Many years ago my sister went to culinary school. During one section they had a baking contest. My sister make a pumpkin cake and it won the event.
Tomorrow is our next LifeGroup and it is the birthday of our host. So I made a pumpkin cake for the dessert of the night.
Yes, it got a bit messy in my kitchen when I made the frosting (which features cream cheese and confectioner’s sugar).
But the final cake looks fabulous. I took the time to let the cake cool all the way, then cut off the tops so that the cake would be even. Unfortunately, the final cake DOES have a slight angle to it, but it’s not horrible.
I then IM’d with my sister about ways to make it fancier, and she said I should try using a doily to spring brown jimmies over the top. She said she had never done it herself, but figured it might work.
I pulled out my doilies – yes, I happened to have some in the house. I got the pack of 9 for 25 cents at some clearing out sale at the dollar store last year.
I put it on the cake, silver side down (since it was kind of slick as opposed to the other side, which was straight up paper). I didn’t have jimmies, so I pulled out our cocoa. Yes, it’s bitter, but I know that so little would be going on the cake that it didn’t matter. I took out my small sifter and began using the sifter to gently tap cocoa through the doily holes.
The cake – she looks GOOD.
CootieGirl and CootieBoy have already given it their seal of approval (I frosted the two cake tops and let them have a slice). I can’t wait to take it to LifeGroup tomorrow – I know everyone will like it. I mean – look at the frosting! It GLISTENS!!
Lookin’ good! My mouth is watering. That is my all-time favorite cake.
To clarify – it wasn’t just a baking contest. It was a cake decorating contest – ala bakery quality decorating. Of course, the cake had to taste good, too. There were some lovely looking cakes in competition with mine, but the pumpkin cake is a sure fire winner in the taste department.
Looks great! What happened to the nutmeg idea?
The cake is SO flavorful – and perfectly spiced, that I was afraid if I used it on the frosting it would make the nutmeg stand out too much. The chocolate, however, since it is so sparse, is not even noticable because of the frosting and the pumpkin flavor.
It really IS a great cake – I’ll definitely be making it again!
I’m going to short circuit my keyboard from drooling! Looks delicious 🙂
So I think you should share the recipe, don’t you?
So how did your Life Group like the cake?
Oh, my heavens. That’s absolutely beautiful. /drool You can also tell it’s a great recipe, because of the mess it took to create. That’s how I think, anyway. 🙂