Halloween is less than a week away, meaning only one thing – halloween baking!
This is one of my favourite times of year, mostly because its autumn and people are celebrating something that isn’t Christmas.
Although this bake isn’t the spookiest, its the darn tastiest – for sure. Consisting of 3 layers of chocolate cake, chocolate creme patisserie layers and a chocolate French buttercream, what’s not to like? Everything is super easy to make, this will certainly make a statement on through taste alone.
This isn’t for the fainthearted, only a true chocoholic would indulge in this cake due to its sheer chocolatey-ness that comes packed in.
Anyway, let’s get started, shall we?
Ingredients:
Cake:
350g butter, at room temperature.
350g granulated sugar.
6 eggs.
300g plain flour.
50g cocoa powder.
2.5 tsp baking powder.
1.5 tsp vanilla extract.
milk, optional (only if needed).
Chocolate creme patisserie:
250ml whole milk.
1 tsp vanilla extract.
60ml egg yolks.
50g granulated sugar.
30g plain flour.
20g cocoa powder.
100g dark chocolate chips.
Chocolate French buttercream:
250g granulated sugar.
62ml water.
70g egg yolks.
500g butter, softened to room temp.
35g cocoa powder.
125g milk/dark chocolate chips, melted and cooled.
Chocolate drip:
150g dark chocolate.
50g milk chocolate.
200ml double cream.
Method:
Before you get started on this recipe, you will want to do some prep. There are multiple elements to make, such as the cake, custard and buttercream – all requiring their own method, it takes time but when assembled and together – is well worth it. I recommend you start by weighing up all of your ingredients, lining your cake tins with parchment paper, getting any equipment you may need, such as a stands mixer, saucepan, whisk and spatula. You will also want to preheat your oven to 180˚c/350˚ƒ.
To get started, I like to start with the cakes – this is what takes the longest usually but you can start with any of the elements.
To start on the cakes, take a large mixing bowl and place in the butter and sugar, beating the two together until they are lighter and fluffier in colour and consistency (this usually takes around 7-10 minutes depending on your climate and temperature of your ingredients).
Once the butter and sugar mixture is light and fluffy, you can go ahead and start to add the eggs, one at a time, beating well in-between each addition. Repeating the process until you have used up all of the eggs. Now is also the perfect time to add in the vanilla extract – mix until its fully worked into the mixture.
Now take the dry ingredients and add them into the bowl, mixing on a low speed to start with, working your way up to a medium-high speed (just until a clear cake batter has formed).
Take the bowl and give it all one good sprang down, this is just to incorporate any of the bits that may not have been fully mixed in from earlier on. Then take the batter and divide it between the cake tins – ideally using a digital scale but by eye will work well if you’re confident. Spread and level out the cake batter as best you can, then place into the oven at 180˚c/350˚f for 30-35 minutes (or until a tester comes out clean, when inserted into the centre).
Anyway, while the cakes are baking in the oven, you can make the chocolate creme pat and chocolate French buttercream, in no particular order.
To make the buttercream, its really simple. I won’t type up the whole method and ingredients on this blog post but you can find them here. The only difference is the addition of cocoa powder and melted chocolate.
For the creme pat, I have a recipe already typed up for it – so check it out here. The only difference is the addition of cocoa powder and melted chocolate.
If you’re using simple syrup on the cake sponges, simply place equal amounts of water and sugar into a saucepan, bring to the boil and then cool fully before intending to use.
Once you have everything made and ready, you can start the assembly of the cake. To start, take a cake stand/board/plate and place a small blob of buttercream into the centre, then place your first layer off cake onto it, pressing down to secure it in place. Pipe a ring of buttercream around the outer edge off the cake (and a thin layer for inside of the ring), then fill in the centre of the ring with the homemade chocolate creme pat. Repeat the process u until all of the layers of cake have been used up.
I then like to pipe the buttercream around the cake, as neatly as possibly but it doesn’t need to be perfect, as when we are smoothing it out, it will fill many of the gaps. Take your scraper and scrape around the edge, until you have a smooth enough finish, this is really up to you but most like quite a neat finish.
Around the bottom edge of the cake, take your sprinkles and make a boarder around, I used halloween sprinkles but you can use whatever you like.
Chill the cake in the fridge for a minimum of 30-45 minutes, it makes the cake easier to work with and less likely to move while decorating.
To help keep things simple, I have decided to make a basic drip, which is where I place my chocolates into a bowl and pour over the hot cream, allow to sit for a moment, then stir until smooth and glossy. Transfer into a piping bag or or squeeze bottle.
Go around the outer upper edge and pipe your drips, a combination of both short and long ones will help enhance the look. Fill in the top of the cake with the remaining ganache, while its still sticky, use the same sprinkles from the bottom of the cake around the top edge and chill in the fridge until firm.
Chill in the fridge for a short while, before slicing. Then you can go ahead and enjoy!
That’s all for today guys, I hope you enjoyed. If you did, don’t forget to share this recipe with your family and friends and enjoy it. I’ll be back soon with another blog post and YouTube video, so join me then. In the meanwhile, don’t forget to check out my other social’s – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. The YouTube tutorial will be linked down below.
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