Pumpkin Shaped Cake

by Rebecca Beebe
(Kitchener, Ontario Canada)

I made this pumpkin shaped cake for a Halloween dance we had at the camping grounds. The cake is just a white and chocolate with plain buttercream icing.


To make the cake you need:

2 bundt pans (or just one used twice)
Cake mix store-bought or homemade (you'll need enough to fill the bundt pans twice one for the bottom of the pumpkin and one for the top)
Icing of your choice
Fondant tinted orange and a little tinted green for the stump
Black food color (black gel works the best but whatever you have will do)
Vodka or real lemon extract (to dilute the black for the eyes and nose and bug and worm shaped candy and gummies to fill the mouth)
Cake board sturdy enough to hold the cake (it's pretty heavy)

First bake the cakes and let them cool. Make your icing

Fill and ice the first cake with the widest part of the bundt cake up. Then place the second cake on top with the widest part facing down so that it's like a round shape. Ice the whole cake. I then rolled out some plain white fondant like logs. I used them to make the bumps in the pumpkin.

Tint your fondant to the orange color you want. Roll it out and put on the pumpkin. Play with the curves and dumps until you're happy with it. But don't play too much - you don't want to rip the fondant. Roll the green fondant into a log to make the stump on the top of the pumpkin shaped cake. Put a dowel rod in the bottom of the stump

Fill the whole of the bundt cake with Styrofoam or rice crispy treats so that you have something to stick the dowel rod in. That way it doesn't fall in the middle and rip the orange fondant.

Put some black food color in a small container and add some vodka or lemon extract and paint the eyes and nose you want. Be creative: it can be as scary or goofy as you want.

Note: Lemon extract has a higher alcohol percentage then vodka and it will dry faster. It's great to use if you can find it but if you cant just use regular vodka.

Then you need to cut a whole at the bottom of the cake for the mouth. Use your judgment on how big you want the opening to be. Then place all the gummies and candy in, on, and around the cake.

If you like, you can make the chocolate mice one the cake. They taste great and the a cute addition to the cake.

The recipe is:

4 (1 ounce) squares semi-sweet chocolate
1/3 cup sour cream
1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
1/3 cup chocolate cookie crumbs
1/3 cup confectioners' sugar
24 silver Dragees decorating candy
1/4 cup sliced almonds
12 (2 inch) pieces long red vine licorice

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate, and combine with sour cream. Stir in 1 cup chocolate cookie crumbs. Cover and refrigerate until firm.

2. Roll by level tablespoonfuls into balls. Mold to a slight point at one end (the nose).

3. Roll dough in confectioners sugar (for white mice), and in chocolate cookie crumbs (for dark mice). On each mouse, place Dragees in appropriate spot for eyes, almond slices for ears, and a licorice string for the tail.

4.Refrigerate for at least two hours until firm.