Not Your Grandma's Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks and I was planning out what I could bring out of town to contribute to our family feast. My go to is always cake pops, cookies with edible images and custom cakes. With all the baking I have been doing for others right now, the thought of adding more to my plate was exhausting. I want something easy to make and easy to travel with. I want a Thanksgiving staple, not just a extra dessert. So, a pumpkin pie seemed easy to make (or pick up frozen) and bring it down. Now, my brain doesn't really work like that. A normal pumpkin pie couldn't be what I brought.... maybe I could come up with a cool recipe... a neat display..... turn it into a turkey.... and finally it hit me, place an edible image on top and call it a day!

I had already designed some personalization edible images that are created with the latest typography word art style and thought I could start there and see if a pumpkin pie could handle an edible image. Most things can.... whipped cream, ice cream, frosting, syrup and even biscuits. So, for my trial run I ran to the store and bought a frozen pumpkin pie. I then took my 2" Cookie Design and resized it to 7.5" Round, printed it out and placed it in a zip-lock bag until my pie was ready for it's trial run.

Baking was easy, one hour per the instructions on the box and it as done. I took it out, let it cool down for about 20 minutes and was ready to give it a try. My impatience kicked in and since it was still hot to the touch, I knew I would have to forgo the whipped topping layer. The reason for my impatience....  I teach at the local Michael's and didn't have time to wait for it too cool down.

I washed and dried my hands thoroughly as the worse thing that can happen to an edible image is water to cause the image to bleed. I took the edible image out of the zip-lock bag and peeled it off the backing sheet. Then, I placed it right on top of the pie and used my clean, dry hand to lightly smooth it onto the top.

I took these photos right when the pie was still really hot. I didn't add any thing to the back of the frosting sheet. The heat from the pie really helped adhere it to the pie so I was satisfied with my choice to skip the whip cream. Even though it turned out good, next time I would wait for it to fully cool and then either put a big layer of whipped cream or brush the pie with some whipped cream or just wet it a little bit with a mister/pastry brush with water. Though the image will hold and stay for days, be careful with condensation from the refrigerator or just the heat from the pie (which I why I suggest to cool it).

Happy Thanksgiving and thank you for taking a minute to learn more about personalized pumpkin pies!

To order your own personalized edible pumpkin pie topper check out my Esty listing! Use the promo code BLOGGER for 10% Off!

Enderman, Steve and Creeper Pumpkins

Last Year's Monster University Halloween Party Theme

It's Halloween and since my youngest son has an October birthday we always decorate the front of our house with his birthday theme. Last year he was having a Scare University Party and we painted our pumpkins as Mike and Sulley with a Sulley Fur wreath on the door! It was easy to find other purple and teal decor to match and make a not so scary Halloween for the kids. Now this year the party theme wasn't so easy to match with Halloween.  Minecraft has taken over our house, so a Minecraft Painting Party was in the works. Decorating our pumpkins became something of a challenge because we knew they weren't monsters or really that scary looking. My 4 year old son insisted that the Creeper is scary, but looking at a green block head with black square eyes was not something I can see anyone running from. Regardless, we went with it and I purchased our pumpkins and supplies for this fun project and picked a night in October to get these finished up and on the porch in time for the party event!

My son painting his Mike pumpkin
last year from his Monster's Inc Party!

For the Minecraft themed I mixed up the colors needed and we got started at the kitchen counter. We chose to do Steve, Creeper, Enderman and a TNT Box since they were simple and commonly recognized. Since painting with acrylics can be time consuming and messy, take my advise and have the kids wear aprons and not their good clothes. Also, have a hair dryer handy to dry each layer in 30 seconds, instead of 30 minutes! In no time you can paint your pumpkins and easily remedy any mistakes by drying them and painting over the mistake. The acrylic paints have good coverage. A little trick I used that is specific for these Minecraft characters is using a foam paint brush and cutting the tip off so it's not so rectangular and more a square. Then put the square into the paint and just sponge it on as needed. It gives a perfect square template to then go over with your paint brush to fill in completely. I always let the kids paint the pumpkins first. I tell them to paint and I will help at the end. There are some pumpkins that they get to finish fully. But, you know how kids are with paint. At some point they only painted one part and all of the table before they walk away 100% satisfied. This being said, they do what they can and then when they are finished I "help" them finish it up. After they dry the acrylics are pretty water resistant and I placed them out on our porch for our Halloween and Minecraft Birthday Party decorations.

What You Need:

Acrylic Paints in Various Colors

Paint Brushes and Sponge Brushes

Blow Dryer

Paper / Disposable Table Cloth

Pumpkins (REAL or Synthetic)

Paper Plates for Mixing Colors

Sealer / Modge Podge Optional

Time
Appr. 10 Minutes for Setup
Appr. 2 Hours for Painting all 4 Pumpkins Shown
Appr. 15 Minutes Clean Up


See more photos from the Scare University Party at my Facebook Page!