Pumpkin Carving Day!

My fab friend threw a pumpkin carving party today... and it was great fun... and of course, there was yummy food!


Mini Breadbowls w/ Chili


Veggie Pizza Squares w/ Cream Cheese Spread and Garden Veggies

I contributed a Pumpkin Cake with White Chocolate Cream Cheese filling and Icing.
I used the Pumpkin Bar recipe was from Paula Deen that I've kept since first making it 3 years ago.

I made the frosting according to the recipe as well, but also stirred in a half bag of melted white chocolate chips (and food coloring, duh.) Not the most ideal pumpkin shape... but you get the idea. Sculpting and icing cakes at midnight really doesn't make me be much of a perfectionist.
For the "stem" I spread chocolate on plastic wrap- for that rough ribbed look. Then, I simply broke off chunks and stuck them in the top for a more "abstract" pumpkin stem.

>> As I'm browsing the 'net right now, I stumbled across this "Great Pumpkin Cake" on KraftFoods.com! Well! I could have watched this for pointers.

And after being inspired to make some really cute cake pops from Bakerella, I wanted to use the scraps left from shaping the pumpkin cake to make them. However, that didn't go quite as planned.

The crumbled cake was way too moist, and forming a ball out of it created this gross raw dough thing. So, I bagged that idea. I'll try again with boxed cake mix and see how that goes.

Anyways, happy carving! (and happy early Halloween!) Brush your teeth.