I think we can safely say (from the fact that the picture of the above cake is not my cake) that I came across a few difficulties when baking the other day.

Or that I was too lazy to snap a decent picture.

Or both!

(Isn’t this exciting? It is now a mystery!)

I used a recipe from the blog She Knows to create my cake. I followed it to a tee. Sorta.

The recipe called for two box cake mixes; one of pumpkin bread, and one of pound cake. I found the pound cake mix easily enough, but had to scour my local drugstore, give up, and pout beside the chocolate chips, before I noticed the “Pumpkin Bread/Holiday Baking” display.

I opted out of buying orange food coloring, because I so wisely thought, I have yellow and red food coloring at home. Yellow and red make orange, right? 

I squeezed droplets of coloring into the bowl and I mixed, and I dropped and I mixed.

The instructions on the pumpkin bread read, “stir until moistened.” I was over-stirring, and I knew it. I knew it like you know you shouldn’t eat that last bite of pizza. I knew it like you know you shouldn’t pick at your cuticles. I knew it like you know you must leave Bath And Body Works alone.

I knew, and I did it anyways.

I did it to the point that the words “brown” and “orange” had lost all their meaning. I had to ask for second-third-tenth opinions from tolerant family members.

I placed the loaf in the oven and was sure to take it out 8-10 minutes before it finished. I waited for it to cool, then wrapped it in saran and refrigerated it according to the directions—for four hours.

This was about the point where I realized I probably shouldn’t have started baking at 6pm.

Cue the Netflix binge watch. . .

Then, came the part I was looking forward to: cutting out the pumpkin shapes and aligning them along the bottom of the pan.

That’s when I realized my loaf hadn’t risen evenly. The big pumpkin cookie cutter cleared the top of the loaf by half an inch.

It was hard, knowing the pretty She Knows picture would not be materializing before my eyes. I wept bitterly. I did come up with a solution, however.

Two rows of small pumpkins made it harder to pour the pound cake batter, as I had to be sure the batter also separated the little guys, but I think it worked out!

This is such a cool idea. I’ve looked into other “Peek-a-boo” cakes, and using pound cake seems to be the key to ensuring the inner cake stays moist.

The homemade icing was also amazing. However, you should know that you’ll age twenty years as you stand by the stove, lazily stirring butter. Also, don’t even think of leaving it alone. It is very needy and WILL explode if it feels it is being ignored.

All in all, this is a really cool recipe and I WILL be making it again! I’m thinking black chocolate bats in pound cake for next Halloween.

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