Halloween Cake? Yes please!
I'm making a two-tier, orange and black Halloween cake. You don't have to, but I'm using a square tin for the bottom tier and a round tin for top tier (totally a pre-planned decision, not because I've left my large round tin that I need for the bottom tier at my mum's house...)
I'm using a pound cake recipe, as it not only tastes really light and moist, but is also really sturdy and great for stacking.
Recipe for the bottom, orange tier:
Ingredients
- 3 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 1 1/12 tsp vanilla
- 150g cake flour *
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 150g caster sugar
- 185g butter
- Orange paste food colouring **
Method
- Preheat oven to 175c/350f/gas mark 4. Line and grease a square cake tin
- In a bowl beat together the eggs, milk and vanilla
- Using a standing mixer on it's lowest setting or wooden spoon combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder. If using a standing mixer with different attachments, use the paddle attachment for this cake
- Add the butter and half of the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed
- Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 1 minute
- Gradually add the rest of the egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are mixed
- Using a small, thin knife (I use a grapefruit knife) add some of the orange colour and mix. If you want to make the colour stronger just add more of the paste until you are happy with the colour.
- Pour the mix into the cake tin and cook for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the cake tin, then transfer to a wire rack. Make sure the cake is cooled completely before decorating.
Recipe for the top, black tier:
Ingredients
- 25g cocoa powder
- 3 tbsp boiling water
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 125g cake flour *
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 175g caster sugar
- 185g butter
- Black paste food colouring **
Method
- Preheat oven to 175c/350f/gas mark 4. Line and grease 2 small round cake tins
- In a bowl mix the cocoa powder and boiling water until a smooth paste is formed. Leave to cool to room temperature
- Whisk the eggs and vanilla with the chocolate mixture
- Using a standing mixer on it's lowest setting or wooden spoon combine together the flour, sugar and baking powder. If using a standing mixer with different attachments, use the paddle attachment for this cake
- Add the butter and half of the chocolate/egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on a low speed
- Increase the speed to medium and mix for about 1 minute
- Gradually add the rest of the chocolate/egg mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all the ingredients are mixed
- Using a small, thin knife (I use a grapefruit knife) add some of the black colour and mix. If you want to make the colour stronger just add more of the paste until you are happy with the colour.
- Pour the mix into the cake tin and cook for 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the cake tin, then transfer to a wire rack. Make sure the cake is cooled completely before decorating.
* A word about cake flour
Cake flour is different to self raising flour and plain flour. I haven't seen it available in supermarkets, although some people have said that Tesco and Sainsbury's sell it. Don't panic if you can't get it, as it is very easy to make your own.
Recipe
** A word about paste food colours
Paste food colours are my favourite food colours, they don't affect the consistency of your cake mix and a small amount can give a very strong colour. I haven't seen them for sale in supermarkets, so you will have to go to a specialist cake decorating shop or look online for them. I buy mine here:
Cake Craft World
Decorating Your Cake
You will need black ready roll icing, orange ready roll icing, buttercream (you can make it or buy it, doesn't matter!), a palette knife, a rolling pin, a pizza wheel, a piping bag with a very small nozzle and icing sugar or corn flour.
First, make sure your cakes are completely cooled. Then cover the orange bottom tier in a thin layer of buttercream, using the palette knife to smooth and even it out. Once this is applied, cover the cake with another layer of buttercream.
Then roll out your black icing onto a surface dusted with icing sugar or corn flour (to stop the icing sticking). When it is big enough to cover the top and sides of your cake fold it over the rolling pin and place it carefully on top of the cake. Cut off the excess icing at the bottom (a pizza wheel does a great job!) and smooth down the top and sides of the cake.
Now repeat the buttercream process for the top black tier. If you used two cake tins remember to sandwich the two cakes together with a thing layer of buttercream.
Roll out the orange icing as above and cover the cake. Remove the excess icing and smooth down.
Now we need to place the two cakes together - put a dollop of buttercream on the middle of the bottom tier and smooth down. Place the top tier onto this and press down gently. The buttercream will act as a glue to keep the tiers together.
I find that sometimes the icing isn't as neat at the bottom of the tier as I would like, and a great way to cover this up is to use strips or balls of icing - like this
Looks really cute, and hides any mistakes! You can either use alternating black and orange balls or just one colour for each tier. It's up to you!
To finish, fill a piping bag with buttercream and pipe on cobwebs. Perfect!
