Haunted graveyard cake
Cooking time
Prep: 45 mins Cook: 2 hrsSkill level
Moderately easyServings
Serves 10The perfect centrepiece for a Halloween celebration, this cake is guaranteed to make your party extra spooky
Nutrition and extra info
Nutrition
- kcalories
- 721
- protein
- 9g
- carbs
- 95g
- fat
- 36g
- saturates
- 11g
- fibre
- 3g
- sugar
- 66g
- salt
- 0.63g
Ingredients
To decorate
- 1 egg white
- 50g icing sugar
- 200ml single cream
- 200g dark chocolate, finely chopped
- 125g 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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Method
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Recipe from Good Food magazine, October 2009
Comments, questions and tips
Comments
I made this recipe vegan so my husband could have some, this review is more for the concept and decoration than the actual cake.
For anyone interested, I veganized the ganache by simply subbing coconut milk for heavy cream. We found vegan cookies and we made icing to draw on the gravestones and to make the ghosts. We only had red candy balls on hand for the ghosts eyes, but I actually feel like it looked better this way, giving the ghosts a spooky touch.
I highly recommend this as a recipe to get little ones interested in baking. I made this with my son and he was enthralled every step of the way!
I took this cake to a Halloween party and every child who saw it gasped! It looks amazing and tastes amazing! Moist, not too sweet and it was incredibly easy to make! Instead of dark chocolate, I used milk chocolate and substituted the cookies with kit kats whizzed with a bit more chocolate!!! And thanks to all of the above reviews, I ditched the white chocolate and went with icing! Will definitely be making this again next year for Halloween and using the cake recipe for the next time I have a craving for chocolate cake!!
I took this cake to a Halloween party and every child who saw it gasped! It looks amazing and tastes amazing! Moist, not too sweet and it was incredibly easy to make! Instead of dark chocolate, I used milk chocolate and substituted the cookies with kit kats whizzed with a bit more chocolate!!! And thanks to all of the above reviews, I ditched the white chocolate and went with icing! Will definitely be making this again next year for Halloween and using the cake recipe for the next time I have a craving for chocolate cake!!
I took this cake to a Halloween party and every child who saw it gasped! It looks amazing and tastes amazing! Moist, not too sweet and it was incredibly easy to make! Instead of dark chocolate, I used milk chocolate and substituted the cookies with kit kats whizzed with a bit more chocolate!!! And thanks to all of the above reviews, I ditched the white chocolate and went with icing! Will definitely be making this again next year for Halloween and using the cake recipe for the next time I have a craving for chocolate cake!!
made this yesterday, but split the cake mix between 2 round cake tins so make 2 seperate graveyards (one for home and one for work!!) my gravestones have gone soggy but they still taste good. maybe coating them in pure melted chocolate would stop them going soggy, but am quite happy with them covered in ganache. yummy yummy!!