Trendy Halloween Pumpkin Cake (Pinterest Inspired)
Pumpkin Cake! My beautiful pumpkin-shaped vanilla, chocolate, and raspberry flavored cake is not only easy to make and delicious but it’s super trendy and will impress your guests as a beautiful table centerpiece at your next Halloween or fall get together!
Nick’s favorite thing…
I absolutely love how trendy this cake looks! I love Pinterest and so I would see these trendy-looking painted Halloween pumpkins which looked really chic in powder colors. So that’s what this cake is inspired by. Plus it’s a 3D cake, but you could totally do this to a sheet cake
What does Pumpkin Cake taste like?
Well, this is my vanilla cake flavor. It’s moist and delicious. Couple it with raspberry flavored frosting and you have a delicious cake that’s super trendy!
What are the ingredients I need for the Pumpkin Cake?
All-purpose flour – also known as plain flour.
Caster sugar – also known as superfine sugar.
Baking powder – this will help your cake rise and be fluffy.
Salt – I used fine salt.
Eggs – make sure your eggs are at room temperature.
Butter – make sure your butter is softened.
Milk – I used cow’s milk but almond milk will work.
Vegetable oil – can use sunflower oil as well.
Greek yogurt – I used full fat yogurt. This is in there to make the cake moist. You can use sour cream instead. You won’t be able to taste either.
Vanilla Extract – Always use good quality vanilla extract when baking, it makes a huge difference. I have a great recipe here for it if you’d like to try your own!
Food gel – I used chefmaster food gel
American Buttercream Frosting – I have a really great recipe for this that you can grab here! It’s great for cupcake, cakes and buttercream decorations!
Cocoa powder – I used unsweetened cocoa powder
Raspberry flavoring – The brand I used is called Roberts.
My Top Tips!
- Take your time when decorating! Decorating a 3D cake is not easy, so take your time when decorating.
- This cake is a project. You most likely won’t make it all in one day. Bake on day one, crumb coat on day two and finish decorating and frosting on day three.
Other Halloween Recipes You Might Like!
- Bad Romance Cupcakes – Gaga inspired spikey cupcakes!
- Sign From Above Cake – dentists, goths and Halloween enthusiasts rejoice!
- Neon Graveyard Cupcakes – neon drenched 80’s inspired cupcakes.
Make sure to follow me on social media!
Instagram @thescranline, Facebook and watch and subscribe to my videos on YouTube!
I hope you guys enjoyed this simple but delicious Pumpkin Cake recipe with me. Please comment in the comments section below, or feel free to share with your family and friends on social media.
I’ll see you all on the following recipe. Happy baking!
N x
Trendy Halloween Pumpkin Cake
A super cute vanilla cake in the shape of a pumpkin with trendy Pinterest looking decorations.
Serves 30
Ingredients
Cake
- 3 1/2 cups / 430 g all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups / 265 g caster sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup / 125 g butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups / 375 ml milk
- 1/2 cup / 125 ml vegetable oil
- 2 tbsp Greek yogurt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 10 drops teal food gel
- 10 drops blue food gel
Black Frosting
- 1 batch American buttercream frosting
- 1 cup / 100 g cocoa powder
- 20 drops black food gel
Colored Frosting
- 2 batches American buttercream frosting
- 5 drops pink food gel
- 1 tsp raspberry flavoring
- 5 drops purple food gel
- 5 drops teal food gel
Instructions
Black Frosting
- Add the cocoa powder and black food gel to the frosting and mix until well combined. Alternatively, you can use black cocoa powder in place of the cocoa powder and black food gel to get black frosting.
Coloured frosting
- Split the frosting into two bowls. Place 1 ½ batches of the frosting in a large bowl and the rest in two smaller mixing bowls.
- Add pink food gel to the large bowl of frosting and mix until well combined. Add the teal food gel to one of the small bowls and purple food gel to the other small bowl. Mix until well combined.
Pumpkin Cake
- Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; you’ll need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake. Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140C (280F) or 160C(320F) for a conventional oven. Spray two 8” half sphere cake tins with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper. Set aside. Also note: you’ll need to make this cake in three batches as it is a lot of batter and will not fit inmost people mixing bowls.
- Add the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt to a large mixing bowl and mix together using a hand mixer until well combined.
- Next add the softened butter and mix on low speed until mixture reaches a crumbly sand like texture.
- Add the eggs, milk, oil, Greek yogurt, teal food gel, blue food gel and vanilla extract. Mix on low speed until no dry ingredients are showing. Scrape down the bowl and mix for another 20 seconds. It’s at this point that you can add any additional flavourings or coloured gels to the batter.
- Place both half sphere tins on top of a 6” cake tin to help them stand upright and fill with batter. I find using an ice cream scoop to help me do this makes it easy to distribute the batter evenly so that everything bakes at the same time.
- Bake for 50-60 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the pick comes out with wet batter, bake for a further 10 min at a time until fully baked. Allow the cakes to cool to room temperature inside the cake tins and then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate. So, I bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
- To trim your chilled cakes, use a cake leveller or large serrated knife to carefully trim each sphere cake in half, then trim a small amount of the bottom of each cake so that they’re flat and not curved. You’ll end up with 4 layers of cake.
- To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of frosting onto an8” cake board or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting around before adding the smallest sized half of one of the sphere cakes. Gently press down the centre of the cake layer to make sure it’s stuck to the frosting underneath.
- Add the black frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of the cake. Fill the centre with more frosting. Use your small offset spatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the large half of the sphere. Add more frosting on top and smoothen out.
- Add four bubble straws in the cake. Carefully lift them up a couple cm and cut where you see frosting on them. Push them back in the cake so they’re flush with the top of your cake. This is going to give your cake a support structure, so it doesn’t collapse in on itself.
- To crumb coat, add frosting around and top and sides of the cake. Use the small spatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care to fill in any gaps in between each layer of cake. Chill for4 hours.
- Fill a large piping bag with the pink frosting and pipe around the cake starting at the bottom, working your way up to the top.
- Use a large offset spatula to smoothen each side of the cake from the bottom to the top until you’ve gone all around the cake.
- Use a medium sized angled ball tip fondant tool to indent the frosting into the bump shapes that pumpkins have. I’d recommend starting at the bottom of the pumpkin, then going up in a straight line. When you get to the top create a curve shape like you see on the top of pumpkins and then go back down in a straight line to the bottom of the cake. Repeat that until you’ve gone all the way around.
- Then use a small offset pointed spatula to cut up and down each indent in the frosting to create a smoother bump shape. Use it to smoothen out the bumps at the top of the pumpkin. Place in the fridge for 1.5hours.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with a medium sized round tip. Pipe a swirl of black frosting onto a piece of baking paper. Keep building on top of that swirl with about 6 swirls.
- Use the offset pointed spatula to smoothen out the sides of the tall swirl then place in the fridge for 1 hour.
- Take the stalk out of the fridge and use a knife to slice some of the top off so it’s flat. Pipe some black frosting on top of the chilled pumpkin and place the buttercream stalk on top.
- To add the final frosting decorations on the cake you’ll need some small round piping tips. Add the black frosting into two piping tips. One fitted with a Wilton #3 piping tip and the other with a Wilton#8 tip.
- Use the bag with the #3 tip to pipe little ghost outlines on the cake in random spots. Then fill in with #8 tip.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with the #3 tip and fill with pink frosting. Pipe little eyes and a round mouth to finish the ghosts.
- Pipe some black zig zag shapes around the cake with the #3 tip.
- For the end of a piping bag with the #3 tip and fill with the teal frosting. Pipe little bat outlines and fill the outlines with more teal frosting.
- Fit the end of a piping bag with a #4 tip and fill with purple frosting. Pipe vertical lines around the cake and some triangles.You can basically pipe any shapes you like.
Notes
Cake can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.
Nutrition
Calories : 156kcal
Carbonhydrates: 15g
Protein: 3g
Fat: 8g
Saturated Fat: 5g
Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g
Monounsaturated Fat : 2g
Trans Fat : 1g
Cholesterol: 20mg
Sodium: 120mg
Potassium : 95mg
Fiber: 1g
Sugar : 2g
Vitamin A: 130IU
Calcium: 48mg
Iron: 1mg
Nutrition Disclosure
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