Halloween Cake

Spooky Beats & Sweet Treats: The Ultimate Halloween Showstopper!

Are your speakers bumping and your stomach rumbling? Whether you are blasting our spooky countdown or hosting a monster mash in your kitchen, we’ve got the perfect soundtrack for your oven.

This week, we are turning down the treble and turning up the heat with a Chocolate and Orange Halloween Cake. It features a rich chocolate-orange webbed cake topped with edible Rice Krispie spiders. It’s so easy! 

The Tracklist (Ingredients)

For the Cake (The Base Beat)

• 125g Soft margarine (Keep it smooth, like a smooth jazz transition)
• 125g Caster sugar
• 2 eggs (Drop them in like a heavy bassline)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 50g dark chocolate & 30g cocoa powder (For that deep, moody tone)
• 100ml milk
• 125g Self-raising flour (To help your cake climb the charts)

For the Buttercream (The Sweet Vocals)

• 100g Butter (Room temp—don't freeze out your mix!)
• 200g Icing sugar
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Finely grated zest of 1 orange (For that bright, pop-star zest)
• 75g Full-fat cream cheese

For the Spiders & Decor (The Special Effects)

• 15g Butter, 150g Marshmallows, & 80g Rice Krispies
• 20g Chocolate chips & 300g Milk chocolate (For the creepy-crawly bodies)
• Liquorice Catherine wheels (For high-fidelity spider legs)
• 1 kg Fondant (Plus red, yellow, and black food dye for styling)
• Chocolate writing icing (Your tool to remix this into a web)

Gear Check: Grab 2 x 6-inch cake tins and some teacake moulds for the arachnid army.

Mixing Instructions (The Routine)

Set 1: The Baking Broadcast

1. The Warm-Up: Turn your oven dial to 180°C fan (200°C non-fan/Gas Mark 6).
2. The Intro: Cream the margarine and sugar until they are lighter and fluffier than a morning show host's banter. Drop the eggs in one by one, giving them a good spin.
3. The Deep Cut: In a side bowl, remix your cocoa, vanilla, and milk until completely smooth. Finely blitz your dark chocolate (or melt it, but let it chill out before introducing it to the eggs—no one likes scrambled chocolate).
4. The Crossfade: Fold the flour, chocolate, and cocoa paste into the main mix until well combined. Split the track across your two tins and bake for 20 minutes. Let them hit the cooling racks.

Set 2: The Creamy Transition

1. Whisk the butter until creamy, then fade in the icing sugar slowly.
2. Drop in the vanilla and orange zest. Finally, sneak in the cream cheese one spoonful at a time so it doesn’t throw off the rhythm.
3. Sandwich the cakes together with the buttercream and give the outside a "crumb coat" layer. Send it to the fridge to cool down before the grand finale.

Set 3: Synthesizing Spiders & Live Assembly

1. The Mashup: Melt butter and marshmallows in a pan until completely gooey. Crank up the volume by stirring in the Rice Krispies and chocolate chips.
2. The Mould: Press the sticky mix into your teacake moulds and refrigerate. Once set, pop them out and submerge/coat them in melted milk chocolate.
3. The Stage Setup: Wrap your cake board in bright orange fondant. Wrap the cake in the remaining fondant, and place it center-stage.
4. The Visual Filter: Pipe a beautiful, looping chocolate web over the top.
5. The Crew: Slice your liquorice wheels lengthways to make legs. Use blobs of melted chocolate to stick the legs to the spider bodies. Give them tiny fondant eyes and a mouth. Secure your new spider friends to the board with a dab of water.

Let the whole set cool completely, take a photo and send it in to us. Click here to email Ron