I'm not a huge Halloween fan.
I know. I feel like I just uttered the words that might make the craft blogger police come knocking.
But honestly? I can totally live without the creepy, scary, gross you out stuff that's become popular. I don't like to be scared. Or grossed out. I like my food to look like, well, food - not witch fingers or worms. Is that so wrong?
But I still love Autumn. And one of the number one reasons is pumpkins. I looooooovvvveeee pumpkins! So much cuter and family friendly than a zombie brain don't you think? So if I show up at your party with a pumpkin cake instead of something looking like it had a bad run-in with the undead, I hope you'll still be my friend.
I made this cake for a Halloween party last year and it was deceptively easy. And also nutritious (it has 2 cups of pumpkin in the mix!). Here's how I did it:
Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Pumpkin Cake
Ingredients:
Cake
- 1 box chocolate cake mix
- 2 cups fresh pumpkin puree*
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1 tsp ground all spice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3 eggs (or however many called for on the box)
- 1 Tbsp organic canola oil
Decorations
- 3 green "Airheads" candys (for stem)
- 1 container prepared frosting, colored orange (Sur la Table is one place you can get Natural Decorating Colors if you're avoiding synthetic food dyes)
- A tall glass oven safe bowl to bake in (I used The Pampered Chef Classic Batter Bowl
)
- Pre-heat oven to 325°F. Prepare tall glass bowl for baking by greasing and flouring it. Set aside.
- Combine all cake ingredients using a hand mixer. Pour into prepared bowl.
- Bake for about 1 hour, 10 minutes or until a wooden skewer inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife around edge of bowl and turn out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least two hours or until completely cool to the touch
- Decorate cake by frosting with the orange frosting. Use up and down strokes to simulate pumpkin ridges with the frosting
- Make the stem and leaf by putting airheads in a glass bowl and microwaving in 5 second intervals until pliable. (Be careful not to heat it too hot or it may stick to and burn your skin!) Mold candy like playdough to make a stem and leaf shape. Lay over top of cake.
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