Halloween Cake

Back when planning the 2004 Halloween Party, we came upon a website with some interesting designs for grotesque Halloween cakes at the "They're coming to get you!" website.

Here are the two main cake designs that have inspired us to be creative with making a cake for Halloween: http://www.doitmyself.org/2003/10/thorax-cake.html,  http://www.doitmyself.org/2003/08/zombie-cake.html

For 2008, we were inspired to use a "doll cake kit", which comes with a half plastic doll (head and torso) and a mould. These kits contain instructions to make "pretty" cakes, where the edible part is a lovely dress, or even a rock that a mermaid is sitting on.

Yeah right, we are Austin CHILDFREE! and this seemed ripe for twisting into a Halloween cake.

The center piece cake for the 2008 Halloween party was "Wicked Witch of the West".

Based on a children's cake design

Stage 1.

Once we conceived of the idea, the first priority was to assemble the components. We bought a "doll cake kit", which consists of
1. metal bowl for baking the dress part of the cake (bowl comes with a metal tube to conduct heat to the middle of the cake).
2. a half doll - doll is the upper torso part of a doll figure, with a spike to insert into the cake.
3. cake/dress/modeling ideas.

In addition we purchased/obtained.
1. Green Tissue/Crepe paper, clear-school glue
2. small amount of black fabric.
3. black elastic cord.

Stage 2.

Constructing the upper part. This was the only part we could do ahead of time, since this was non-edible, and yet was the feature that we had to get right.

We had selected the doll with the dark hair, and using a short length on the elastic cord, tied her hair back, so that we could work on her features.
Cutting the green tissue paper in half inch squares, the face and arms of the doll were gently layered in the paper. While wet, a knife was used to careful cut away the paper from around the mouth and eyes. Additional paper was added to build up her beaked nose and pointy chin.

The hat was made by rolling the black material into a cone and gluing it into place. A brim was added and glued into place. The glue helped to reinforce the material.

Stage 3.

Preparing and baking the cake. This was very fast and easy.

A box mix of a Vanilla sponge was mixed up with a few drops of green food coloring. This was poured into the mold and baked.

Meanwhile, the presentation base was prepared, by spraying a thin layer of Crisco spray onto the base and sprinkling green sugar (easily found at the grocery store). Although after a few hours the sugar started to dissolve, so a second layer was required just prior to unveiling.

Stage 4.

Assembling the cake. The dress was to be covered in a layer of black fondant (obtained from a local cake store).

To ensure that the fondant adhered to the cake a layer of thick butter-cream was applied all over the cake.

Creating the dress from a single piece of fondant was going to be impossible, so instead we opted to work with the dress concept.
We rolled out wide strips of fondant that was about 2 or 3 inches wide, but long enough to run from the base (hemline) to the top of the cake.
The first piece was the widest and would be the front of the cake once applied.
Following pieces were carefully trimmed and applied to overlap the pieces in place and thus creating a pleated look.

Stage 5.

To make the cake appear as a single item, additional black fondant was molded and shaped onto the doll's torso by hand. Molding the fondant onto the torso helped give a consistent appearance to the whole cake.

Final assembly was at the party, the doll placed into the cake, and additional fondant was applied to join the two halves together.

An additional sprinkle of green sugar and little red candy flowers finished the "poppies will make them sleep" tableau. A final touch was a small broom borrowed from a friend.

Now what to do for next year?