**Creating a Realistic Pumpkin**

When it comes to creating a realistic pumpkin, there are several techniques to keep in mind. First, it's essential to use the right tools and materials. For this project, I'm using fondant as my base material. Fondant is a pliable sugar dough that can be molded and shaped into various forms. To create the texture on my pumpkin, I'll be using sculpting tools to make indents along the surface of the pumpkin. These indents should not be evenly spaced, but rather run up and down in a random pattern.

To achieve this effect, I'll carefully drag my sculpting tool over the fondant, making sure not to cut or poke through it. The goal is to create a textured surface that resembles the natural ridges found on a real pumpkin. By using a combination of gentle and firm pressure, I can create a range of indentations and bumps to add depth and dimension to my pumpkin.

For the stem, I'm using gum paste as my material. Gum paste is a more solid and durable material than fondant, making it ideal for creating intricate details like stems and leaves. To create the stem, I'll roll out the gum paste into a thick tube shape and then use my sculpting tools to add texture and detail. The stem should resemble tree bark, with rough, irregular lines and bumps.

To finish the stem, I'll use a piping tip to stipple the surface, creating a textured, grass-like effect. This will help the stem blend in with the rest of the pumpkin. By making sure the stem is wider at the base than at the top, I can create a more realistic, natural shape that blends seamlessly into the surrounding pumpkin.

Finally, I'll paint the stem to match its dark green color. To achieve this effect, I'll mix food coloring or yellow and white dust to create a range of shades. By leaving the top of the stem a lighter color than the rest of the pumpkin, I can create a sense of depth and dimension that's essential for creating a realistic look.

**Creating a Decadent Pecan Pie Cake**

When it comes to creating a decadent pecan pie cake, there are several key elements to keep in mind. First, I'll be using chocolate cake as my base layer. This will provide a rich, indulgent flavor that's perfect for a fall-themed dessert.

To add an extra layer of depth and complexity, I'll create a caramel drizzle by heating sugar and brown sugar together until it reaches a golden-brown color. Once cooled, this caramel can be used to drizzle over the top of the cake, adding a sweet and sticky flavor that's perfect for balancing out the richness of the chocolate.

For an added touch of fall flair, I'll decorate the top of the cake with caramelized apples. To create these, I'll melt sugar in a pot until it reaches a golden-brown color, then use it to dip mini apples into. By allowing the caramel to cool and set before assembling the cake, I can create a beautiful, glazed finish that adds an extra layer of texture and visual interest.

To complete the look, I'll sprinkle my spiced pecans over the top of the cake. These are made by mixing butter, spices, and sugar together until it forms a sticky, crumbly mixture. By cooking this mixture in a skillet until golden brown, I can create a flavorful topping that's perfect for adding an extra layer of depth and complexity to my cake.

**The Magic of Pecan Pie**

For years, I never understood the appeal of pecan pie. It was always one of those desserts that seemed like it should be okay, but somehow just didn't quite hit the mark. But then I started working in a bakery, and everything changed. The first time I tried a slice of homemade pecan pie, I was hooked.

I think what really sold me on pecan pie was the combination of flavors and textures. There's something about the way the rich, nutty flavor of the pecans pairs with the sweet, buttery taste of the caramel that just works. And let's not forget the crunch of the pecans – it adds a delightful textural element to the dish.

From that day on, I was obsessed with pecan pie. I started experimenting with different recipes and techniques, trying to find new ways to elevate this classic dessert. By building my cake around chocolate ganache, caramel drizzle, and spiced pecans, I can create a truly show-stopping dessert that's perfect for fall celebrations.

Whether you're a longtime fan of pecan pie or just discovering its charms, I hope this article has inspired you to try making it at home. With a little bit of creativity and experimentation, you can create a truly decadent and delicious dessert that's sure to impress your friends and family.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall right it's official it's fall oh i forgot about the fact that you load sunshine orhan is really really excited for fall i actually like fall because i feel like in my jacket collection my fall jackets are the cutest what i don't like about fall is that it gets dark fast this i don't have time for so another thing i love about the fall is fall cakes not just for their looks but for their flavor so i thought i needed to remind you what fall cakes are all about i actually love rewatching cakes the first cake i have for you is my pumpkin spice latte i mean it's a super popular drink it's not even a cult following it's like a serious following like there are pumpkin spice groupies i'm sure that they like line up for this drink and i think it's the perfect flavor to bake into a cake so i did what is the buttercream that you use coffee buttercream is my favorite buttercream although i would say like i've tried a pumpkin spice latte and it's just it doesn't have enough coffee for me but with my cake i had like pumpkin cake pumpkin spice cake and then i used a coffee buttercream oh i love coffee buttercream i shaped this cake like you know like a tall to-go coffee cup upside down i wrapped it in a really nice pumpkin colored fondant i created a lip around the top of the cup and then i cut out the letters pumpkin spice latte cake and oh yeah no i crossed out latte and i'm gonna add cake but before i add my letters i you know i have to make everything at least metallic if not gold so i actually painted the cup in a really nice sort of copper tone which tends to make me think of the fall as well now i need to flip the cup right side up so i can see the exposed pumpkin spice cake i want to make it look obviously like it's filled with coffee so i colored some royal icing with concentrated coffee and then i piped that on the top and let it set a bit while it's setting i'm gonna add my letters to the front of the cup and then i'm gonna pipe on some buttercream because this drink tends to come with like whipped cream on top oh my god look at how i pipe that whipped cream i'm quitting i'm gonna be a barista oh and of course i put some spice on top so i grated some fresh nutmeg from grenada uh mix it with cinnamon put it on top and then i had these little pumpkin shaped candies the how to cake it pumpkin spice latte comes with pumpkin shaped candies what would you do differently oh don't ask me that question that's like a rabbit hole for me i might have made it like an actual starbucks cup but maybe i could have done like a special holiday version cup from starbucks i think that's what i would do differently if you guys want to see that leave a comment below maybe there's like another starbucks drink that you guys want to see yeah i mean and they have tons of drinks so let me know moving on oh my gosh i love this it's candle cakes so fall i remember thinking like this would be boring because sometimes when you think of a candle you just think of like the white standard candle you buy a six pack at ikea and you light it so i went for sort of vintage gothic candles i actually mimicked these candles that i own and i was really really happy and essentially this is a good cake to start with if you've never made a novelty cake because the cakes themselves are just cylinders so they're just round cakes but taller it's halfway between you know a buttercream cake and then like a novelty cake but there's not a lot of sculpting i want each candle to have a different flavor profile kind of the way candles have different scents so i've baked a chocolate cake a pumpkin spice cake and then a just a vanilla cake that i folded a cinnamon sugar mixture into i'm filling my chocolate cake with a cranberry clove buttercream i'm gonna fill the pumpkin spice cake with a candy ginger buttercream and then i'm gonna fill the vanilla spice cake with an apple spice buttercream it's like these cakes were so bath and body works you know what i mean but like bath and body works in the in the gothic years i definitely wanted these candle cakes to light i feel like it's a simple effect but it needs it so what i did is before adding the top layer of cake to each cake i used a circle cutter and i cut a circle out of the center of each one of the top layers making sure that circle was large enough to hold a tea light i should have just caked tea lights imagine the tea light definitely will melt the buttercream but what i'm hoping is that it's far enough away that it will start to melt it subtly because if you think about it when you light a candle the candle starts to melt in the center near the flame before it goes all the way out so i'm actually okay with the thought of melting because i think that will make it look even more realistic all of my cakes are filled and stacked so there's a not so secret chamber cut out of each one they've been crumb coated i'm going to ice them and i'm going to intensify the color of my buttercreams to ice these cakes i want to ice the chocolate candle in a nice burgundy colored buttercream the pumpkin candle in a pumpkin colored buttercream and then the apple spice candle in well a beige buttercream normally i don't go for beige but i feel like in the candle world beige you know reigns don't you agree these are adult fall renaissance candles it was just called bath and body work back then there wasn't more than one they weren't in malls you know so i'm gonna ice each one of my cakes in the corresponding buttercream i'm gonna ice it as smooth as i can with a bench scraper and smooth it out on top as best i can i actually have candles that look like this so i use them as my model and basically they have almost like a border around the candle i wanted to recreate this embossed candle look on my candle cake so i rolled out some fondant and then i used basically an embosser that i have to emboss three different patterns on the fondant i cut it out very carefully with the tip of a knife and before applying it to my cakes i want to of course paint them i'm gonna use the colors gold old gold and copper it's really a shame that i didn't have a third gold but copper like i said with the pumpkin spice latte it's very very full so i'm painting these embossed bits of fondant and then i'm gonna carefully pick them up and wrap them around each candle cake the best part about these cakes are you know when you smell a candle that smells so good you wish you could eat it you don't have to wish with these candle cakes you can eat it before we cut it though you got to put your little tea light inside i used a tea light that had like a plastic casing but the aluminum casing would be fine too and now you can light your candle cakes and you know what's amazing they smelt even better after i lit them because the warmth like brought out all the smells yes yeah i actually wouldn't change anything about these cakes and i think the reason is when i go into a cake and i think to myself oh this is gonna be boring how do i make it better in this case these cakes came out better than i even imagined them when i would change something is when i look back or something frustrating happens or i hit a roadblock that's when i'm like i should have done this this or that oh my god that's such a great segue to the next cake oh no what is it tell me it's not an apple pie is it is it mcdonald's apple pie no oh thank goodness oh it's the salted caramel mocha cake this always this makes me think of us going to starbucks me you and cody to try the drinks and i was like they're just way too sweet it's like a hot milkshake it's a hot milkshake call it what it is don't call it coffee but i thought that the flavors of the salted caramel mocha would be so awesome in a mega cake so this chocolate ganache coffee buttercream italian meringue buttercream that i made into coffee buttercream and then on the inside because the drink has like a nuttiness to it so i did toasted hazelnuts score bits caramel and coarse salt in the layers so i did my bullseye method with coffee buttercream and chocolate swiss meringue buttercream i mix the chocolate and the coffee together because it's mocha oh this cake was delicious the best times at how to cake it for me is when i get the cake and i'm editing that cake in the same week yes i mean that's true cake stuff it's delicious let me try that is true cake exception yeah because you watch it and you edit it and you eat it while you're editing which gives you more insight to the cake we gotta make this a rule you just gotta make your demands rohan right yeah you gotta say i'm not editing a cake unless i'm eating that cake jocelyn's not gonna forgive me for telling you to do this take this part out of the video but make your demands i'm gonna answer your question before you ask me if there was one thing i could change i wouldn't have tried to make it that tall i should have known better um but my thought was like you know how starbucks drinks are like ridiculously large so my thought was like i'm gonna make this over the top tall cake i had to shove sprinkles up against it no because it was falling over or the buttercream is nice and hard though now so i think i can flip it i'm going to do some cake surgery i crumb coated the whole thing with chocolate buttercream chilled it and i iced it again with my chocolate swiss meringue buttercream unlike the pumpkin spice latte cake where i physically shaped it like a drink this is still going to be shaped like a cake but i still want to mimic you know the look of a starbucks drink so i dolloped on a bunch of buttercream to look like whipped cream because you know they pipe that whipped cream on but the drink is hot so you take two steps and like it's like starting to melt so that's the look i'm going for and then on top of that whipped cream just like the drink i drizzled some more salted caramel score bits salt salted caramel drizzled oh and then i put like really really coarse uh raw sugar down at the bottom oh oh and i put salted caramel macaroni around the bottom and then i made um you know the signature green straw that starbucks has i just wrapped fondant around a dowel and inserted that into the cake this cake was delicious guys if you want to learn how to make fall themed treats we have a lot of new bake you happy live tutorials you can learn baking techniques from me or one of our incredible dessert artist in a live baking class we have tutorials on handmade donuts buttercream flowers cookie decorating and a lot more head to the link in the description below the next cake is a pumpkin spice cake in the shape of a pumpkin whoa just really pushing the boundaries you know really thinking outside of the box and so i built up this cake like a smaller round on the bottom wider in the middle and then a bit smaller on top i even used all my humps and added to the cake on top and then i just sort of shaped a pumpkin sort of rounding out the whole cake would be a pumpkin cake is another great starter cake because pumpkins let's face it they come in every shape every size pumpkins are not perfect like normally wherever they've been lying they flatten on the earth they're all shapes and sizes and so this is a great cake to start with because you can't really go wrong as long as you don't make it square you're good yeah or like a triangle yeah don't make a try it shouldn't have sharp edges of any kind after you carve your cake into a pumpkin the next thing you'll want to do is crumb coat it ice it and then cover it in a beautiful pumpkin colored shade of fondant so you just want to drape it over smooth it tuck the excess underneath and trim away any of the extra excess tuck it down into the top where you're going to build your stem and then we can start to texture the pumpkins i'm using my sculpting tools to make indents along the pumpkin again these indents are not evenly spaced you just got to make sure that they run up and down and you want to drag that tool very carefully so you don't actually cut or poke through the fondant you're just leaving an indent the stem i made out of gum paste the reason is gum paste is much more solid than fondant and dries harder and dries faster so you can start to sculpt it and pretty much it will start to dry as you're sculpting you need to work faster with it but it's more guaranteed to stand up than fondant so i made the stem out of a light colored green gum paste i rolled it into like a big tube and then i used the same sculpting tools that i used on the pumpkin to put several lines because the the stem looks kind of like of tree bark if you know what i mean like it looks rough and it's textured so you want to recreate that look and on top i used just some piping tips like the grass piping tip to sort of stipple the top and make it look rough and you also want to make sure that it's wider at the base and just fix the shape and make sure it looks like it's the right size for the size of pumpkin that you have made at this point you'll want to paint it because the stem is actually quite dark it's quite a dark green so for this i use some green food coloring if you don't have a dark green you can mix black into it and then i used either yellow or white color dust over it and to make it look as rough as it looks in real life you can also use the blade of your knife and sort of purposely scrape it or to oh i used a clean toothbrush i forgot about that technique a pumpkin stem looks really sort of rough and you want to mimic that and you just want to make sure to leave the top of the stem a much lighter color than the sides because that's where it's sort of been chopped off it's not as if you drop a pumpkin it has a bruise like an apple it's more like it gets scratched and scraped so you can use your knife to purposely scratch and scrape it and then i accented those scratches and scrapes by painting it with spices so i used like ground cinnamon i painted that onto the surface because often they're on the ground and some of the dirt sticks to them as well and that's a pumpkin oh my gosh this pecan pie okay so let me tell you i never liked pecan pie my whole life then i worked in a bakery and the guy that was training me like had me try it and i changed my mind instantly i don't know what happened to me that day i love pecan pie and you know what else i love baking two pecan pies and putting them in a cake and i made them really deep too so they were like deep dish pecan pies and then of course caramel you can also melt ganache and put that on top of a pecan pie but i vote caramel over chocolate and what i did is i built the cake with chocolate cake and chocolate ganache so that i could have it all chocolate caramel and pecans i also wanted to decorate the top of this cake with caramel apples so i just caramelized sugar in a pot and then when it was ready i chilled it a bit so it'd get thicker and i dipped like you know those mini apples that is so full and then what else did i do with them what am i making right now give me a minute i don't know what i'm making oh i love this i'm making my spiced pecans so it's like butter spices and then you cook the pecans and sugar brown sugar and then you bake them they're good on their own like you would just eat a bowl of those but on a cake they're delicious because this was a fall thanksgiving mega cake i wanted to use everything that reminded me of the fall pecan pie mini apples that were dipped in caramel spiced nuts you name it i was putting it in this cake even if you made this cake at half the size like just one pecan pie it would still be over the top decadent like this would be the thing that you eat at thanksgiving after the meal that like puts you in a coma you know what i mean like and then you wake up and it's christmas it's amazing it's really really good i don't also don't think i would change anything about this cake like if i said yes to that question yes okay i'm gonna be making more fall themed cakes in the coming weeks so don't forget to subscribe if you want to see them but if you need more cake right now click here you\n"