How to Decorate Scary Halloween Cakes

Cakes can add to the frightful fun of Halloween.

Inspire fear at your Halloween celebration with a frightening yet delicious cake. Prepare the cake the day before your party so that you have plenty of time to decorate and fix any small mistakes or problems you encounter. The cake will keep just fine in your refrigerator overnight so you can relax and enjoy the holiday. If time is short, start with a plain store- bought cake and transform it to a scary Halloween cake with frosting and decorations.

Things You'll Need

• 2 qt. metal or Pyrex bowl
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Gelatin
• Black food coloring
• White frosting
• Red decorating gel
• Cherry pie filling
• Plastic knife
• Red paste food coloring
• Microwave safe bowl
• Black frosting
• 16 black gum drops
• 16 chocolate-covered pretzel sticks
• White candies
• Edible black marker

Instructions

Eyeball Cake

1. Bake cake batter in a 2 qt. or larger metal or Pyrex bowl sprayed with nonstick cooking spray to create a dome-shaped cake. Cool the cake completely before you begin decorating.

2. Cut a hole in the top of the cake to create the iris of the eyeball. The hole should be about two or three inches deep and approximately five inches in diameter.

3. Freeze the cake for several hours or overnight until it is completely solid. This is necessary because an unfrozen cake may melt when you add gelatin in the next step.

4. Prepare green or blue gelatin according to the package directions. Let the gelatin cool on the counter to room temperature and then pour it into the cavity you created at the top of the cake.

5. Refrigerate the eyeball cake to set the gelatin. Add a few drops of black food coloring to the center of the gelatin just before it is completely set to create the pupil of the eyeball cake.

6. Frost the cake with white frosting and add bloodshot veins to the eye with a tube of red decorating gel.

7. Pour a can of cherry pie filling onto a large serving platter and set the cake carefully onto the pie filling to resemble an eyeball resting on a pile of blood and gore.

Bloody Cake

1. Frost a baked and cooled cake of any size or shape with white frosting so that the bloody frosting will stand out in stark contrast to the white cake.

2. Plunge a plastic knife into the center of the frosted cake. You can use a real knife but a plastic knife is safer, especially if children will be around the cake.

3. Tint one cup of white frosting red using paste or gel food coloring in a microwave-safe bowl. Paste or gel food coloring will render a richer red color than liquid food coloring, which might produce dark pink frosting.

4. Microwave the bowl of frosting on high for 10 seconds to thin the frosting and make it pourable. Stir the melted frosting and microwave an additional five to 10 seconds if necessary.

5. Pour the frosting all around the knife and let the bloody frosting spread across the cake. Let the frosting cool and harden before serving.

Spider Cake

1. Frost a single- or double-layer round cake with black frosting. Black frosting can be purchased ready-made or created at home by adding black food coloring to chocolate frosting until it has reached the desired shade of black.

2. Use a knife to cut a small X in the top of each of eight black gumdrops. Push a chocolate-covered pretzel stick or biscuit stick, such as a chocolate-covered Pocky, straight down into the center of each gum drop. The cuts you made in the gum drop will allow you to force the cookie into the gum drop without crumbling or breaking the cookie.

3. Cut X's onto eight more gum drops and attach the gum drops to the opposite end of the pretzel stick by pressing one of the cut sides down onto the cookies. Make an X cut on the side of each top gum drop and insert another pretzel stick into each one to create bent spider legs.

4. Insert the free end of each spider leg into the top of the cake so that the legs are bent at an angle and the lower gum drop is resting on your cake board.

5. Draw black pupils onto assorted white candies to create spider eyes and place a cluster of them on one side of the frosted cake to complete your scary spider.

References

• Coolest Birthday Cakes: Halloween Cake
• Duncan Hines: Lightning Quick Glaze
• Coolest Birthday Cakes: Spider Cake

Resources

• Gilco: Pocky
• Food Doodler: Edible Markers