Pumpkin Palooza Cake

By MJH

Ingredients

• 2 Carrot-Walnut Cream Cheese Cakes (recipe) or cakes of your choice baked in 10-inch Bundt pans, cooled completely
• Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe) or 1 container (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
• 1 piece green fruit leather or licorice
• Candy spearmint leaves, green gumdrops or green frosting in tube

Details

Adapted from howstuffworks.com

Preparation

Step 1

Prepare Carrot-Walnut Cream Cheese Cakes.

While cakes are cooling, prepare Cream Cheese Frosting.

Assemble cake as follows:
Turn both cakes over, rounded sides down.
Slice off tops of cakes so that they are level; save crumbs.
Place one cake, rounded side down, on serving platter.
Frost with about 1 cup Cream Cheese Frosting.
Top with second cake, flat side down.
Insert crumbs into center of cake to cover the tube hole.

Generously frost cake using vertical strokes and refrigerate 2 hours or until frosting is firm.
Using butter knife, create vertical ridges to resemble a pumpkin, following the fluted pattern of the cake.
Insert rolled-up fruit leather in center of cake for stem.
Cut spearmint leaves in half to make them thinner.
Or, if using gumdrops, roll out gumdrops with rolling pin and use cookie cutters in leaf shapes to make leaves.
Create stems for leaves using green frosting or cut rolled-out gumdrops into strips and roll them to make stems.
Arrange leaves and stems so that they trail down pumpkin.
Chill until ready to serve.