Haunted graveyard cake

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1. Video tutorial: Making meringues

1. To make the ghosts, heat oven to 110C/90C fan/gas ¼. Whip the egg white in a clean bowl until stiff peaks form. Whisk in the sugar a tbsp at a time and keep whisking for a couple of mins until the mixture is thick and resembles shaving foam. Gently spoon the mixture into a large freezer bag, then cut a 1.5cm hole in one of the corners. Cover a baking sheet with some baking parchment. Carefully squeeze a small circle of whipped egg white out of the bag, pulling upwards as you do to make a ghost shape. Repeat until the mixture is used up - you should get about 15 ghosts. Bake for 1½ hrs until crisp. Can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
2. Now make the cake. Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Tip the cocoa powder, self-raising flour and sugar into a large bowl, breaking up any clumps of sugar. Mix together the eggs, milk and oil in a measuring cup or bowl, then pour over the dry ingredients and stir everything together until smooth. Grease and line a deep baking dish (20 x 30 x 5cm) with baking parchment. Pour in the cake mixture and bake for 30 mins. Leave to cool, then turn out onto a serving plate. Alternatively, wrap well and store for up to 2 days.
3. Finish decorating the cake: heat cream in a saucepan until just boiling. Place the dark chocolate in a large bowl and pour over the hot cream. Stir until the chocolate melts. Use a clean brush to paint a layer of chocolate over 7 rich tea finger biscuits, then set aside to cool. Pour the rest of the chocolate mixture over the cake and smooth over with a knife. Whizz the chocolate cookies, or bash in a freezer bag with a rolling pin, until small crumbs form. Sprinkle over the top of the cake.
4. Place the white chocolate in a small bowl, set over a pan of simmering water. Leave for 5 mins or until melted, then spoon into a small freezer bag. Wait for 10 mins so the mixture is not too runny, then cut a tiny hole in one corner of the bag. Pipe out 2 small blobs onto each ghost, place a silver ball on each to make eyes, then pipe out suitable words and shapes on the gravestones. Leave for 30 mins to set, then push the biscuit gravestones into the cake and arrange the ghosts around. To get the ghosts to 'fly', push a thin wire (you can get these from a florist shop - remember to remove before eating) into the bottom of the ghost, then place in the cake, hiding the wire behind a gravestone.

721 kcalories, protein 9g, carbohydrate 95g, fat 36 g, saturated fat 11g, fibre 3g, salt 0.63 g

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• lally

  22 October 2009

  lally rated and commented on this recipe

  

  it looks great

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• jackie

  31 October 2009

  jackie commented on this recipe

  i made this for rainbows which they all enjoyed i did the grave stones and ghosts in sugar paste and stuck the biscuits on the cake with butter cream

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• rach

  01 November 2009

  rach commented on this recipe

  i did this cake for my sisters hallenween party and everyone enjoyed it

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• julie

  01 November 2009

  julie rated and commented on this recipe

  

  made this cake for my hubbys birthday which was yesterday,it easy to make and it is like eating a giant brownie.

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• Ali

  01 November 2009

  Ali rated and commented on this recipe

  

  I used this idea, but a different recipe. The sponge was similar, but the recipe I used was:http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/11269/sticky-chocolate-drop-cakes. From this I made a big square one (using a 26cm x 35cm tin), but any square shaped tin would have been fine. This tasted like chocolate heaven. I also used a green icing, to make it look more like a graveyard. The ingredient was; - 2 avocados stoned and peeled -150g desiccated coconut- 250g of icing sugar - 2tbsp of mint extract. 1/ Peel and stone the avocado's and blend, so is a paste and smooth. 2/ Combine the icing sugar, with coconut, then add fruit and extract. 3/ Whisk until combined and then cover cake. Did not make ghosts, but used headstone idea and used flake to look like dug up mud :) All over a smashing cake!!!

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• Julie3007

  01 November 2009

  Julie3007 rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Great centrepiece and will definately make again.

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• Belinda

  03 November 2009

  Belinda rated and commented on this recipe

  

  Absolutely fab and easy to make - especially as it's staged - the ghost were hit and miss but whatever the form the taste was great! A firm favourit as from NOW !

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• Lydia

  03 November 2009

  Lydia rated and commented on this recipe

  

  This cake looked fantastic, however I made it for a kids party and it just didn't work. It is a real grown up tasting cake - very dark and bitter, which is fine if that is what you are expecting, but not very good for a bunch of three to seven year olds. If I did it again, I would use a different icing and different cake mix for kids. For adults it would work fine.

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• dhende84

  06 November 2009

  dhende84 commented on this recipe

  Made two of these cakes and got nothing but good comments about the look and taste. I loved decorating it and the ghosts turned out really well. My only comments would be that the Dark chocolate topping was too bitter and I had to add a couple of tablespoons of sugar to sweeten it Next time I may use Nutella or another chocolate spread to save time and get the taste right). Also the white chocolate I used (Green & Blacks white chocolate) for sticking the silver balls onto the meringue didn't melt as well as the dark and I had to abandon the melted white chocolate completely and make icing instead to get the texture I needed to make them stick.

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Ingredients

TO DECORATE

• 1 egg white
• 50g icing sugar
• 200ml single cream
• 200g dark chocolate , finely chopped
• ½ a 250g pack rich tea finger biscuits
• 100g double chocolate cookies
• 25g white chocolate
• silver balls , to decorate

FOR THE CAKE

• 85g cocoa powder
• 200g self-raising flour
• 375g light brown muscovado sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200ml milk
• 175ml vegetable oil

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Difficulty and servings

Serves 10

Preparation and cooking times

Prep 45 mins

Cook min 2 hrs

Ingredients

TO DECORATE

• 1 egg white
• 50g icing sugar
• 200ml single cream
• 200g dark chocolate , finely chopped
• ½ a 250g pack rich tea finger biscuits
• 100g double chocolate cookies
• 25g white chocolate
• silver balls , to decorate

FOR THE CAKE

• 85g cocoa powder
• 200g self-raising flour
• 375g light brown muscovado sugar
• 4 eggs
• 200ml milk
• 175ml vegetable oil

721 kcalories, protein 9g, carbohydrate 95g, fat 36 g, saturated fat 11g, fibre 3g, salt 0.63 g

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