Fall Leaves and Pumpkins Cake Design

This was a fun cake to make for the fall season.  The rustic design is easy to make yet will look impressive as a centerpiece on a small cake table. The cake itself was a pumpkin spice cake.

The cake was constructed with two 8 inch cakes on the bottom tier and two 6 inch cakes on the top tier. I used the same recipe for the cake in my Pumpkin Spice Caramel Latte Cake except I did not use the caramel sauce or the latte cream frosting.  Instead, after making the cake, I frosted it with a cream cheese frosting. You can find the cream cheese frosting in the recipe for my Intense Chocolate Cake. I spread the frosting on the cake with a spatula and swirled it around while lifting the spatula off of the cake to give it rough peaks. The pumpkins and leaves were made from modeling chocolate. For a good recipe and instructions for modeling chocolate check out Wicked Goodies. The pumpkins were made by forming balls then adding creases with a toothpick. Texan Erin has a great tutorial for fondant pumpkins and the same method can be used with modeling chocolate. The leaves were cut with a simple leaf cutter then I added the vein details with a silicone mold that I got from Global Sugar Art.  I brushed the leaves with pearl dust to give them some shimmer but also to highlight the vein texture on the leaves.