halloween desserts -

by bakersroyale

Hallo-Baking: Pumpkin Caramel Mousse Cake

What, you thought we were done with pumpkin recipes? Here’s one more last-minute Halloween dessert idea to serve alongside your spooky cocktails.

The Pumpkin Caramel Mousse is killer. It’s light and smooth in texture, full in flavor and only takes 15 minutes to make. For those of you who want to get in and get out of the kitchen, you can forgo the joconde cake and simply serve the mousse in ramekins or in Martini glasses for some kicked-up elegance. But if you’ve got the time, the cake makes it a full dessert.

A few notes:

The recipe I used for the joconde cake and decorative paste is from The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. For an online recipe resource click here.
If you decide to make the joconde cake with the decorative decal, start with a silpat, not parchment paper. The small freeze time required for the decorative paste will cause the parchment paper to shrink and ripple and ultimately affect the shape of the finished cake.

Pumpkin Caramel Mousse Cake
Yields 16 2×3 inch cakes

Our Top 10 Favorite Halloween Cakes

While we here at ES put most of our Halloween energy into thinking up weird food costumes, we’ve noticed in the past couple of years that our friends around the blogosphere and flickr-verse have been getting crazy creative with the cakes for this particular holiday season. Since you know we can’t bake to save our lives, let’s take a look at a few of the freakiest, loveliest cakes we’ve spied around the web.