Fall Dessert – Pretty Pound Cake Leaves and Pumpkins

Add a burst of color to your Thanksgiving dessert. These pound cake leaves are so pretty and they taste great too.

It’s the middle of the night. I wish I was sleeping, but I just can’t seem to shut my mind down and doze off. I spent time today brainstorming fun food ideas for the holidays, and I just can’t seem to stop.

I keep a note pad by my bed, so I can scribble down my thoughts, and it has been getting pretty full this evening. I finally just got up and got back to work, writing this post.

I have more ideas than I have time, so maybe I just shouldn’t sleep, ever.

Sometimes I come up with an idea that I really love and use it more than once.

You know how much I love fall leaves, and I recently made some Easy Cheese Bread Leaves and Pumpkins using a Wilton silicone mold.

I know many of you purchased that mold to use for Thanksgiving, so I thought I’d share another idea with you, so you can get more use out it.

The techniques I’ve used to create these Pound Cake Leaves and Pumpkins aren’t new.

I used them last year when I made Cheesecake Leaves and Pumpkins. I just wanted to see if I could do the same thing using pound cake batter and was happy with the results.

They are more vibrant and colorful than I expected and will be so pretty on the table at Thanksgiving.

Pound Cake Leaves and Pumpkins (makes 18)*

*I made 12 cakes, but the batter puffed up over the edge of the mold so much that I had to cut it off. I suggest making 18 cakes instead.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, softened, plus more to grease molds
Betty Crocker Pound Cake Mix (16-ounce box)
2/3 cup milk or water
2 large eggs
1/2 teaspoon almond extract, optional
orange, red, yellow, and green food coloring

Supplies:

3 Wilton Leaf and Pumpkin Silicone Molds
food use only paintbrush
baking sheets

Instructions:

• Heat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
• Grease the pumpkin and leaf molds.
• Cream butter just to soften.
• Add pound cake mix, milk, eggs, and almond extract, if using.
• Beat on low for 30 seconds, then beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. The batter will be very thick.

• Divide the batter into three bowls.
• Put a little more than half of the batter in one bowl and color it using orange food coloring and divide the rest among the other two bowls coloring one yellow and one red.
• Pull about a tablespoon of batter out of the red bowl and add some green food coloring to make it brown.
• Spoon about a tablespoon of each of the colored batter into a small bowl.
• Pour it into the leaf molds, allowing the colors to swirl.
• Fill cavity only halfway. I filled mine 3/4 full and they were too full. For detailed images of this swirling technique, see the Cheesecake Leaves and Pumpkins post.

• Use a paintbrush to paint the pumpkin stems with the brown batter.
• Paint the entire stem. Fill the pumpkin cavities halfway with orange batter.
• As the cakes bake the orange will puff up and match up with the brown stems.

• Set molds on baking sheets and bake for 18-22 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
  • Being I only used two molds and they were filled more, I baked them for 24 minutes.
• Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
• Tug at the mold, loosening the cakes from the sides.
• Turn mold over, and un-mold the cakes.

You can see here how much excess cake I cut off each leaf and pumpkin so that they would sit flat.

You can also see how pretty they look inside with all the swirled colors.

• Store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
• I wrapped my cakes in plastic wrap, put them in a zip-top bag and froze them.
• I’ll thaw them out Thanksgiving morning so we can enjoy them for dessert.

Items used to create this project that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

Be sure to check out all of my amazing Thanksgiving Recipes

More Fall Leaf and Pumpkin Recipes
from Hungry Happenings

Leaf and Pumpkin Shaped Dinner Rolls Topped with Colored Cheese

Cheesecake Leaves and Pumpkins

Cheesy Crescent Roll Leaves

Chocolate Caramel Pumpkins

Veggie Pizza Leaves

Cheesy Pumpkin Pita Chips

Halloween Pancakes filled with Nutella

Pumpkin Pinata Cake
(You’ll be redirected to Tablespoon.com for this recipe)