Halloween is just around the corner and it is a great excuse to get creative with your bakes. ( As if you need any more excuses that the excitement surrounding this year’s GBBO! I can’t wait for the final next week …eeekkkkkk) Because its also half-term, baking with kids around should involve easy recipes and loads of scope for little hands to get involved.
I decided to bake a delicious cake which, am sure little people will love to ‘help’ you bake, especially the chocolatey ‘graves’ that top that cake. This spookalicious Forgotten Graveyard cake depicts an old, derelict graveyard which most times lies forgotten outside a sleepy village. But on Halloween night, a strange grey slime starting sliding across the ground which has suddenly turned a blood red colour ….. all the old coffins are now surrounded by maggots that seem to be growing in numbers. The only witness to these horrors seems to be an old tree trunk and a rickety fence that is falling apart in many places… wait hang on.. what is that? A green alien hand or a zombie crawling out of the slime… who knows what will happen next….. 😉
Brrrr… 🙂 Am sure you and your little helpers can add more spooky effects to the cake! Just let their imagination run wild like I did. But first, let’s get to grips with the basics!
For my graveyard cake slab, I have followed a simple but brilliant Red Velvet cake recipe from here. Their triple-tested recipe is literally fool-proof so that folks like me can bake without worrying about any goof-ups. The only thing I have modified is the cream cheese frosting quantities to suit this particular bake. If you cannot find buttermilk use low fat pouring yoghurt, just add about 50 ml of water to bring up the total volume of buttermilk to 284ml
- 300 gm Icing sugar
- 250 gm unsalted melted butter
- 250 gm cream cheese
- Melt the softened unslated butter in the microwave for 30 sec
- Sieve the icing sugar into a mixing bowl
- Pour the butter over it and mix well
- Add the cream cheese
- Using a toothpaste add 2 drops of black food colouring and with another toothpick add 1 drop of ivory food colouring - they mix to give a spooky and slimy grey colour to the frosting
- Blend into a smooth paste with a hand blender for almost 4 minutes or until the mixture is smooth and the sugar granules are totally mixed into the butter and cream cheese
- To decorate the cake I only used a small amount and after my nephews had a go at decorating I slathered on the remaining slime all over the cake slab - made for a very happy 2 year old 😉
- Of you would rather not use up the whole buttercream, simply change the colour to anything you fancy and freeze - keeps for 3 weeks in an airtight box in the freezer
- To use thaw overnight in the refrigerator and blend for minutes to get the same texture again
- Once thawed use it all up, do not refreeze
For the chocolate coffins:
- Cadburys dairy Milk bar
- Mixed nuts roughly chopped
- Break up the chocolate bar into a glass bowl and place it over a vessel containing boiled water
- Use a spatula to mix in a handful of roughly chopped mixed nuts into the chocolate
- If you want to use any strong flavours then use a bar of chilli or salted caramel flavoured chocolate or any flavour that takes your fancy
- Spoon mixture into coffin shaped moulds and allow to set in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes
- Once set, they should come off the mould pretty easily
- Place them on the graveyard cake however you like
- This mixture makes 6 coffin shaped chocolate cake toppers
To make the alien hand I used a tiny amount of green coloured sugar frosting and ‘painted’ nails using black food colour and a toothpick. For the tree stump I have used a Cadburys flake and for the chocolate fence surrounding the graveyard perimeter, I used mint chocolate sticks. A small amount of cream cheese frosting applied using a toothpick serves as edible glue to attach the sticks to the sides of Forgotten Graveyard cake. The ‘maggots’ on the graveyard cake are simply shaved chocolate curls.
What I really want to mention here is though that I used my new OXO non-stick pro cake tin and am very happy with the result. The tray is sturdy and my cake came off very easily, thanks to the two-layer coating which is PFOA-free, and ceramic-reinforced. This also makes this gorgeous cake tin scratch, stain, corrosion and abrasion resistant. I didn’t need to use baking parchment – which I find very fiddly. The reason the cake came off so easily was the beautiful micro-textured pattern which allows for even baking.
And after my cake completely cooled I moved it to my superb new OXO non-stick Pro commercial grade baking plate. This wide baking sheet gave me enough surface area, around the bake to decorate and display my creation, making it really easy to photograph it too. Spreading the grey ‘slime’ cream cheese frosting was a doddle thanks to the handy OXO bent icing wand.
Image courtesy OXO
Now if you are wondering how you can get your hands on these gorgeous OXO non-stick baking accessories, I have some exciting news for all of you. One of you can win a set of baking gear from OXO worth £50 as a special festive treat! How? All you need to do win this cool bakeware bundle worth £50 from OXO is to enter the giveaway below:
Good Luck!
CONGRATULATIONS to the winner Sidrah A and Thanks to everyone who participated!
Please have a read through the Terms and Conditions below:
- One lucky winner will be picked automatically by Rafflecopter.
- Deadline for entering this contest is 26th Nov’ 2017 midnight GMT.
- Entry is open only to residents of the U.K, except Scotland and Ireland.
- All entrants must be 18 years old and above.
- Increase your chances of winning by visiting daily and tweeting out the pre-recorded tweet, provided you have completed all other steps the first time when they enter.
- The giveaway prize as mentioned is a bakeware bundle worth £50 from OXO consisting of a Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Tin, 11″ Balloon Whisk, 7 Piece Measuring Cup Set and a Bent Icing Knife.
- Neither OXO, nor I am liable for any damage of giveaway prize in transit.
- Please allow a minimum of 15 days for delivery of the prize, which may reach earlier or later. The giveaway prize will be sent directly by OXO.
- The prize is as stated: it is non- transferable and no cash or any other alternatives are available.
- I retain the right to DISQUALIFY any entrant who does not complete all the steps mentioned above.
- The winner will be notified on 27th Nov’ 2017 on Twitter by me and here on my blog post. I shall tag the winner on Twitter via their twitter id. If you are declared as the winner you agree to allow me and OXO to contact you via email id and share your details with OXO who will arrange for the goody bag to be sent out to you, to have your name announced here on my blog post and on Twitter.
- If the winner fails to respond by 30th Nov’ 2017 then another winner will be chosen at Random.
*With thanks to OXO. *Sponsored posts help me keep my blog going and I can continue sharing fun recipe ideas with all of you.
