Any cake can be a Halloween cake that has spiders, web or orange colored frosting on it. Make it delicious with mascarpone butter cream and chocolate!
We wave bye-bye to the climate changed scorching summer and embrace the sometimes sunny and definitely rainy autumn. With a bit of luck, we still have a couple of weekends left to do some hiking on the weekends or a bit more extreme outdoor activities for those whose adrenaline level needs more than just an empty food backpack at the end of the trail to raise.
Celebration at the end of October reaches back to ancient Neolithic times. First being a Pagan feast at the end of the harvest period. It marked the day of the closures of summer pastures and the slaughter of livestock for the darker part of the year.
When Christianity was spreading across Europe like Facebook across the States, the actual head of church Pope Georgy saw it as a good idea to include some spiritual remembering of the recently passed souls.
As this Pagan celebration “Samhain” from Ireland was around, he just slapped the All Saint’s Day to it. The next pope moved the date to 1st November aligning exactly with the Pagan celebration and Halloween as All Hollows’ Eve or All Saint Eve was born.
Most of the traditions that we know today are the mixture of this marriage between Pagan and Christian religion sprinkled with centuries of custom.
Burning candles served and still serves as a way to guide the wondering souls back to their earthy homes while creating jack-o-lanterns was meant to scare the evil spirits away. Disguises were also used as a way to scare bad souls or simply just to hide from them.
Treats have more religious roots as they connect with the good Christian habit of giving alms for one’s souls to be freed from evil deeds. Poor children often went door to door asking for soul cakes at times of Halloween which freed the cakes soul from earthly sins.
Ones could say, this is the best thing in the Catholic Religion. A bit of cookie with a cross on it will give our soul redemption.
Luckily kids nowadays don’t have to beg for treats because they have nothing to eat at home but because it’s fun. Maybe a little too much fun to be honest.
No other celebration legalizes stuffing children with junk as much as All Hollows’ Eve. Maybe the arrival of the Three Wise Men on 6th January is an exception but one has to live in Spain to be part of such travesty.
Anyway, we don’t have to buy up some cheap candies from the closest shop to celebrate. Actually, that wouldn’t clean our souls at the end. Making something that has our love, care and attention is what makes our creations special.
Or maybe the spiders that are made especially for this cake and are good for nothing else not even eating them. Sure enough, we could have made them from some edible stuff like any REAL pastry shop or food blogger would have done but then we wouldn’t have got time dressing up and join this year’s Halloween party in town.
So here it is, a quick yet delicious Halloween themed chocolate cake filled with butter and mascarpone layers. Don’t forget to let it sit on the countertop at room temperature until the butter softens a bit. Soft layers make a real difference even though some likes them cool and hard.
Ingredients:
Base:
- 1¼ cup / 140g Flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder (follow instruction on packaging)
- 5oz / 140g Chocolate
- 6 Eggs (separated)
- 10 tablespoon / 140g Butter
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon agave syrup or other sweetener of choice
Cream filling:
- 10 tablespoon / 150g Butter
- 10 oz / 300g Mascarpone
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice
Frosting:
- 3½ oz / 100g Chocolate
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 3 tablespoon / 50ml Heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon Cocoa powder (unsweetened)
- 1 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice
Decoration:
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 1 tablespoon Stevia powder
- Mini spiders (optional)
How to make Halloween cake:
Base:
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C .
- Measure flour and mix baking powder with it.
- Melt chocolate in a small bowl, placing it onto a slightly bigger bowl of steaming water. Stir it gradually. When it’s melted take it off the heat and let it cool a bit before mixing it with the other ingredients.
- Separate eggs whites from the yolks.
- Beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Beat butter in a different mixing bowl until soft then put sweetener of choice and vanilla extract into it. Keep beating until the mixture gets light and fluffy.
- Put egg yolks in it as well whilst keep beating.
- Add flour and melted chocolate into the mixture alternating between the two.
- Finally fold in egg whites and pour batter into the cake tray.
- Put it into the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the cake when checking it.
- Place cake base onto a rack and leave it there to cool down. Whilst the cake is cooling, make the cream filling.
Cream filling:
- Put room temperature butter, vanilla extract and agave syrup or other sweetener of choice into a medium size mixing bowl and beat it until butter gets a fluffy, creamy texture, about 8-10 minutes.
- Fold in mascarpone and mix it until they are completely incorporated.
Assembly:
- Cut off the top of the cake to make it level and shape it to circle if necessary.
- Cut the base into four equal pieces horizontally.
- Spread one third of the cream filling on the first layer then put the next layer on it, spread second third on the second layer and repeat it with the third one.
- Put on the last cake layer and start the frosting. Use the bottom of the cake as the topmost layer as that generally is the smoothest part of the cake.
Frosting:
- Break chocolate and put it in a medium size saucepan with the cocoa powder, agave syrup, butter and heavy cream and put it on the cooktop to melt.
- Stir frequently until all ingredients are incorporated completely.
- When the chocolate frosting is melted pour it on top of the cake and spread evenly on top of the cake. Leave the chocolate frosting drops dripping on the side of the cake. As easy as it sounds this process may pose some challenges as too thick of chocolate will not spread smoothly while too thin will run off the cake. Temperature also affects the texture so if it seems too thin we may wait until it cools somewhat down before applying it on the cake. It’s trial and error baking so if we get it right the first time chisel the process into stone immediately.
Web decoration:
- Beat butter with stevia powder until creamy.
- Put cream into a decorating bag
- Now there is two route to continue threading on. We can wait until the chocolate sets and draw the web on top of the hard chocolate in the shape and form we desire.
- Or we wait a couple of minutes until the chocolate cools down to a bearable room temperature. Otherwise it would melt the buttercream and may ruin our design. It still has to be soft and gooey though.
- Draw a spiral shape from the middle of the cake to the side.
- Grab a stick, dip one end in the middle of the chocolate and pull it to the side of the cake in a straight line.
- Repeat at least 7 times then let the Halloween cake cool down in the fridge.
Enjoy!
Note: Before serving let the cake reach room temperature to achieve a soft and creamy texture. Ten seconds in the microwave oven also does the trick if short of time.
When the spooky feelings are gone get up and see to these cheerful cakes in the kitchen:
Halloween Cake Recipe
Ingredients
Base:
- 1¼ cup / 140g Flour
- 1 tablespoon Baking powder follow instruction on packaging
- 5 oz / 140g Chocolate
- 6 Eggs separated
- 10 tablespoon / 140g Butter
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon agave syrup or other sweetener of choice
Cream filling:
- 10 tablespoon / 150g Butter
- 10 oz / 300g Mascarpone
- 1 tablespoon Vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice
Frosting:
- 3½ oz / 100g Chocolate
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 3 tablespoon / 50ml Heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon Cocoa powder unsweetened
- 1 tablespoon Agave syrup or sweetener of choice
Decoration:
- 4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
- 1 tablespoon Stevia powder
- Mini spiders optional
Instructions
Base:
- Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C .
- Measure flour and mix baking powder with it.
- Melt chocolate in a small bowl, placing it onto a slightly bigger bowl of steaming water. Stir it gradually. When it's melted take it off the heat and let it cool a bit before mixing it with the other ingredients.
- Separate eggs whites from the yolks.
- Beat egg whites on high speed until stiff peaks form.
- Beat butter in a different mixing bowl until soft then put sweetener of choice and vanilla extract into it. Keep beating until the mixture gets light and fluffy.
- Put egg yolks in it as well whilst keep beating.
- Add flour and melted chocolate into the mixture alternating between the two.
- Finally fold in egg whites and pour batter into the cake tray.
- Put it into the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from the cake when checking it.
- Place cake base onto a rack and leave it there to cool down. Whilst the cake is cooling, make the cream filling.
Cream filling:
- Put room temperature butter, vanilla extract and agave syrup or other sweetener of choice into a medium size mixing bowl and beat it until butter gets a fluffy, creamy texture, about 8-10 minutes.
- Fold in mascarpone and mix it until they are completely incorporated.
Assembly:
- Cut off the top of the cake to make it level and shape it to circle if necessary.
- Cut the base into four equal pieces horizontally.
- Spread one third of the cream filling on the first layer then put the next layer on it, spread second third on the second layer and repeat it with the third one.
- Put on the last cake layer and start the frosting. Use the bottom of the cake as the topmost layer as that generally is the smoothest part of the cake.
Frosting:
- Break chocolate and put it in a medium size saucepan with the cocoa powder, agave syrup, butter and heavy cream and put it on the cooktop to melt.
- Stir frequently until all ingredients are incorporated completely.
- When the chocolate frosting is melted pour it on top of the cake and spread evenly on top of the cake. Leave the chocolate frosting drops dripping on the side of the cake. As easy as it sounds this process may pose some challenges as too thick of chocolate will not spread smoothly while too thin will run off the cake. Temperature also affects the texture so if it seems too thin we may wait until it cools somewhat down before applying it on the cake. It's trial and error baking so if we get it right the first time chisel the process into stone immediately.
Web decoration:
- Beat butter with stevia powder until creamy.
- Put cream into a decorating bag
- Now there is two route to continue threading on. We can wait until the chocolate sets and draw the web on top of the hard chocolate in the shape and form we desire.
- Or we wait a couple of minutes until the chocolate cools down to a bearable room temperature. Otherwise it would melt the buttercream and may ruin our design. It still has to be soft and gooey though.
- Draw a spiral shape from the middle of the cake to the side.
- Grab a stick, dip one end in the middle of the chocolate and pull it to the side of the cake in a straight line.
- Repeat at least 7 times then let the Halloween cake cool down in the fridge.
Notes
Pin now, Enjoy later!
