Welcome friends! It’s time for October’s Pinterest Challenge but instead of an inspirational photo that we all use, we have scrumptious recipes for you. And just in time for the holidays! We’re sharing our favorite dishes. Well technically, half mine and half the grocery stores. Ha! It’s for all the busy people or non-bakers out there. I’m going to share how to turn a boring store-bought cake into a harvest hit.
How To Turn a Boring Store-Bought Cake Into A Harvest Hit!
If you’ve hopped over from Bluesky at Home, thank you, I’m so glad you’re here. Didn’t her recipe look amazing? I’m crazy about Nutella so I’ve already pinned it and hope you did too.
I love to bake cakes. All flavors and with or without a box mix. I’ve baked tons of them but in all my years, I’ve never mastered decorating one. Back in the 90’s when I realized I was a cake-eater, I took a cake decorating class. We used a bunny shaped pan and a piping bag with the star tip. Not really my vibe anymore. The kids and myself have outgrown the star tip.
Store-bought Italian Cream Cake but totally jazzed up!
Fast forward 30 years and last year I found these cake stencils on Amazon and figured it might advance my shortfalls. It helped, but even now, I’d only feed it to my close non-judgmental friends and family.
The original cake purchased at my local grocery store.
Step 1 – To get started with the super easy part, go to the grocery store and find the plainest cake there. Of course you want to like the flavor but I don’t have that problem. I chose the Italian Cream cake from the case.
It was the only one that looked plain enough to easily change. The others were pink, blue, super fancy or had fruit on top. If your bakery will give you one that isn’t iced, that’s even better. I do love the look of a naked cake.
Scraped off the added icing from a store-bought cake.
Step 2 – Begin by scraping off whatever decoration is on the top. Mine had a few blobs of icing and some weird crumbly things. Now you can smooth out the icing as much or as little as you’d like. I actually like keeping some texture because it looks more homemade. 😉
Tip: If you want a super smooth cake, dip the metal spatula into boiling hot water. It will smooth the icing out like butter.
Step 3 – Place the cake in the refrigerator for at least a couple of hours. That hardens the icing a bit and the stencil will pull off easier, especially if you want to keep it smooth.
Step 4 – Gently put the stencil on the cake making sure not to mash it down real hard. Grab some icing on the spatula or use a knife to scrape icing over the open stencil pattern. I purchased a small container of cream cheese frosting. You can use the icing from the cake if you’d like.
Just look at all that texture.
Tip: It also helps to lightly spray the back of the stencil with non-stick spray.
I chose not to color the icing but a little food coloring would make it stand out quite a bit more.
To add a little more pizazz I chopped up some pecans and used my hand to squish them into the side of the cake. For this part, the cake will need to be softer and not right out of the fridge.
I love the added color, texture, harvest look and yumminess!
Chopped pecans give it a nice rustic look.
This harvest looking cake came out almost like I planned. And it took all of about 15 minutes after taking it out of the refrigerator.
After looking at if for a while, I decided to place the Hello Autumn portion of the stencil back on top and sprinkling cinnamon over it. Then for a little more color, used my fingers to dash a bit more.
Hello Autumn with cinnamon.
I was elated! It looks like I planned – rustic, pretty and was quite moist and delicious! Now you know how to turn a boring store-bought cake into a harvest hit! What do you think? I promise it’s easy. Plus there are so many different ways to create beautiful fall-inspired cakes using stencils.
If you need another super delicious yet easy-to-make Fall Fruit Salad, click here. I’ll be making this again for sure! Everyone loved it.
Next up is CoCo at The Crowned Goat. I know you’ll enjoy her recipe with salted caramel. Don’t forget to click on the links below. We have a lot of very yummy dishes.
Cindy, I would never have thought to pop a stencil over the top of a cake. What a great idea!!! I love how your upgraded cake turned out for autumn!!! Fun idea and tasty, too. <3
Happy to be hopping with y''all again,
Hugs,
Barb 🙂
Author
I know, right?! I wondered why I hadn’t thought of doing it years ago. Thanks so much Barbara. Happy Autumn!
Cindy, great idea for spiffing up a plain cake. I love to bake, but am not so great at decorating. I wish I’d taken that course in culinary school. Italian cream cake is such a classic. Thanks for suggesting the collection of recipes.
Author
My pleasure Carol and you and I are both in the same boat with decorating. I know you have stencils that would be amazing on a cake. Hope you try it!
You had me at cake stencils, Cindy! I love the way this cake came together and that it was quick and easy and totally gorgeous too. I’ve used stencils for a lot of things but never on a cake and I’m all in now. Can’t wait to try this sweet friend! Big hugs and thanks so much for putting this blog hop together. I learn so much from you guys, CoCo
Author
I’m so glad you saw something you hadn’t thought of before! It’s one of those things you wish you’d thought of years ago. LOL. Thank you CoCo and I hope you find it as easy as I did.
Wow! This is incredible. Such a great idea. Hugs to you, my friend.
Author
Thank you Renae. Glad you liked it. 🙂
What a gorgeous cake! I always make bundt cakes, because I don’t do icing very well. Maybe there is hope for me yet. Love this idea Cindy! Pinning!
Author
Girl, I do bundt cakes all the time too for the same reason! You definitely need to try this. I bet you’ll get lots of applause. Thanks so much Michelle.
Cake stencils who knew!!!! I love Italian cream cake. Wal Mart makes the best. 🙂 Thank you so much for hosting.
Author
They ARE the best! Makes me look so much more professionaaaal. lol. I’m taking one to home group on Thursday and everyone will think I’m the bomb. ha!
Very clever!
Sheila
Author
Thank you Sheila. It was pretty and so yummy too.
You are so smart and creative I love what you did to that cake. Thanks for sharing your idea, pinned so I can remember!
Author
Yay Marlene! I hope you make it. I promise, it will be a total hit! Thanks for the pin and sweet comment.
I love this idea Cindy! I can decorate just about anything, but I’m not a cake decorator! Hope to join y’all again next month.
Author
You’ll love doing this and hearing all the ooo’s and aahh’s! Glad you love it. Happy Autumn!
Great Idea and so easy!
Author
Thank you Melinda. I wonder if Linnybird would hire me? lololol!
Cindy, I love this! I did not know there was such a thing as a cake stencil. I am sold. Your cake really is beautiful. Thanks for hosting our fun gathering today.
Author
Since learning about the stencils, I’ve actually volunteered cakes for gatherings! Never would I have done that before. Glad you liked it and saw something new. Thank you Wendy!
Brilliant ideas! I would never have thought of any of this. I love to bake, but making it look cute like this is such a great idea. I love the rustic look you gave it. Now if I can just remember…
Author
I know about the remembering things. Pinning only works if you remember to even look there. Glad you like it. Everyone will love it when you get around to making one. 😉
So clever. I think the only time I’ve used a stencil on a cake was to dust confectioner’s sugar on a chocolate cake! I remember, as a teenager, we made a birthday cake for our church’s youth group leader. The cake was on the end of a LONG glass topped table in the tiny church library. It never even occurred to us the mess we would make! When he blew the candles out, the sugar flew the length of the table! We all had a good laugh during the cleanup!
Author
Oh my word, I’m laughing too! What a wonderful memory. Hope you try the stencils. You won’t get any laughs though – just gasps of beauty! 😉 Thank you Kathy.
Hi Cindy! I had to stop by after seeing this beautiful cake on your Instagram page and find out how you pulled off this genius decorating job. It’s just gorgeous – I never in a million years would have come up with something like this. Well done!
Author
Aww, thank you Kaille. That makes my day. Hope you give the stencils a try. You’ll get addicted and everyone will think you’re amazing!
p.s. I love that I know exactly how to pronounce your name (from IG)) It’s beautiful.
A stencil! In cinnamon! That’s crazy smart — and it worked! Love it Cindy!
Author
Thank you Diane. It really was the harvest hit! 🙂
Oh how fun, I never thought about stenciling a cake. Now I have to do it. Yours looks amazing.
Author
It’s a addicting and super fun. I can hardly wait to make one for Christmas. Thanks bunches Ms. Marty!
Cindy this is not only gorgeous but looks SO yummy! Pinning xx Tanya
Author
Thanks so much Tanya. I appreciate that.
Great tips to jazz up a plain store-bought cake especially when you do not have time to do the cake from scratch.
Thank you for sharing your links with us at #284 SSPS Linky. See you again next week.
Author
Exactly! I love making things easy. Thank you Esme.
What a great job you did on this cake! It looks beautiful and delish!!
Author
The only hard part to the cake was having to tell everyone I didn’t actually BAKE it. 😉 Thank you Kim!
I love this, Cindy! Genius! The addition of the cinnamon is perfect. I am definitely going to give it a try. Thank you so much for hosting this challenge each month.
Author
So glad you like it Lynne. Let us all know what it looks like when you try it. Thank you!
Cindy, this is such a great idea! I love the thought of taking a helping hand from the bakery, and still being able to make it more personal! Thanks for sharing!
Niky
Author
Yes, a helping hand. That’s exactly it and I love it! Thanks Niky.