Pumped for Pie

Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I decided to make today's post about pumpkin pie. I love pumpkin pie, yet only really eat it this time of year. It is also a tradition of mine, thanks to my wonderful Poppop, to have a slice of pumpkin pie for breakfast the following day. This year, my parents, as they have done in past years, came to visit for an early Thanksgiving celebration. I made the usual...turkey, stuffing, corn, mashed potatoes and pie. But this year my oldest declared the pie I had made boring. She thought it needed decorating, so I obliged. I pulled out my stash of marshmallow fondant and my fall cookie cutters and away we went.

I cut out some little acorns and started painting them with some food coloring.

I liked how the brown and green looked here.

My oldest, Samantha, was in charged of painting the leaves. I gave her some red, orange and yellow food coloring to play with. She quite enjoyed herself.

I arranged our creations on the pie, and voila...

a non boring pumpkin pie. Now as for the recipe, I have to admit I used Pillsbury pre-made pie crust and followed the recipe on the back of the can of pumpkin puree. It tasted great if I do say so myself.

I wish you all a Happy Holiday filled with loved ones and yummy pie! Happy Thanksgiving.

Something Old, Something New

I know by the title, you would assume that this was a post about a wedding cake. Well, it is not. The old is me covering a cake in fondant. I haven't done it in awhile, and when I have, I haven't always been thrilled about the results. So I figured I would practice and show you how to cover a round cake.

First you want to have a cake with a beveled edge. Hopefully you can see it in the picture here. Then give the cake a crumb icing. By this I mean, just a thin coat of buttercream, frosting or jam is good. You don't need to make it perfect because it's going to be covered in fondant. Refrigerate your cake for about an hour.

Dust your rolling surface with some cornstrach and roll out your fondant to about 1/4 inch. I always tend to roll mine out to thin. It's something I need to practice.

To easily transfer your fondant to your cake, fold it in half and then lay it on to you cake.

Then unfold the fondant to cover the rest of you cake.

Trim your edge and use your hand to smooth out the top and sides of your cake.

Now for the new. I have been seeing these beautiful cakes where the person has hand painted them. I must say, these people are truly artist and the things they create are amazing. Since I was happy with my covering of the cake, I decided to try my hand at some painting.

I started off easy by painting some leaves. I figured my children can draw leaves, so I should be able to paint them on a cake. First I put a base coat of yellow down to get the shape of the leaf.

Then I added some red highlights to create a contrast for my leaves.

And then I finished with some brown and a very fine paint brush to add the final details of the leaves.

And while I had the brush out, I painted the birthday wish on the top. This cake was to celebrate my wonderful father -in- law's 65th birthday!