Halloween Hunger!

With Halloween around the corner, I thought I would do a somewhat 'Spooky' post in the spirit of things. Given that I put so much of my energy into Christmas (which I LOVE), Halloween isn't as big a deal in our house. I live in a gated apartment block which is somewhat like Fort Knox, so I don't think we'll be getting many Trick or Treaters! All the same, over the last two nights, whilst watching numerous movies with Molly, I have been working on this 'Haunted Handiwork'. I'm hoping my little cousin's who I made the cake for will find it somewhat amusing as well as delicious!

Haunted Halloween Cake

For the cake:
Ingredients:
280g self-raising flour
5 large eggs
280g butter
228g sugar
5 drops of vanilla extract
Apricot jam

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a 28x18cm tin with greaseproof paper, creating a pleat in 
    the centre of the tin with the greaseproof paper (as pictured).
2. Beat together the butter and sugar in a free-standing mixer until light and fluffy.
3. Add in a few drops of vanilla essence, then beat in the eggs a little at a time.
4. Fold in the flour and then place half of the mixture in a separate bowl. Add some 
   orange colouring to one half of the mixture and stir in well. Add one teaspoon of cocoa and black 
   food colouring to the other half of the mixture.
5. Place the two mixtures on either side of the pleat. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden 
    brown.
6. Turn the cake out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut each cake in half and then half again, lengthways 
    (trim the cake so they are exactly the same size). You should then be left with 4 orange and 4 
     black strips.
7. Spread the jam on the sides of the cake and assemble together in alternating colours. 
    Once assembled spread jam on the outside of the cake too if covering with fonadant, or leave 
    plain if covering in chocolate icing as I did.

For the icing:
85g butter
4 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cocoa (sieved)
240g icing sugar

1. Place the butter, milk and cocoa in a saucepan and heat gently until melted. Do not let the 

   mixture boil. Then put aside and allow to cool.

2. Once cooled, pour into the icing sugar and beat until smooth.

3. Ensure that the cake is completely cooled, then smooth the icing onto the cake, leaved the 

   chequered ends of the cake exposed. Use a palette knife and cold water to smooth out any 
   imperfections. 

Halloween Sugarcraft
- To decorate the cake I made some Halloween figures from fondant icing. I dyed white fondant icing 
  using Wilton gels, with the exception of the black fondant which I bought from Just4Cakes.ie. Black 
  fondant can be very difficult to dye by hand and it proves more cost effective and just a whole lot 
  easier to buy black fondant (the same can be said for the colour red). 
- As you can see on the cake I made two pumpkins, a ghost, a coffin complete with an escaping 
  zombies hand and a superstitious black cat.

E-D's Notes
- If you want to give modelling with fondant a go, YouTube is a wash with really great, short and 
  simple tutorials. Just Google an idea and you'd be surprised what you can come up with.
-This cake can be changed to accommodate any occasion  Halloween, Christmas, a Christening or 
  even a birthday. The colours, and fondant decorations are what make this cake, so get creative, 
  change them around and see what you can come up with!