Cookies For Dummies
Book image
Explore Book Buy On Amazon

This fudgy chocolate cake is the base for spooky haunted mansion cake that is perfect for a child’s Halloween party. Although you have to stack up a few cakes for this creation, you don’t have to worry about using dowels because you have enough support from underneath.

The skeleton pops and cupcake picks in the decorations list are easy to find around Halloween time. And you also may find additional candies or novelties that you’d like to include in the windows and on the lawn of this haunted place.

Cocoa Chocolate Cake

Tools: Two 9-inch round cake pans

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Baking time: 35 minutes

Yield: 12 servings

3⁄4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1⁄4 teaspoon salt

3-1⁄4 cups sifted cake flour

9 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces

2-1⁄2 cups granulated white sugar

1-1⁄2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

4 eggs

2 cups whole milk

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease the cake pans, and line them with parchment paper. Then grease and flour the parchment.

  2. In a large bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. Then whisk in the sifted cake flour.

  3. In a large bowl, cream the butter. Add the sugar, and beat until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, and continue beating.

  4. Add the eggs to the butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  5. Melt 3 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate in 2⁄3 cup boiling water. Stir the mixture until smooth and slightly cool. Mix the chocolate into the cake batter after the eggs

  6. With the mixer set on low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk to the egg mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour. Each addition should be mixed until just combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl twice during beating.

  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pans, and bake for 35 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out with moist crumbs attached.

  8. Cool the cakes in the pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, and then invert the cakes onto racks to cool completely.

  9. After the cakes have completely cooled, cut one loaf cake in half vertically. Set one half aside, and cut the other half into quarters, keeping one quarter, and discarding the others. (The remaining quarter piece is one eighth-loaf.)

  10. 6Level the cakes (two squares, one loaf, one half-loaf, and one eighth-loaf). Apply a crumb coat (thin layer) of chocolate decorator frosting to each cake, and refrigerate them for 1 hour. Frost the cakes again, and refrigerate them while you prepare the decorations..

About This Article

This article can be found in the category: