Bundt Pan "Pumpkin" Cake

I first saw this cake on a pin from A Merrier World, and have been looking for an excuse to try it out ever since!  We went to Sarnia to visit my mother in law for her birthday last weekend, and since we're the only kids left in the province, I try to make her a cake.  Everyone likes having birthday cakes made for them, right? 

Anyhow, I decided that this was the perfect opportunity to try it out.  A pumpkin cake is totally appropriate for an October birthday, right? 

Well, it's really easy.  I used my fantastic gluten free chocolate cake recipe. If you want a larger pumpkin, double the cake recipe, or use 2 boxed cake mixes. You can use any type of cake you'd like - it'd even work great with carrot cake & cream cheese icing!  The one pictured here is just 1 scratch recipe's worth.

What You Need:

• Cake batter (1 recipe/box for a shorter pumpkin, as pictured, or 2 for a taller round pumpkin)
• Icing (1 batch of this buttercream icing was enough to ice the cake with about 3/4cup leftover), dyed as orange as possible with food colouring
• Optional: black decorating gel to make a jack-o-lantern face
• Bundt Pan
• Something green to use as the pumpkin stem

What to Do:

• Grease & flour your bundt pan.  This is important if you want your cake to come out in once piece.
• Pour 1/2 of the cake batter into the pan & smooth out.  
• Bake according to recipe/box instructions.
• Let the cake cool in bundt pan, then, using a knife, loosen the cake from the pan all the way around the outside & inside. 
• Place a plate on top of the pan, then quickly flip upsidedown.  
• Grease & flour the bundt pan, & repeat with remaining batter.
• Flip your first cake over so that the flat side is facing down (an easy way to do this is to place another plate on top and then quickly flip it over again). 
• Ice the flat side of the cake with a generous amount of icing. I like to put a decent amount of cherry jam in layer chocolate cakes - you get a bit of the blackforest cake taste. Yum.
• When your second cake has been baked, cooled, and flipped onto a plate, grab someone else to help you transfer onto the iced bottom half of the cake. 
• Hold the plate (that's holding the top of the cake) almost directly over bottom, about 1" above. Carefully slide the top to the side of the plate, and then match a side up with the bottom. Pull the plate away as you continue to carefully match the top of the cake with the bottom of the cake. 
• Place strips of wax paper around the edge of the cake on the plate to keep it clean while you're icing.
• Ice the cake, using up/down strokes to finish it off. 
• Stick something green in the middle for the stem. I know, that's really specific, isn't it? I packed all of my ingredients up and made this at my mother-in-law's house, and actually forgot about the stem. So, I rifled through her drawers and found a green plastic bag which I folded up and then rolled up - I think it worked pretty well! You could roll up green construction paper, or pick some greenery from outside - be creative! 
• If you want to make your pumpkin into a jack-o-lantern for a Halloween party, use (edible) black decorating gel to make a face. In order avoid messy mistakes, you may want to 'draw' your face first with a toothpick, and then use the gel to fill it in.

This would be a great cake for a Halloween party, a Fall Birthday, or even as a Thanksgiving  Dinner Centerpiece!

H-man helped me make the cake. The fantastic thing about this gluten free chocolate cake recipe is that it uses melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder - so much more fun to eat! :) 

This post has been linked to Moms and Munchkins Party Time Linky #10. Take a look for more great ideas!