Last year, I decided to try to incorporate food into one of my Halloween jack-o-lanterns in addition to the usual array of scary, smiling pumpkin faces. It worked out well and I came up with a creepy skeleton hand holding a cupcake. This year, I wanted to try my (non-skeleton) hand at incorporating food into my pumpkin carving again. I considered trying to go with a slice of pumpkin pie, or some other pumpkin dessert, but ultimately decided that the cupcake would be an ongoing theme. This year’s pumpkin is called “I vant a cupcake.”
It was inspired by my Vampire Cupcakes, showing a fanged pumpkin face about to dive into a moist, cherry pie-filled cupcake and ready to suck up the filling. This is one of my first attempts to sculpt a design into a pumpkin without actually cutting straight through the pumpkin itself. I used a zester that had a large opening for making twists (to garnish drinks) to carve away the outer rind in the area I wanted to put the cupcake, then used regular pumpkin carving tools to cut away the rest. I free-handed the whole design, so I can’t share a template, but one tip that will help you is to thin the pumpkin wall from the inside. A thinner wall will not only be easier to carve, but it will let more light through if you decide to try and sculpt your design.
I’m including a detail of the cupcake below, if you want to take a closer look at how I carved it out. I tried to make the outlines and lines of the wrapper deeper and brighter, while keeping the frosting more rounded and billowy.
Nutmeg Nanny
October 30, 2009How adorable!
Nikki
October 31, 2009What a clever idea!
thecoffeesnob
November 1, 2009This is so cute! How long did it take you to do it?
Nicole
November 1, 2009Thecoffeesnob – Not long, maybe an hour or so from start to finish.
Ashley
November 4, 2009This is seriously awesome!
Avanika (Yumsilicious Bakes)
November 29, 2009This is amazing!!! Would lvoe to know how you did it!