How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Cake
Halloween isn’t Halloween without a pumpkin or two, even better when it’s in cake form! This round pumpkin cake is super easy to create with the help of a hemisphere cake tin. Instructions by Ruth Wildish.
How to Make a Halloween Pumpkin Cake
Skill Level: Beginner – intermediate Time to Make: One and a half hours, plus cooling time
You Will Need
- 4 x 250g Orange fondant icing »
- Green fondant icing »
- Black cake board »
- 1 box Betty Crocker Vanilla cake mix »
- 1 tub Betty Crocker Chocolate Fudge Icing »
- Orange gel food colouring »
- Black gel food colouring »
- Hemisphere cake tin »
Craft Essentials
- Paintbrush or pastry brush
- 120 ml vegetable oil
- 230 ml water
- 3 eggs
How to Make
1. Pre-heat the oven 180OC / 160C fan assisted ovens / Gas mark 4. 2. Empty the contents of the cake mix into a large bowl and add the water, eggs and oil and a good dollop of the orange food colouring. 3. Gently mix for about 2 minutes until smooth and creamy. 
5. Grease the hemisphere tins and sit in their rings on a baking tray. Divide the mixture between the two halves and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes or until firm to the touch. 6. Leave in the tins to cool enough to handle, then run a sharp knife across the top of the cakes, using the edges of the tin as a guide, to trim off any excess if needed. 
7. Turn out of the tins and leave to cool. When completely cool wrap in Clingfilm and pop in the freezer for about 30 minutes until hard to the touch. 
8. Remove from the freezer and trim a small amount off of both halves. Stick one half to the board with chocolate fudge icing. 
9. Sandwich the two halves together with chocolate fudge icing. 
10. Cover the rest of the cake with chocolate fudge icing, try to get it as even and smooth as possible. Pop the cake in the fridge for the icing to harden, for about 15 minutes. 
11. Roll out the orange fondant in a round shape about 1 cm thick, make sure it is larger than the cake. 
12. Lift the fondant up and place over the cake, smooth the fondant from the top of the cake to the bottom and and tuck under as much as you can with your hands. Pop any air bubbles in the fondant with a sharp pin. 
13. Push and tuck the fondant in round the bottom of the cake using the back of a knife and trim off any excess. Using your fingers gently make some vertical grooves around the cake to look like the ridges down the pumpkin. 
14. Mix up a little of the black food colouring with some water, you dont want a very black colour here, more of a tint. Paint the black down the grooves you have made in the pumpkin. 
15. Using the green fondant roll out a cone shape a couple of inches tall and flatten the top with your finger. Using either a shell tool or a fork, drag from top to bottom to make the pumpkin stalk. 
16. Place the stalk on the pumpkin and shape as needed. 17. Roll out the black fondant and cut two small rounds for the eyes and a triangle for the nose. Position on cake. To make the mouth, roll out a thin line about seven inches long and stick to the cake. Roll out another thin line about nine inches long then cut in to inches and place on the mouth to form stitches (you may need to either wet or use edible glue to stick the features to the pumpkin).
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