Edible Acorns



I took cues from the book Hello, Cupcake for almost all aspects of this cake.  I used its Pumpkin Spice recipe and my own recipe for cream cheese frosting.  A note about cream cheese frosting:  it's kinda translucent so you have to add a pretty hefty layer if you're covering a dark-colored cake.  The more frosting the better, I say, so no biggie. 



I also followed the book's method for making candy leaves - with just one alteration.  I tried using real leaves like the authors suggested but had major issues with them getting inexorably stuck to the candy.  Very frustrating!  Luckily, using some fake leaves from the dollar store did the trick!  I'd say that close to half of them broke during handling, but they're so easy and quick that I just made more than I needed.  Besides, the mistakes melt in your mouth!



I had my daughter alongside me during the acorn-crafting phase. There were plenty of caramels for her to experiment with while I tried to perfect these little nuts.  She made a lot of worm shapes that she formed into letters - mostly "L" and "U."  Her creations bore a striking resemblance to Barbie limbs!  The people at Kraft must've used Barbie's skin tone as inspiration for their caramel color because it's an exact match.  I wish I'd taken a photo of the tray of Barbie body parts in our fridge.





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