Happy Halloween!

Really? Happy?

I’m not sure ‘happy’ really goes with the gruesome Halloween horror theme I’ve got going on here…

 

Alright, so I get that my cake design is a far cry from the more festive candies, cobwebs and carved pumpkins that stir up a sort of childlike excitement, rather than leaving you feeling, frankly, just plain creeped out… But it’s still in the spirit of Halloween, isn’t it?

 

All Hallows’ Eve is a celebration dedicated to remembering the dead. What a Bloody Valentine Cake has to do with that I couldn’t tell you… But, if you’re having a halloween bash and are looking for a showstopper centrepiece to top off the gruesome decor… I’m quite sure this cake will hit the mark!

  

It’s also weirdly satisfying to trash a perfectly good cake…

My favourites for this bake…

  

Click the image to shop the product.

 

Bloody Valentine Halloween Cake

Ingredients

For the Rum Red Velvet Cake

Yield: one 2 layer 4″ cake (+ a cupcake or two)

160g (1 cup) plain flour
3g (1/2 tsp) baking soda
4g (3/4 tsp) baking powder
2g (1/3 tsp) salt
20g (4 Tbsp) cocoa powder
200g (3/4 cup + 3 Tbsp) caster sugar
120ml (1/2 cup) almond oil
1 egg
120ml (1/2 cup) buttermilk
50ml dark rum
5ml (1 tsp) white vinegar

For the Sponge Cake

Yield: one 3 layer 8″ cake

250g plain flour
25g (2 Tbsp) baking powder
4 large eggs
250g butter
235g (1 cup) caster sugar
10ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
45ml (3 Tbsp) whole milk

For the Blood (Raspberry Sauce)

600g raspberries
300g caster sugar
3 small oranges (juice only)
30ml water
cocoa powder
red food colouring

For the Buttercream

40g plain flour
240ml milk
235g caster sugar
250g butter
50g dark chocolate
50g milk chocolate
cocoa powder

For the Fondant

I cheated…. I’m ashamed to admit it, but it’s true.
Have a look at Delia’s recipe here if you’d like to give it a go.
I used Dr. Oetker Regal-Ice Ready to Roll Icing. You will need close to 1kg for this cake.

For the Ganache

100g dark chocolate
100ml double cream
1 Tbsp golden syrup

Method

For the Blood (Raspberry Sauce)

Start with the sauce so that it has time to cool and set. Place the raspberries, sugar and orange juice into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until the berries have broken down completely, 10 to 15 minutes should suffice.

Tip: Add a touch more water if the mixture becomes too thick, you can always reduce it down if you add too much.

Push the mixture through a sieve so that you are left with a smooth, seedless sauce. Add half a tsp or so of cocoa powder and some red food colouring to achieve desired colour, then set aside to cool completely.

 

For the Rum Red Velvet Cake

Preheat oven to 165°C/325° F/Gas Mark 3, then grease your 4″ (10 cm) cake tins and line the base with baking paper.

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl and set aside.

Whisk together the sugar and oil in a separate bowl, then add in the rest of the wet ingredients – the egg, rum, buttermilk, and white vinegar.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture bit by bit, beating after each addition.

Fill your four inch cake tins, leaving at least an inch at the top, then divide the remaining batter into cupcake tins for some sneaky tasters.

If you have two 4″ tins, you can bake these side by side. Back for 30 mins, or until cake skewer comes out clean.

 

For the Sponge Cake

Preheat oven to 180°C/350° F/Gas Mark 4, then grease an 8″ (20 cm) cake tin and line the base with baking paper.

Place all of the ingredients into a large bowl and beat.

Honestly, it’s that simple!

Divide your batter evenly in three, using a kitchen scale if you have one, then bake each layer for 30 minutes.

  

For the Buttercream

Whisk together the milk and flour until there are no lumps remaining, then heat gently in a saucepan, stirring as it thickens. Once the mixture has thickened continue to stir it over the heat for a minute or so, then turn off the heat and set aside to cool completely.

Beat butter until smooth, then add in the caster sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy.

Add in the cooled cooked flour mixture and beat until sugar has dissolved.

Take two thirds of the buttercream and add around 30g of your prepared raspberry sauce, then add a little food colouring and cocoa powder to achieve desired colouring.

Gently melt 50g of dark chocolate and 50g of milk chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave, then set aside to cool.

Beat the melted chocolate into the remaining third of buttercream. Once you’ve assembled the bottom sponge cake, you can add the leftover red buttercream to the chocolate (see Assembling your cake below).

 

Assembling Your Cake

Level your cake layers using a cake cutting wire if you have one. With tiered cakes it is important that your cake layers are level for stability.

Tip: use cake boards. I only didn’t because I couldn’t find the correct sizes before I had to make my cake! Clearly I still managed to make the cake without them, but if you are making this cake for an occasion or to share with anyone you want to impress, then use cake boards.

Place one layer of your sponge cake onto a cake board or cake stand, then pipe a border around the edge of the cake with the red buttercream and fill the centre with raspberry sauce. Place the next layer of sponge cake on top and repeat. Place the final layer on top, then refrigerate before crumb coating.

Crumb coat your cake generously with the red buttercream, you won’t be using a second layer of buttercream. At this point, if you have any red buttercream leftover you can mix this in with the chocolate buttercream.

Roll out 725g of fondant icing to about 5mm thickness, then lift this onto your cake using your rolling pin. Smooth the edges down, trimming off the excess, then smooth the seams with a smoother if you have one, or just with your hands. You’ll be Halloweenising this cake with gashes and blood later, so don’t fret if it’s not perfect!

Set the cake aside.

Place one of the Rum Red Velvet layers onto a 4″ cake board, then spread a layer of buttercream on top. Be generous, there is only one layer of buttercream in this cake! Place the remaining rum red velvet layer on top. If you find the buttercream is very soft, refrigerate the cake before crumb coating – this will firm up the buttercream so that it doesn’t spill out the sides.

Roll out about 225g of fondant icing to a 5mm thickness, then place it onto the crumb coated red velvet cake as above.

 

Place the small cake on top on the larger cake.

For the Ganache

Gently melt the chocolate, cream and golden syrup over a double boiler or in the microwave, then set aside to cool slightly. For this cake, I wanted the ganache to be messy so I made it thick and let it cool quite a bit before pouring over the cake.
Pour the ganache over slowly, pushing it to the edges and coaxing it over bit by bit so that you don’t spill onto the lower cake.

Decorate the cake with whatever you fancy – I used some of the leftover fondant icing, cutting strips and then rolling them into little rosettes by pinching one end. Sort of how I did with the chocolate in this post.

Finally, make a few cuts in the fondant layer, opening them up with a paring knife, then drizzle a bit of the raspberry sauce in the cut. Don’t hold back – splatter the cake with as much raspberry sauce as you can handle, it’s morbidly satisfying.

 

When you take the top cake off to serve, garnish the middle with some fresh raspberries and drizzle with raspberry sauce. I also used rose petals and edible shimmer pearls to decorate the cake.

 if you have any raspberry sauce leftover at this point, drizzle it down the sides of each slice for a delightfully gruesome effect…

Enjoy… x