When the autumn time of the year rolls around, it seems as if most people tend to focus on things that are pumpkin flavored. For most people, the pumpkin flavoring has more to do with nostalgia and something that is delicious during the autumn rather than something they would consume all year round. After all, pumpkins tend to be synonymous with autumn and that is also true of Halloween. If you want to take your pumpkin spice to the next level, you have got to check out this cake.
Anybody can make a pumpkin cake but if you want to make one that is not only delicious, it looks authentic, this is the recipe for you. You can plan on spending a little bit of extra time on it but when you see the end result, you are going to realize that it will be well worth the effort. It is even something you can enlist the help of the children for, so they can enjoy it as well.
Pumpkins have been used during autumn because they were one of the largest seasonal crops but originally, they were not used for jack-o’-lanterns. At first, people tended to use turnips, but eventually they started using pumpkins.
Baking:
19.5 lbs Yo’s Pumpkin Spice Cake (3 recipes)
Icing:
Simple Syrup
Dark Chocolate Ganache – made with 2 lb semi sweet chocolate and 2 lb whipping cream
Italian Meringue Buttercream
Covering:
5 lbs White Fondant
Chefmaster Sunset Orange Gel Colour
Wilton Moss Green icing Color
Icing Sugar
Decorating:
1/2 lb Gum Paste
Wilton Moss Green Icing Color
Wilton Lemon Yellow Icing Color
Matte Ivory Colour Dust
Wilton Goldenrod Color Dust
Wilton Ivory Icing Color
Clear Food Grade Alcohol
Ground Ginger
Ground Cloves
1. Prepare your Pumpkin Spice Cake batter, and divide among pans like so:
3 ¼ lb per 10” round
4 ½ lb per 12” round
Bake at 350 degrees for or until a toothpick comes out clean. 10″ round cakes should take approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes, and 12″ round cakes should take approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes. Move to a wire rack and allow to cool completely in their pans. Once fully cool, cover tightly in plastic wrap and move to fridge in their pans.
2. Preparing the ganache a day before decorating allows it to firm up and become a spreadable texture. Once complete, cover in plastic wrap at refrigerate. Prepare your Italian meringue buttercream, again covering bowl in plastic wrap for overnight storage in fridge.
3. Prepare your simple syrup and set aside.
4. The next day, remove your cakes from their pans and level them with a ruler and serrated knife. Reserve the humps, and level them as best you can with a serrated knife as well. Anytime I can use my humps, I will! Especially for cakes where the shapes are more forgiving.
5. Give all of your cakes a light simple syrup shower, allowing simple syrup to fully soak in before proceeding with decoration. This will allow your cakes to stay fresh and moist during the lengthy decorating process.
6. Begin to stack your pumpkin spice cakes, spreading a layer of ganache between each layer using a small icing spatula. Starting from the bottom, and stacking all the way to the top your cakes should be in this order: 10” round cake, 12” round cake, 12” round cake” 10” round cake.
7. Take your four cake humps and arrange them into one more 10” circular layer. Add this final layer to the top of your pumpkin spice cake stack with another layer of ganache.
8. Chill your cake for 20 minutes to let the ganache set. This will help the structural integrity while carving.
9. To carve your cake into a pumpkin shape, mark out the top into into 8 equal pie slices. Then carve your pumpkin ⅛ of the cake at a time, going little by little. Take your time. You can always carve more cake off, but you can’t put it back on. I recommend having a pumpkin friend around as a model!
10. Carve out a little valley in the top center of your pumpkin. This is where the pumpkin naturally dips in, and where your stem will go.
11. Crumb coat your entire pumpkin with a small offset spatula, and move to the fridge for a 20 minute chill.
12. Then remove from fridge to ice the pumpkin with another layer of buttercream. Return to fridge for a final chill of approximately 20 minutes. Once buttercream is firm and set, smooth out any ridges with your slightly wet fingertips, or add a touch more buttercream if you have any large, noticeable ridges.
13. Knead your white fondant with Chefmaster Orange until full incorporated. I found the orange tone to be a little bit too vibrant, so I mellowed it out with just a touch of Wilton Moss Green.
14. Measure your pumpkin now that it’s carved. Roll your fondant out so that it’s ¼ inch thick and large enough to cover the entire pumpkin. I’m rolling out my fondant a bit thicker than usual so that I can make pumpkin grooves in the fondant.
15. Pick up your fondant. Quickly and carefully drape it over your pumpkin. It’s a lot of weight, so you really need to move swiftly to avoid tears. After it’s on your pumpkin, begin to smooth it with your hands. There will be air stuck in your stem dip at the top, so use a pin to release the air and smooth the fondant into the dip. Continue to smooth all the way around, tucking fondant under the cake. Trim away excess with a sharp paring knife.
16. If you have a lot of creasing underneath your pumpkin, you can make some fondant paste out of your remaining orange fondant blended with a bit of water, and patch it where needed.
17. You want your fondant to have a little bit of give for this step, but not too much. So if you start, and find that your fondant is too warm (i.e. is too easy to sculpt), allow it to sit and set for a little bit longer. Use your sculpting tools to create ridges down the pumpkin, being very careful to not make them perfect, but also not too crooked. You know, like a pumpkin! Also ensure that you’re making indents of varying depths so that they don’t look too uniform.
18. Take your gum paste, and dye it with a little bit of both Wilton Moss Green and Lemon Yellow. Roll it into a thick tube. Use the same sculpting tools as you used to make the grooves, and dig them into the gum paste much deeper than you did the pumpkin. We want this stem to be gnarly. Trim the base to resemble a star with many points. This will go where the stem meets the pumpkin. Cut the top on a diagonal so that it looks as if it’s been cut from the vine. Leave this a little rough.
19. Press a lollipop stick through the stem so that it could stand upright. Once upright, use Wilton Moss Green diluted with a bit of alcohol to paint the stem. Use a paper towel to wipe away the excess.
20. Take a paring knife and start to scrape downward, scraping off the paint to resemble little scratches and knicks. Use a brand new toothbrush to give the stem some more texture and remove paint. Use Wilton Tip #233 (or another grass tip you might have handy) to make the top of the stem look rough and ripped.
21. Use a bit of Ivory Color Dust to dry dust colour on the top of the stem. Then use Goldenrod Color Dust to dry dust the entire stem.
22. Dilute your Wilton Ivory Icing Color with a bit of clear food grade alcohol. Paint this all over your pumpkin to warm up the orange, and give it a more natural look. Allow to dry.
23. Add the stem to your pumpkin by pressing it into the valley at the top of your cake. Again use your paring knife to add little nicks and scratches where it meets the pumpkin.
24. Mix some ground ginger and ground cloves together. Brush it onto your pumpkin skin in patches. These are the same spices that are in my pumpkin spice cake batter, so you should already have them on hand. We want this pumpkin to look like it’s straight from the patch!