This is the tutorial for the fondant pumpkins I used on my Halloween cake.
I used Wilton gum paste. I knew that these would just end up in the trash, so I didn’t bother with making them edible (I know that gum paste is technically edible, but I could never eat it). Last year I used this Marshmallow Fondant for the pumpkins and although I didn’t eat them, other people said they were good. All that I cared about was that it made nice pumpkins. The fondant is kind of a pain to make, but the results were really nice.
Please excuse the dirty hands below. It’s just powdered sugar. If your fondant seems to wet at any point, you can just add a little powdered sugar. And I don’t actually have great grandma hands. That’s just how they look after an entire day of cake and pumpkin making followed by another two hours of dishes.
Color most your fondant or gum paste however orange you like. Be clever, unlike me, and color it the same color as your orange icing! If you have disposable gloves, you might want to use those, but I didn’t and it was fine. You’ll need some brown and green fondant later, so leave a little uncolored for now. Keep the fondant covered when not using it or it might dry out. Roll a chunk of the orange fondant into a little ball.
Press the pumpkin down a little bit so that it’s not a perfect sphere. Make a small indentation for the stem. I don’t know what that thing is I used. I know it’s for doing stuff to fondant, but I don’t use fondant, so I call it my pumpkin-indentation-maker.
Using the back of a knife, make some lines so that your pumpkin actually looks like a pumpkin.
Don’t worry if it looks uneven. People won’t notice.
Color some of your leftover fondant green and roll it into a thin snake and swirl it around a toothpick.
Very lightly wet the bottom of the vine and put it in the indentation on the top of the pumpkin. Color a little fondant brown and make a small stem that’ll fit in your pumpkins. Then wet the brown stem (again very lightly!) and place on the vine. Make sure it’s in there good! You don’t want them falling out later.
Mine were much too dry and cracked after a while. I didn’t have this issue using the above marshmallow fondant recipe. You should also probably draw cute faces on them, but I have no drawing skills. I used a Wilton Foodwriter, which by the way, I just read should be refrigerated after opening. Mine’s been open for two years… whoops.
These would be great to put on top of pumpkin cupcakes or other Halloween goodies. I hope this helps!
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12 comments on “Fondant Pumpkin Tutorial” — Add one!
Erin these look gorgeous. You are so talented. I have never worked with fondant, but would love to take a class. Not sure what fondant would even taste like. Beautiful work.
Thank you! I really don't like the taste and tell people not to eat the pumpkins, but they eat and enjoy them anyway. :) I think fondant is just… gross. I just don't like marshmallows. I hope you give it a try some time! It's really fun and easy. :)
Heather – Yours are really pretty. And crack free! Your idea of putting them on top of a chocolate cupcake is much more appealing to me than making this cake again. I will definitely do that next year. Thanks for the feedback!
I made your pumpkins. They turned out great. Thanks for the tutorial.
http://www.flourishingfoodie.com/2011/10/halloween-cupcakes.html
Heather – You're welcome! Please come back to tell me how they turned out. Good luck! :)
Mighty Morgan – Honestly, I only used gum paste because I was too lazy to make fondant and I had a bag that needed to be used. Use fondant if you have it! My gum paste pumpkins cracked quite a bit but last year, the fondant pumpkins didn't. And if you already work with fondant, these will be super easy for you. Thanks for the comment. :)
They look great….I just started fooling around with fondant..which I totally love working with, although I don't know much about it. I have yet to venture into the realm of gum paste..it seems so intimidating! Thank you for the wonderful tutorial!!
These are so cute. I am going to try an attempt for Halloween! Thanks for the great tutorial.
tMiryam – We think the same about a lot of things. :) I think eating fondant is like eating plastic or rubber. It seems that unnatural.
Lakshmi – Thank you so much! That's super helpful. I'm about to go on a little trip but I'll definitely look into it when I get back. I'd love for my page to not look like a 3rd grader designed it in their computer class. :)
Erin, these are cute looking puppies!
I don't know if it's of any help for you, but I cracked the problem today regarding the line breaks. I have a preset CSS-style for the post text as "justify". If I don't choose it again in the editing program before publishing, there will be no breaks between the paragraphs on IE. Don't ask me why, but works like that. Crazy, huh? But I'm glad, because it is no problem to do a couple of extra clicks before publishing. Maybe it is an isolated case, but if you want, check it out.
Too funny….I completely agree :-) The cakes covered with fondant are most amazing and beautiful but that for me qualifies them as non edible…..No fondant for me :-)
I don't think it's hard to work with. I just think it's nasty and wish people wouldn't cover their cakes with it. But I think fondant covered cakes are the most beautiful. Oh well. I'm no cake decorator so mine don't have to be pretty which means no fondant for me with the exception of pumpkins. :)
These are just the cutest! I need to try working with fondant. It freaks me out for some reason…I wasn't a play dough kid, lol.