Flowering Pumpkin Cake

Grandpa's birthday always falls over the Thanksgiving holiday, so we don't always have a chance to celebrate him with a birthday cake because pumpkin pie is the focus. But this year he was starting a new decade, so the occasion clearly called for a special cake.

I've been wanting to make another 3D cake and have been intrigued by pumpkin-shaped cakes I've seen online with flowers on top.  I had to make one! 

Since many people are not fans of pumpkin cake, I decided to make a spice cake.  It would still fit the bill for a Fall flavor. I chose this recipe from the "If You Give a Blonde a Kitchen" website, mainly because it called for 6-inch pans.  I didn't want to make the cake too big, as we are a small family and there would also be apple pie.  This was my first time trying this recipe.

I was a bit nervous that the diced apples would be too crisp (it's happened before with apple pie), but they did bake up soft. The cake recipe calls for 30-35 minutes of baking time and I was surprised that my cakes took a few minute longer, which is unusual for my oven.  Thankfully the cake was baked just right and was not dry at all.

I ended up making 3 batches of frosting to decorate the cake!  I did have quite a large amount left over, so perhaps 2 batches would have been enough. I've used this buttercream recipe several times this year and really like it. The past few years I've been making Swiss Meringue Buttercream and it's undeniably so delicious and not as sweet. But this year I've reverted to American buttercream. It is frustrating to try to color SMB, you never know what color you'll get, blues look gray, etc. Besides with the amount of buttercream this cake called for, SMB would have been a nightmare!

To decorate the cake, I filled and stacked the cake layers. Before applying a crumb coat to the exterior I carved it into the a pumpkin-like shape. It helps to carve out a little bit under the cake, to give it a rounded look there as well. I gouged out an indentation in the middle for the stem to fit into.  I then went ahead and applied a crumb coat and chilled the cake. I was happy that a few months ago I bought a small bottle of orange food coloring at Hobby Lobby. It didn't take much food coloring to achieve a nice soft orange color! Next, I used a piping bag with a 1/2 inch tip and piped thick vertical lines of orange-tinted frosting from top to bottom. This step is where all the buttercream goes! But it's also what gives it the pumpkin shape. I piped additional lines where the bulging parts of the pumpkin would go to make it easier to show the grooves later. Then I chilled the cake again.

It took a long time to smooth out the buttercream that I had piped until it looked like a pumpkin. I kept having to return the cake to the fridge because this step really does need to be done with a cold cake.  I tried to use an acetate square, but that kept gouging the buttercream. Eventually I just used the back of a spoon and my hands. It helps to tuck the buttercream under the cake to preserve the roundness there.

For the stem, I had saved some cake scraps and I mixed those with brown buttercream until I got a consistency I could shape. I simply rolled it into a stem-like shape and put it to chill in the refrigerator.  I piped different flowers to adorn the top of the cake. Some looked like roses, some like sunflowers, and some just like flowers.  I have flower nails, but lately prefer to use an inverted wine glass.  It holds a bigger flower, I find.  I placed the stem in the indentation at the top and secured it with a toothpick, then applied the flowers to the cake and secured each one with a strand of spaghetti. Lastly I piped green leaves all around the flowers.  This step came out a bit messy, because I didn't want to disturb the flowers but there wasn't as much room for the piping tip in between the flowers. If doing again I'd take my time more and maybe apply a flower and pipe leaves around it before going on to the next flower.

When it came time to sing Happy Birthday I offered a choice of a number candle of a single simple candle. Grandpa didn't want to be reminded of that number, so he went for the latter.

The cake was delicious and was even better the next day and best 2 days later! Slicing into the cake revealed just how much frosting I had used, so we had to scrape some or most of it off.  

I hadn't made a cake in a long time and this Flowering Pumpkin Cake reminded me why I enjoy cake decorating so much!