Pumpkin Cake with Fall Flowers

Triple-Layer Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Caramel filling topped by a complete covering of Tinted Cream Cheese frosting.

I'm back in Heidelberg after a ten-day holiday to the States!  It was fantastic to visit family and friends.  And it's even more fabulous to be safely returned home!  It took about 48 hours before I was ready to bake [I had spent ten days traveling in Utah and Missouri and baked five cakes and dozens of cupcakes; look for upcoming blog posts] - jet lag gets me every time when I travel east.

Since we are well into October, I wanted to explore another Fall cake.  This Pumpkin Cake is a winner.  I've baked it twice  now and the results are consistent.  The triple-layer, 6" round cake is a perfect vehicle for me to practice different designs, flavors, textures, etc.  Most recipes produce enough batter for the cake and approximately a dozen cupcakes. 

I frosted the cupcakes with a Vanilla Buttercream swirl and gave them to our friends at Starbucks.

I learned something new stacking this cake; I love learning new stuff.  Because I layered the cake with sponge then stiff vanilla buttercream then a thin layer of caramel....the next layer of sponge kept sliding right off the side. Nuts!  I doweled this cake with two trimmed bubble-tea straws instead of a center post because these layers were moving.  Hot top: Mark the cake board with a small hash-mark prior to the crumb coat.  This helps in determining exactly where to slice the cake without hitting a stabilizer.  No cake board? Try marking the underside of the edge of the plate with a small piece of masking tape.

I wasn't quite sure where I was going with this cake design.  Thinking back, I loved working with little drop flowers on our anniversary cake last March.  I decided to revisit that technique in a similar way and used the Wilton 107 for this all-over design.  Autumn colors seemed a natural choice; I tinted the icing using Wilton gel colors: Burgundy, Juniper Green, Copper, Golden Yellow

Originally, I had planned to run flowers along the bottom third of the cake, but I wasn't happy with the cream cheese coating on the cake - it was too thick to smooth nicely (and I needed the thickness for the flowers to hold their shape on the side of the cake).  Next time, I'll thicken the frosting after I'm happy with the final coat of frosting.

The first pictures I took, I used the orange tablecloth.

I love being back in the kitchen.  I love that I'm sober long enough to have this great life and can learn from my mistakes.

I'm so happy my life partner supports me while I bake cakes; he was holding the kitchen lights up and out-of-the way for some snapshots to reduce shadows, "Now, don't move."