I would make a monthly birthday cake to recognize birthdays and work anniversaries. Of course, anyone could do a plain ole cake. I wanted to make the cakes fun. One of those cakes was a Jack-o-latern which actually lit up (thanks to Papa's ingenuity). It was always fun when I could make employees look twice to figure out if it was a cake or not.

We started with a dollar store plastic pumpkin and cut it in half leaving only the front half and the circular bottom, which would be used to attach it the wood platform. Using a sharp, small knife, we carved the eyes, nose and mouth.

With the shell started, Papa took over and mounted the pumpkin to a wood platform. A small hole was cut in the circular bottom of the pumpkin and slipped over a pipe in the center of the platform. The pipe (small PVC pipe) did a couple things: (1) it provided a conduit for the wires of the battery-operated lights and (2) provided stability for the pumpkin.

Next, Papa cut a thin wood partition, painted it orange, drilled evenly-spaced holes to insert each individual light on the string. Then he made a partition from a piece of round cake cardboard plate and used it to cover the exposed wires and separate the front and back of the pumpkin.

With the spooky framework in place, it was time for the cake. I baked three 9-inch round cakes (recipe below). Each cake was cut in half to form a semi-circle. The cakes were layered, three layers on the bottom level, then two layers on the top level, with a cake cardboard foundation between and 1/4" wood dowel rods cut to length to support upper level. The layers were stacked behind the pumpkin front.  The remaining cake was used to fill-in open spots between the pumpkin front and cake layers.

Once in place, the cake layers were carefully carved using a serrated knife to form the shape of the pumpkin. The final step of assembly was to cover the cake in frosting and then fondant.

To decorate, a dowel rod was gently pressed onto the outer fondant to replicate the grooved, vertical lines of the pumpkin. Next, using paste food coloring thinned with vodka, the outside of the pumpkin was painted. Brown shading and highlights were added by dabbing on the color with a paper towel.

Finally, a stem was made by mixing together cake trimmed off during the carving with fondant and frosting until a appropriate looking stem was formed. It, too, was painted with paste food coloring thinned with vodka. The stem was adhered to the cake with frosting.

I made this cake almost five years ago, but we held onto the pumpkin framework "just in case." I might have to mentally gear-up for a second try at this pumpkin cake for Halloween.

Recipe
The recipe is from Betty Crocker's website: Pumpkin Spice Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.

I've made this recipe several times since then, especially in cupcake form. It's fun to add a 1/2 cup of mini-chocolate chips to half the batter to create a special treat for the chocolate lovers in the bunch (there are always chocolate lovers in the group).  With cupcakes, sprinkle a few mini-chocolate chips atop the piped cream cheese frosting to indicate which cupcakes are the chocolate surprise inside.

Another Variation

The pumpkin cake was a hit, so we used the wood platform with stability pipe to create another holiday stacked cake. This time it was for St. Patrick's Day.

A few days before the cake was baked, the fondant brim of the hat was made. This was a simple, large circular piece of fondant, and I used a pie crust tool to feather the edge of the hat. The fondant foundation was left to dry and harden for a couple days. At that same time, shamrocks were made, one for each birthday and work anniversary. These, too, were left to dry and harden.

The cake was comprised of six 9-inch round cakes with each layer a different color of the rainbow, appropriate for St. Patrick's Day. Every two layers were supported by a cardboard cake platform and wood dowel rods for stability.

Once the six layers of cake were stacked, they were carved into the shape of a hat, covered in frosting and fondant. Like with the pumpkin cake, paste food coloring was thinned with vodka and applied to create the green hat.

The trim on the hat was Wilton's edible black "paper" and the gold buckle was piped on with buttercream frosting. Finally the shamrocks, which were also painted with food coloring, had the names piped onto them with buttercream frosting and the frosting served as the  "glue" to attach them on the finished cake.