Delicious Pumpkin Centerpiece!

This beautiful cake is the perfect centerpiece to adorn your table during the fall festivities. It's beautiful, simple, and elegant. It's always better to have an edible centerpiece!

What you'll need:

• A bundt pan

• Your favorite cake recipe (preferably pumpkin)

• 1 ice cream cone with a flat bottom

• 2 cups powdered sugar

• ¼ cup milk

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla

• Yellow, green, red, and brown food coloring

• 2 medium bowls (preferably one with a spout)

• 1 cooling rack

• A cake stand or plate

Step 1: Prepare Your Cake

Prepare two bundt cakes according to the directions on your recipe, let it cool, and have the two cakes leveled slightly and ready to stack. You want to have a nice rounded edge where the two cakes meet so you don't end up with a crumbly mess. Once this is ready, you can move on to Step 2.

Step 2: Prepare Your Icing

This is icing is delicious and super easy to make. Powdered sugar icing is only 3, YES 3, ingredients: powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla. The consistency is the most important part here. The icing needs to be thin enough to pour and drip but thick enough so it won't reach the plate and pool under your cake. The beauty of this cake is how flawless and simple it is. You don't want to have to smooth thick icing with a spatula. We want that perfect, glossy finish. Start with the bowl that has the spout. Take your 2 cups of powdered sugar and sift it to remove any lumps. Add your milk, starting with just 2 tablespoons. Add your vanilla and mix with a fork or whisk. To check your consistency, lift your utensil out of the icing and let it drizzle back into the bowl. If the icing maintains its shape for at least 5 seconds before melting back into the bowl, you have reached the ideal consistency. If it instantly melts into the icing, it's too thin and you need to add more powdered sugar a tablespoon at a time until you reach the right consistency. If the icing doesn't melt back into the bowl at all, it's too thick and you need to add more milk a ½ tablespoon at a time until you reach the right consistency. Have patience here. This is key to making sure your icing isn't transparent, it holds the two cakes together well, and it gives your cake a beautiful finish.

Once you have reached the right consistency, take your other medium bowl and divide the icing. Put about ¼ of the icing into the other bowl. This will be dyed green and the larger amount will be colored orange. Start with the orange first. Add equal parts reds, yellow, and brown food coloring. Start small with 2-3 drops of each. Don't forget food coloring will thin your icing out a little bit. Continue to add equal parts of each, 1-2 drops at a time, until you get the orange as deep as you want.

Now it's time to mix the green icing. You will need the green food coloring and your orange icing. Start by adding 1-2 tablespoons of milk to the icing. We are going to need a thinner icing for the green stem. The icing should be thin enough so when you let it drizzle back into the bowl, it instantly melts back into the icing. Once you've reached this consistency, add 2-3 drops of green food coloring. Continue adding 2-3 drops until the color is as vibrant as you want. Once you have reached this point, it's time to compliment them and make a pumpkin stem green. Take about a teaspoon of your orange icing and mix it into your green icing. Don't worry if your icing thickens a little bit here. Make sure to use clean utensils so you don't ruin your orange. Continue with a teaspoon at a time until the green is the right shade. This changes the shade of green to compliment the orange shade perfectly. *Use this tip to make a complimentary green for flower colors too!*

Step 3: It's Time to Build Your Pumpkin

Now that the icing is ready, we can build the pumpkin! I would recommend doing this on the cooling rack and not the cake stand to avoid crumbs. Take the bottom piece of your pumpkin and set it on the plate with the trimmed side up. Spread about ¼ of the orange icing on the trimmed area; this is your glue. Keep the icing on the trimmed part only and not by the edges for a flawless look. If you prefer to see the orange, spread the icing all the way to the edges. There is no wrong way to do this! Once you have a good coat of icing on the cake, stack the other side on top, trimmed side down, to create that round pumpkin shape.

Now that you have the cake built, we can finish decorating the top. Move on to the ice cream cone. Cut off the top of the cone that's wider than the rest but leave the slanted ends attached. We only need the bottom half that has the checkerboard or diamond pattern on it. Turn it upside down on a plate and pour the green icing over it to cover it. The icing might pool at the bottom but this is ok. Place the plate in the fridge to harden while you decorate the pumpkin. With your pumpkin still on the cooling rack, take the rest of your remaining orange icing and slowly start to pour it on the cake. You are aiming for the very top of the rounded bundt, going in a circle all around the cake. Do not pour it into the hole or you will have a puddle under your cake. The idea is to let the icing flow down the sides from the highest point of the cake. Once you cover the top of the cake, let it sit out for about 10 minutes so the icing stops running. Next, we are going to move it!

Step 4: Plating

The final step to this delicious and beautiful cake is plating! Take your plate or cake stand. Gently lift your pumpkin from the bottom, avoiding any areas covered in icing, and set it on your plate or stand. Next, grab your ice cream cone plate out of the fridge. With a fork, gently lift the cone off the plate from the bottom and break off any extra icing blobs. Set the cone in the hole of the bundt upside down so the slanted ends create a stem effect and cover the gap in the bundt. Voila! You have a beautiful pumpkin centerpiece for any fall table.

Alternatives:

The great thing about decorating is that you have complete creative control. You can stop here or you can keep adding little touches to the cake. A few ideas:

1. Compliment the cake with candy! Take a bag of candy corn and pour it all around the base of the cake for a fun and festive look.

2. Add some vines! Reserve a few tablespoons of the thick white icing. Add 1-2 tablespoons of sifted powdered sugar until the icing holds its shape and won't spread. Color the icing the same way you did the green icing. If you need to add more powdered sugar after the liquid food coloring, start with a tablespoon at a time. Use a piping bag with a #2 tip or a Ziploc bag and cut the tip off so you have a small hole. Pipe a few vines coming out of the stem and over the top of the cake. It doesn't need to be perfect!

The possibilities are endless. Have fun and remember, it's always better to have an edible centerpiece!

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