Jack O’ Lantern Pumpkin & Chocolate Halloween Cake
“There is magic in the night…when Pumpkins glow by moonlight”
Just wanted to do a quick little post to help you out if you’re still looking for something to bake on Halloween. This is a layered cake, made with two layers of chocolate cake, and two layers of pumpkin cake, filled with cream cheese frosting, and covered with buttercream frosting and candy ganache. The chocolate and pumpkin play great off of each other, and the cake looks amazing when you cut into it with those contrasting colors.
Pumpkin Cake
1 cup flour
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
7.5 ounces (1/2 can) pumpkin puree
Preheat oven to 350F and butter two 6 inch springform pans. Whisk together first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix together butter, eggs, and buttermilk in your stand mixer. Add in the dry ingredients in 4 parts. Next mix in the pumpkin puree. Split between pans and bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cakes comes out clean.
Chocolate Cake
1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk +1/2 tsp. white vinegar (let stand 15 mins)
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup French Vanilla Coffee
1/8 cup Bacardi Rum
Preheat oven to 350F. Butter two 6-inch springform pans. Combine dry ingredients in large bowl, whisk, and set aside. Combine oil, milk/vinegar, eggs, and vanilla in stand mixer and mix well. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 parts and mix together. Next add coffee and rum and mix well. Bake for 40 mins-1 hour, depending on your oven – just make sure a toothpick in the center comes out clean.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1/2 cup butter
8 oz cream cheese
1 tsp clear vanilla extract
4.5 cups powdered sugar
1 tbsp heavy cream
Orange food coloring
Place butter in stand mixer and beat until smooth. Add cream cheese and blend until smooth. Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and blend until combined. Add the heavy cream and beat until fluffy frosting consistency. Add food coloring until desired orange color is achieved. Use this frosting to layer the cakes and crumb coat the 4 layer cake. Then place the cake in the fridge for about 30 minutes while you make the buttercream.
Buttercream
1 cup butter
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
4 cups powdered sugar
2 tsp clear vanilla extract
1 Tbsp heavy cream
Orange food coloring
Black food coloring
Beat butter and shortening in stand mixer until smooth. Add sugar to this and beat until smooth. Next add vanilla and heavy cream to desired consistency. Add orange food coloring, and make sure you have a bit of frosting leftover to dye black for the Jack O’ Lantern’s face. Completely frost your crumb coated cake in your orange buttercream. Place in fridge to harden for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile make your candy ganache
Green Ganache
1/2 bag of dark green candy melts
1/4 cup heavy cream
Place candy in microwave safe bowl. Heat heavy cream in microwave until hot. Pour heavy cream over candy melts and mix until thickened liquid. If not melting enough, it’s okay to place in the microwave for a few seconds at a time. Let the ganache cool a bit but not too much because you still want it to be able to drip down the cake to represent the pumpkin’s leaves.
Spoon ganache over the top of the cake, making sure to leave an area on the side open for the face. Place a chocolate candy on top to represent the stem. Use your black frosting and a small round tip and piping bag to pipe on a Jack O’ Lantern face. And…that’s it! Happy Halloween!
