Oh the wonderful ups and downs of fall weather! I hope you all have enjoyed your week! We have had snow, rain, and a lot of clouds this week. It gave me plenty of time inside for crafting, which I will share with you soon. Our school week was pretty busy since we decided not to do school on Halloween. My daughter had a party at the public school, trick or treating at my old place of work, and then trunk or treating, and ending the day with trick or treating up at Great Grandma’s house. It was a very busy day, but oh so much fun! Having to make up a day of school this week was totally worth it!

Now before you question the public school party, let me explain. Part of my way of making sure my daughter gets out of the house and socializes is by taking her to the public school two times per week for one extracurricular class. This year she is taking STEAM class, and she absolutely loves it! STEAM stands for science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. This is a very hands on class, which is great for her after a morning of school work. By being a part of the school for just one class, she gets the opportunity to enjoy any class parties that the teacher might put on. It is a really great way for her to get to know other kids in the area. Plus, it doesn’t cost anything to me, other than a 9 minute drive there and back.

Pumpkin Puree

My absolute favorite thing to do during the fall season is bake. Every year after we pick our pumpkins at the pumpkin patch, I turn one of them into pumpkin puree. You are more than welcome to use the canned pumpkin puree, but I have come to love the taste of fresh pumpkin puree.

Making pumpkin puree is a little bit of work, but it is totally worth it. Depending on the size of your pumpkin, it could last you the entire season. All you need to do is gut the pumpkin, cut it into 4 – 6 slices, and then set them on baking trays. Put them in the oven and bake them at 350 for 45 minutes or until a fork can easily go through it. Let it cool, and then start peeling the skin off of each slice. Put smaller chunks of the pumpkin into a blender with a little bit of water. Once it is completely blended, you can put it in a bowl in the refrigerator for a few days. I always make so much, so I go ahead and scoop the puree into ice cube trays to freeze. I like to use the stackable ice cube trays, since I don’t have very much space in my freezer. Once it is frozen, you can put them into a freezer bag with the date you made it on it. This will last you through the season!

A Birthday Cake for my Mother-in-law!

I have yet to create my own recipe, so I tend to try out Pinterest recipes for everything. I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to family events. Some of my favorite goodies have come from Pinterest recipes. I only have one tip, if you want to try out Pinterest recipes. Make sure you read all the comments at the end of the post before you make it! This will save you on almost any issues you might have with the recipe. The recipe that I am sharing with you today, had absolutely no issues, and it was incredibly delicious!!!

The recipe I used for my Mother-in-law’s cake was created by My Cake School and can be found at https://pin.it/5UlFqHc. The ingredients show that you need a 15 oz. can of pumpkin puree. If you end up using your own pumpkin puree, this will be just under 2 cups. I had a little bit too much, and ended up making it exactly 2 cups for this recipe. This still turned out great! I have never made a cake batter like this before. Normally you start with butter, then the wet ingredients, and then finish off by adding in the dry ingredients. This recipe is a a reverse creaming method, which means it starts with the dry ingredients. Then you add in the butter and then finish with the wet ingredients. It worked out great, and was very moist when it was done baking. When your layers have cooled completely, you can wrap them with plastic wrap and refrigerate them. Or you can put them in the freezer if you don’t plan on using them in the next day or so.

The frosting for this recipe is absolutely delicious! My children and husband kept stealing scraps of cake and frosting the entire time I was making it. It is a cream cheese buttercream frosting full of all the best fall spices. I can say that when I decide to make this cake again, I will probably make a little bit extra frosting. It almost wasn’t enough to cover the cake and decorate it.

Stack the Cake

For family events, I generally just get a cardboard cake round, and stack my cake on it. It does not need to be fancy. Before you stack your layers, make sure you cut the tops off, so they are flat! I then put the cardboard round on my cake turn table, put a little bit of frosting on it, and then add the first layer. You can use a piping bag of frosting for the layers and covering the cake, but I have found that it is easier to just use an offset spatula. I just scoop frosting onto the layer, and then smooth it out with the spatula. Add the next layer, and repeat the layer of frosting. On the top layer, I like to flip the layer over so that the bottom faces up, because it gives you sharp edges and a very flat surface.

To cover the cake, scoop quite a bit of frosting onto the top of the cake. Then smooth the top with the spatula, and then work it down the sides of the cake. Wherever there are spots missing frosting, go ahead and add some. This is the crumb coat, which seals in all those cake crumbs. Once this coat is done, set it in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes.

Cake Texture

So the finish of this cake was kind of just an idea in the moment. If you don’t like having to smooth out the sides of the cake, this technique is for you! I added frosting to the tops and sides to cover that crumb coat. Then I took my offset spatula from the base of the cake to the top to make it look like smooth pieces of bark. It is very simple, and kind of fun! Originally I was just going to run my spatula all the the way around the cake, to make almost a horizontal stripe look. I love this technique too. This bark idea just came to me as I was smoothing the frosting out. I love the little fall inspired tree stump. I put it in the refrigerator, until I was ready for the next step.

Piping Pumpkins

For the pumpkin details on the top of the cake, I mixed some orange and brown food dye into some of my frosting. I then scooped it all into a piping bag with a star tip at the end. It is always best to test out what you want to do on a plate before you try it on the cake. I noticed that my frosting was too soft to show the details of the star tip, so I put the piping bag of frosting in the refrigerator for 5 minutes. When I tried it again, it worked so much better! To get the pumpkin look, you just hold your piping tip in one spot and apply pressure until your pumpkin is the size you want it. That is it! So very simple!

Then you can mix up a little bit of brown frosting and use a small writing tip (Wilton 5) to add the stems to the top of each pumpkin. If you do this, and your stems are not sticking straight up, go ahead and put the piping bag of frosting into the refrigerator for a few minutes. It will solve this problem.

To finish off the pumpkins and fill in all the open spaces, I used my leaf tip (Wilton 67) and some green frosting to add some leaves. My leaf tip made too large of leaves to add them to the top of the pumpkins, so I focused on putting them at the base of the pumpkins. It made it look like all the vines you see the pumpkins sitting in.

Happy Birthday

This is the very first cake that I have ever tried to write on, so it most definitely is not perfect. I just found a picture of writing online that I liked, and went with it. I used the same bag of brown frosting and small tip for the stems to do this. I did test the “H” on a plate just to make sure the frosting was soft enough to write with. I ran out of room on the “Birthday”, but I think it turned out alright! I will definitely be working on my writing more before the next cake I do.

Gold Bark

The last thing that I decided to do, was just a fun idea that I think turned out pretty! I mixed some gold luster dust with vanilla extract, and used my Wilton paint brush to paint along the edges of the bark. I just followed all the visible edges that my spatula left behind. Then I painted the top edge as well. The vanilla extract is brown in color, so my gold looks more like a copper. If you used a coconut extract or any clear extract, it would probably turn out more gold. The copper was pretty still since it went so well with the fall colors.

As always, make it your own! This is just what I did. I hope some of these ideas help when you decide to make your own cake. If you are not for decorating your cake, you should at least make a simple cake from this recipe, because it really is very good. My daughter normally helps me with mixing everything up, but she was sick at the time. It is always fun to get her involved. There is so much math in baking, so make sure you try to get your kids involved!

Generally you think of baking as a relaxing thing. It is so relaxing that, I tend to start thinking about everything going on my life. Put some music on, and get your kids baking with you, because you shouldn’t be worrying about life while baking. This should be a fun time! It doesn’t always turn out the way you want it to, but it still is an enjoyable memory to be made. God will take care of your worries. All you need to do is give them to him, and trust that He has you taken care of. I hope you have a wonderful week!

“Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you.” 1 Peter 5:7 NLT