The Freshman Cook: Pumpkin Patch Spice Cake!

One of my favorite things about the fall are all the colors and smells. The browns and oranges, yellows and reds coupled with the most aromatic, deep, earthy aromas, of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.  So rich and real;  you can almost taste them. Which is how I ended up baking a spice cake. The pumpkin patch top came from the fact that they are just plain, old fun!

Pumpkin Patch Spice Cake

•  1 box Duncan Hines Spice Cake Mix
• 1 package (3.4 oz) Vanilla instant Pudding Mix
• 1 cup canned Pumpkin
• 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil
• 1/2 cup Water
• 3 large Eggs
• 1 teaspoon ground Cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Ginger
• 8 tablespoons Butter, softened
• 3 3/4 cups Confectioner’s Sugar
• 3-4 tablespoons Milk
• 2 teaspoons pure Vanilla Extract
• Americolor Brown
• Americolor Leaf Green
• 12-15 Biscoff Cookies
• Pumpkin Candy

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the cake mix, pudding mix, pumpkin,

vegetable oil, water, eggs, cinnamon and ginger

 in your mixing bowl.

Mix on low for 1 minute, scrape your bowl, 

and then mix on high for 2 minutes.

Pour mix into 10″ X 13″ pan that has been 

greased and floured.

Bake for 30-35 minutes.

Let cake cool completely.

Make your buttercream by whipping the butter. 

Add the confectioners sugar and mix on low until the sugar

is well incorporated into the butter. You don’t want to be 

covered in powdered sugar!

Not that I would know about that. 🙂

 Add the milk and the vanilla.  Mix well.

Remove 1 cup of the buttercream, and set aside.

This will be for your vines and leaves.

Add a very small amount of brown color to

 the rest of the buttercream, so it is basically tan.

Mix well.

Frost your cake with the tan frosting.

Place your  biscoff in a plastic bag, and roll it in to 

crumbs with a rolling pin.

Cover the top and the sides of 

your cake with the crushed biscoff..

Here’s a tip: If your frosting dries before you get 

the crushed cookies on, spritz the frosting very lightly

with a water bottle, and the cookies will adhere to the frosting.

Place your pumpkin candy in rows, haphazardly like,

so it resembles a pumpkin patch.

Take your 1 cup of buttercream that you set aside earlier,

and color it with the leaf green.

Using a  #2 Wilton tip, make connecting lines of green

frosting to resemble vines.You really can’t make a mistake here.

Vines go everywhere and no where!

Do this to each row of pumpkins.

Go through and include some leaves. 

I used a Wilton tip # 352.

Simple to use, and they always come out great. 

I attached some to the top of the pumpkins, some to 

look as if they are coming from beneath the pumpkins, 

and some from the vines.

You can put leaves pretty much anywhere you want.

Now all you have to do is pick out your pumpkins!

Have fun!

Thanks for joining me today! We are having a great time at the following parties:

Full Plate Thursday

Hope to see you there!