Halloween is just days away and I still don’t have a costume. (I’m a little behind schedule this year.) I’ve been so busy working on other projects for both work and the blog, that I completely lost track of this holiday. But, I found out yesterday that I wasn’t the only one. An old co-worker of mine sent me a text yesterday asking me if I knew of any quick and easy recipes for Halloween. I thought, other than baking cookies in shapes of ghost and pumpkins, I really don’t know of anything else. But then I remembered a picture I saw on Pinterest a few days ago of a spider web cake. It looked really good. I quickly wrote back to my friend telling her to come over because I had an idea for a cake.
Now, mind you, I’ve never tried drawing with icing on a cake before. I figured, how hard could it possibly be? Turns out it’s not that easy. As a matter of fact, it’s quite hard. LOL. Nonetheless, we were able to save the cake, keep the halloween theme and finish it just in time for her event. By the way, did I mention her event was this afternoon at her son’s school? While my friend could have gone to the store to just buy something from the bakery department, she wanted to put a little more effort (emphasis on the word little), and bring something homemade to her event. I thought that was really nice.
Pressed for time, we spent just a few hours last night baking and decorating this cake. We had a lot of fun trying to figure out how to get the icing right and creating some type of halloween design on top of the cake. Even though the cake didn’t quite look like what I had envisioned, I thought to myself, the important thing is that cake taste great. I knew it would and figured the great flavor would distract everyone from the mess on top. And so, we moved on.
The original plan was to make it look like a spider web on top of the cake, but my icing was much too thin and it began to run all over the cake. I felt horrible! I mean, I’ve made icing before. What in the world could I have done wrong? I was so careful to make sure that all our circles were as perfect as they could be and there it all went, running across the top of the cake. But then, it hit me. This cake should not be perfect. On the contrary, this should be imperfect and more “spooky” looking. I was beginning to like the look of the cake. Then I noticed that the middle and smallest circle had become one solid imperfect circle and looked almost like a skull. I thought perfect! I’ll shape it into a skull.
I took my chop stick and used the tip of the stick to shape the icing into a skull. I then took that same tip and ran it from the middle of the cake to the end creating almost a faded line. I repeated this all around the cake and it created exaggerated rings around the skull. My friend said it reminded her of smoke. I laughed and said it looked like ugly goo. Most important of all, she was happy with it and well, so was I. In the end, the cake looked kind of gross, kind of scary and fit the halloween motif. The cake was going to be devoured by a second grade class who was more concerned about eating something scary and gross looking rather than eating something that looked pretty. And from what my friend tells me, they loved it! Here’s how we did it.
1. I would normally make my chocolate cake from scratch but in the interest of time, I used boxed cake mix. I used “Duncan Hines Devils Food Cake Mix”. To enhance the chocolate flavor, I added a shot of espresso to the cake batter. It’s a quick and easy way to make an ordinary cake extraordinary.
2. I used a jam that I knew was more tart than sweet. I did this purposely as I know that boxed cake can be very sweet.
3. I took about 3 heaping tablespoons of the jam and spread it across the first layer of cake.
4. Next, I placed the second layer on top. I left the cake unfrosted on purpose to maintain the imperfect look.
5. I then mixed 1 cup of confectioners sugar, with 1/4 tsp of vanilla and 3 tbs of water. This is good for thinner icing. For thicker icing, start with 1 tablespoon of water and add by teaspoon as needed until you get the consistency you desire.
6. Draw circles on top of the cake. Start from the middle and work your way out. Don’t worry if icing runs off the side of the cake. This actually enhances the look of the cake.
7. Let the middle circle run in and fill with icing. You might need to add a little extra icing. Then take your chop stick and use the tip to create the eyes and mouth. Then take the same tip and define the shape of the skull.
8. Voilà! The cake is done!
Boo!
Happy Halloween!