Come on, let's indulge together in a little sweet and scary decadence. Have you ever had visions of a little Jack o' Lantern pumpkin surrounded with other little monsters in your head? You will enjoy making a very special Halloween holiday treat with a little help from these lovely trick or treat beggars. I can't imagine a better helpers than your own children. This cake is an unbeatable fun centrepiece for any Halloween celebration. Fun to bake and pleasure to eat.
You will marvel how helpful they will be with cake making. And your reward will taste just like orange with some sweet and chocolate cover. This powerful and eye-catching combination of dark brown cake and orange glowing in the dark butter cream filling works ridiculously well. Orange and chocolate is always a tasty flavour combination so your little monsters will love the flavour of this creation. Your result will be the scariest Halloween cake you can dream about.
Serves 10-12 little monsters
Preparation time: 45 min
Cooking Time: 1 hour 15 min
Ingredients:
50 g cocoa powder
225 ml boiling water
125 g butter, softened
350 g caster sugar
4 eggs
grated zest and juice of 1 orange
100 g plain chocolate, melted
150 ml soured cream
350 g plain flour
2 table spoons of bicarbonate of soda
For the butter cream
125 g unsalted butter, softened
grated zest of 1 orange
2 table spoons of orange juice
275 g icing sugar, sifted
orange food colouring, optional
To complete
Trick or Treat Halloween Cake Topper
Equipment
20.5 cm round deep pan
piping bag fitted with a star nozzle (optional)
Method
First pre heat the oven to 170° or use gas mark 3. Place the cocoa powder in a small bowl and steadily blend in the boiling water. If you are not scared too much, ask your little monster helpers for a helping hand. In a separate bowl, they could cream together the butter and sugar until they will mix it thoroughly. The older ghosts are probably experienced enough to add the eggs. One egg at a time, beating well after each egg addition. When done, they have to add the orange zest and juice, then stir in the melted chocolate, soured cream and the cocoa mix.
Finally sieve the flour and bicarbonate of soda into the mixing bowl and fold until done. Place the cake pan on a baking sheet and pour in the cake mixture. Bake your cake with your little helpers for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until the cake is firm and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Cool the finished block of scary cake in the pan.
The first steps of that stage are easy to handle for the monster crew surrounded around your table. To put together the butter cream, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then beat in the orange zest and juice. Add half the icing sugar and beat well for several minutes. Add the remaining icing sugar and beat until very light and fluffy, adding a little orange food colouring to create the desired scary look. Level the top of the cake if necessary and then slice into 3 equal layers. Place the bottom cake layer on a serving plate and pipe or spread ½ of the butter cream over it. Top with the middle cake layer and spread with the remaining cake layer.
Brush the top of the cake with a little apricot jam or marmalade and place the Trick or Treat Halloween Cake Topper on top.