Pumpkin Cakes

Yes indeed, I'm still on a fall kick.  What flavor says fall better than pumpkin?  Especially pumpkin and cream cheese frosting, yum!  I thought it would be fun to make a pumpkin cake that looked...like a pumpkin...or 3 pumpkins to be exact.

Let me start by telling you about recipes. 

Peanut Butter Frosting

This peanut butter frosting is a spin on the standard buttercream that I use.  The flavor is light and delicious.  It is a great compliment for chocolate cake. 

Peanut Butter Frosting

1 3/4 cups vegetable shortening
1/3 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup powdered coffee creamer
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
2/3 cups sour cream
2 lbs. powdered sugar

Mix together the first 5 ingredients until smooth.  Gradually add the powdered sugar.

Click here for the printable recipe.

--Frostine

Chocolate Oak Leaves and Peanut Butter Frosting

Have I told y'all that I love fall?  Especially the leaves.  There is something magical about all the rich, earthy colors.  As a tribute to fall I made these chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and chocolate oak leaves.

Chocolate Roses

Flowers are a timeless cake decoration. I don't know who came up with the idea of putting flowers on a cake, but aren't you glad they did? Flowers and dessert are a great combination. In this post I'll show you how to make chocolate roses. And unlike gum past flowers, these will never be left un-eaten. All you need is modeling chocolate(I'll be using dark modeling chocolate), and clean hands.

Modeling Chocolate

How many of you loved to play with play dough as a kid?  I'm serious.  I loved the stuff.  I could spend hours sculpting little figures and such.  I never really grew out of it.  I worked with ceramic clay in college.  Now I've found a way to combine my love for sculpting with my love for baking. 

I hear you out there in cyberspace, "You can sculpt with fondant and gum paste.", and you're right.  Gum paste and fondant are great for sculpting too.  I love this modeling chocolate for three big reasons.  The first is quite obvious...it's chocolate!  Who can argue with that?  The second reason is how easy it is to make. I'll show you.  The third reason is that it is stiff enough to make things like mortar board hats for graduation and delicate enough to make flowers. 

Let me show you how easy it is to make.  You couldn't ask for a simpler list of ingredients.  It only takes chocolate and corn syrup.

That's right, chocolate and corn syrup.  I didn't believe it the first time I heard it either.

Experimentation

Does that sound scary...experimentation?  It is definitely messy.  I decided to try making a checkerboard cake like my sister made, but without the pan set.

You're probably wondering why I'm trying to make a cake like this without the proper tools.  There's two reasons.  The first is that I don't want to spend the money....yes, I'm frugal that way.  I was going to say cheap, but frugal sounds nicer.  The second is that I don't have storage space in my cabinets for more pans.