Vamp Attack Halloween Cake

It's Halloween time! I thought a vampire themed cake would be fitting this year as I spent most of my spare time reading vampire stories when I should have been writing blog posts. Its started with the Sookie Stackhouse (SVM/True Blood) books, then when the ending of those was an epic disappointment I moved on to fan fiction.

I've never been one to read fan fiction before, but after stumbling upon Bored to Death from ericizmine I'm hooked. Her stories, the multi-verse, are so intricate and well written that I've read each of them a number of times and am hanging out for new updates.

Getting back to Vamp attack cake. I made a red velvet cake figuring the deep red colour is nice and vampy and perfect for Halloween. The filling added to the look in all its raspberry deliciousness oozy gruesomeness. But the best part about the vamp attack cake? Its pretty simple to decorate.

The vampire bites were made easy thanks a set of plastic costume teeth, you know the ones that make you look like your wearing a mouth guard rather than having fangs. Who knew they'd have other uses than looking dorky, pressing the fake fangs into the outer fondant layer of the cake leaves a prefect bite mark. A bit of red makes the bites stand out against the stark white of the cake, giving you a yummy Halloween centrepiece.

Vamp Attack Cake (printable recipe)
600 grams white fondant
plastic vampire fangs

Raspberry Filling
2 cup fresh or thawed raspberries
6 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoon cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

To make the filling- Combine the raspberries, sugar, cornstarch, vanilla and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Cook, until the raspberries begin to break apart and lose their juices.

Press the mixture through a fine sieve to remove the majority of the pips, return the strained mixture to the pan, Stir, and cook until the filling boils and thickens (about 5 minutes). Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. While the filling is cooling make the cakes.

Put 2 tablespoons of the filling aside to make the fake blood for the outside of the cake.

Red Velvet Cake
3 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
170 grams butter, softened
2 cups sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
6 tablespoons red food colouring
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

To make the cake- Preheat your oven to 180°C. Grease and lightly flour two 8 inch cake pans, line the bottoms with baking paper circles and lightly flour the sides.

Add the butter and sugar to your mixer bowl, beat on medium until very light and fluffy, it will take a few minutes.

Add in the eggs, one at a time, beat well after each addition.

Stir the red food colouring, cocoa, and vanilla in a small bowl to form a paste . Add the red paste to the batter and mix well, evenly dispersing the colour.

Mix the salt into the buttermilk. Add a third of the buttermilk and a third of the flour to the batter, beat until just incorporated (do not over beat). Repeat with the remaining thirds.

Stir the vinegar and baking soda in a small bowl. Add to the batter and mix well.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl making sure all the ingredients are evenly mixed and the batter is smooth.

Divide the batter evenly between the two cake tins. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pans for 1 hour. Gently remove the cakes from the tins and allow to cool completely on a wire rack. While the cakes are cooling make the vanilla frosting.

Fluffy Vanilla Frosting
200 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 tablespoon of milk (if necessary)

To make the frosting- Beat butter with mixer on medium-high until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Switch the speed to low-medium so you don't end up in a cloud of sugar. Add the confectioners' sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down the side with a spatula. Add the vanilla and beat frosting on high for about 3 minutes, it will get very pale and be light and airy. If the frosting is too thick beat in a little milk.

Raspberry Chocolate 'Blood' Sauce
2 tablespoons raspberry filling
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon red food colouring
1 teaspoon chocolate syrup

To make the fake blood- Strain the raspberry filling to make sure there are not leftover seeds. Add all ingredients to a small bowl and mix well . The Chocolate syrup will give the fake blood a bit more realistic colour.

To Assemble the cake- trim the raised tops off each of the cakes. Cut each of the cakes into 2 even layers. ( I finally bought a cake cutting wire, its the best thing ever people! If you don't have one I'd really recommend it, even layers every time!)

Spoon roughly 1/2 of a cup of the vanilla frosting into a piping bag. Place bottom layer of cake onto plate. Pipe a ring of frosting around the edge of the cake to stop the raspberry filling escaping.

Spoon in a third for the raspberry frosting and smooth over. Top with the next layer of cake and repeat the piping and filling, finishing with the top layer of cake.

Spread a thin crumb coat of vanilla frosting over the entire cake.

Spoon on the remaining frosting and spread in a thicker smooth layer over the entire cake.

Dust your work surface (I use a silicone mat) with a little cornflour and roll out the fondant to roughly 7mm thickness. 

Drape the rolled fondant over the cake. Smooth the fondant over the cake, starting at the top then working down the sides. Pull the fondant away from the cake sides as necessary to avoid creases forming.

Run the fondant smoothers over the top and around the sides to get a nice flat Finish. 

Trim the excess fondant from the base of the cake with a sharp knife.

Now for the fun part. Press fang marks all over the cake using the plastic teeth.

Spoon some of the raspberry chocolate 'blood' into a small squeesy bottle. Fill each of the teeth marks with a little fake blood. Add drips and puddles where you like.

To make the spray splatter look, start by placing the cake on top of newspaper to ensure you do not make a mess. Make sure you cover the wall behind too.

Empty most of the remaining raspberry chocolate sauce from the squeezy bottle.The little bit of sauce left the the bottle should squeeze out in a splatter. The less sauce in the bottle the finer the spray with be. Go crazy and cover the cake as much as you like.

Have A fantastic Halloween Weekend!!

Zombie Graveyard Cake

October has gone way too fast!! There were so many more ideas I wanted to try before Halloween, but I am thankful I at least got to share this one because it is my favourite!

Zombie movies have always topped my fav scary film list and funny zombie movies are even better. Now I'm not talking the terrifying run really fast rage zombies, I like my undead slow, stumbling and searching for brains. Think Return of the Living Dead, which I watched again last weekend and laughed my butt off the whole way through! In fact it was the inspiration behind this cake.

Ever since I made the hearts inside valentines cake last year I've been wanting to use this technique again and what could be more fitting for Halloween then a graveyard cake bursting with zombies! Make it past the undead crawling out the top, slice into the cake and you'll find a surprise! Its full of bones (cake bones that is).

Making the cake isn't very difficult and if you often have cake off cuts like I do its a great way to us them up. If you don't have any spare off cuts it's as simple as baking a quick square of vanilla cake cutting out your bone shapes and baking them again inside your chocolate cake. Go as simple or as fancy as you like with the decorations as the real surprise is on the inside. I used chocolate fingers for the fence around the outside and crushed Oreos make a fantastically realistic graveyard dirt on top.

For the zombie graveyard cake you'll need-
Pre-baked white cake- I used half of my favourite vanilla cake recipe.
Chocolate Cake mixture (recipe at end of post)
Chocolate buttercream (recipe at end of post)
1 packet chocolate biscuit fingers
1 packet Oreos (cream filling removed and cookies crushed)
Small amount of green, orange and grey fondant

Making the fondant toppers
To make the zombie arm roll out a small length of light green fondant and slightly flatten one end. Cut off the other end and gently insert a toothpick about halfway up the arm.

Cut four slices into the flattened fondant to form a hand, add on small details like finger nails and cuts and scrapes with a toothpick . Curve the fingers over something round and leave to dry out.

Brush the fondant hands with some cocoa and red luster dust for that real zombie skin look.

To make the Pumpkin, roll a small amount of orange fondant into a ball and press down in the center to flatten slightly.

With a toothpick or lining tool draw on the ridges on the side of the pumpkin. Add a little stem to the top.

 Cut some little gravestone shapes out of grey fondant and insert a toothpick into the base of each.

Making the Graveyard Cake

Cut bones out of white cake with a cookie cutter.

Arrange bones inside your prepared cake tin.

 Scoop chocolate cake mixture over the top of the cake bones and spread evenly.

Bake cake according to recipe. 

Once the cake has cooled transfer to plate or cake board.

Spread a the top and sides of the cake with the chocolate buttercream, it doesn't need to be super neat as its covered up anyway.

Trim some of the chocolate fingers to different lengths to make the fence. Press the chocolate fingers around the outside of the cake.

Spread a layer of Oreo dirt over the top of the cake. If you like you can add some more Oreo dirt around the base of the cake, use some leftover chocolate frosting to stick it down.

Arrange the zombie hands and tombstones on the top of the cake.

Enjoy!!

Easy Chocolate Cake
125 grams butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2 tablespoons cornflour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
3/4 cup milk

• Grease 6 inch round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.
• Add butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla to bowl of electric mixer, beat until combined.
• Add the flours, cocoa and the milk and beat on medium speed until smooth and lighter in colour.
• Spread into prepared pan and bake for around 40 to 45 minutes or until a skewer into the middle comes out clean.
• Remove cake from oven, allow to cool 5 minutes before tuning out onto a wire rack. Cool top side up.

Chocolate Buttercream
90 grams butter
1 1/2 cups icing sugar
2 tablespoons dark cocoa
2-3 tablespoons milk

• Beat the butter with mixer until light and fluffy.
• Add the icing sugar, cocoa and milk, beat until the icing is smooth and spreadable.

Nesting Birds Baby Shower Cake and Cookies

I think baby showers might be my new favourite event. Birthdays are pretty cool, but a baby shower almost always guarantees a theme that is really cute. Like the nesting birds theme that inspired this cake and matching cookies... Cute!!

The cake and cookies were based on invitations and decorations that were being used for the baby shower, it's a very sweet design and I had a lot of fun with it.

The expectant parents had decided to keep the gender of the baby as a surprise, so the white, pink and blue birds kept people questioning.

I think my favourite touch on the cake were the three little birdies sitting on the side. The happy parents have three little boys and it was a lovely way to include them in the day, a great suggestion by the hostess.

Dinosaur Birthday Cake

I loved dinosaurs when I was little! For my 5th birthday I got a tape player and a bunch of tapes (those things that came before cds that came before Ipods). My favourites by far came with set of dinosaur books. The tapes told dinosaur stories and sang dinosaur songs and I thought they were the raddest thing ever. 

My inner five year old was very happy to be asked to make a dinosaur cake for a little boys 2nd birthday over the weekend. As long as it was green I was able to do what ever I liked, so I picked my favourite dinosaur (although its actually a tie between stegosaurus and triceratops) and had fun.

I ended up choosing to make a stegosaurus inspired cake because the plates would look really cool made out of fondant. The cake was made out of my favourite vanilla cake and frosted with vanilla buttercream. Steggy and parts of the base board were covered in fondant with the finishing touch of grass piped was on with left over buttercream.

Happy Birthday Dash!

Pink Ombre Vanilla Cake

This past weekend Butter Hearts Sugar turned 2!

Two years in I can't imagine not having this blog. Its my creative outlet, my recipe storage spot, a place to ramble, a place where I can talk cakes and cookies as much as I want without driving boyfriend nuts and sometimes its just my excuse to make yummy treats and not feel bad.

When I started this blog I had no idea anyone would actually read it, so thank you for all your visits, lovely comments and encouragement, you make me smile daily.

I've been making so many cakes for other peoples birthdays lately, sometimes resisting the urge to just cut a slice, sit down and enjoy it is pretty tough. I have never made myself a birthday cake, boyfriend's birthday is a few days before my own so I usually just make a cake for him. I decided my blogiversary was a great opportunity to make a cake just for me my blog. Nothing fancy just a fluffy vanilla cake with yummy airy vanilla buttercream exactly as I'd like it.

It might seem a little on the boring side, but I love vanilla cake. When that yummy vanilla cake is decorated with pretty pink ombre buttercream, well pretty sure you cant get any better than that. This recipe is very similar to the one I've mentioned in a number of recent posts (Lamington Vanilla Cake) with just a couple of changes to the ingredients. The main difference in ingredients is the changing from regular self raising to cake flour, I enjoy the texture cake flour gives and it takes it one step closer to a packet mix taste in a from scratch cake.

For the Vanilla Cake

3/4 cup milk 

5 egg whites 

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

2 3/4 cups cake flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 3/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

170 grams salt reduced butter (softened)

To make the cake- Grease and flour two 8 inch round cake pans and preheat oven to 180 degrees c.

Set aside 1/2 cup of the milk.

In a medium bowl combine the remaining 1/4 cup of milk, egg whites, vanilla extract and paste and set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer. Add the softened butter and the 1/4 cup of milk and mix on low to prevent flour going everywhere. When the ingredients come together increase speed to medium and mix until smooth, about a minute and a half.

Add the egg and milk mixture one third at a time, beating on medium for about 20 seconds between each addition. The mixture should be smooth and fluffy.

Divide the cake mix between the two prepared pans and smooth over the tops.

Place the cakes in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes keeping an eye on them toward the end to make sure they don't over cook. Test the middle of the cake with a metal skewer, if it comes out clean the cake is ready.

Allow cakes to cool in pans for about 10 minutes before turning out onto wire racks to cool completely. Cool top side up. While the cakes are cooling prepare the frosting.

Basic Vanilla Buttercream
200 grams salt reduced butter (softened)
6 cups icing sugar
pinch salt (optional)
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
pink food colouring gel

To make the buttercream- Add the butter to the bowl of an electric mixer, beat on medium until fluffy and very pale, for around 3 minutes. Turn the mixer down to low so you don't fill you kitchen with clouds of icing sugar. Gradually add the icing sugar and milk along with the vanilla and salt and mix until combined. Add a little more milk or sugar if necessary to get your desired consistency. Turn the mixer speed up to medium and beat for another 2 minutes until fluffy.

Divide the frosting into four bowls and colour to the desired shades of pink. Spoon the buttercreams into four piping bags fitted with plain round tips with a 1cm opening.

Trim off the domed tops of the cakes and sandwich the two layers together with some buttercream. Before decorating the cake cover the whole thing with a thin coat of frosting. This will stop any crumbs showing up and ensure no naked bits of cake peek through the decorations.

Starting at the top pipe a straight line of dots vertically down the cake. Start with the lightest colour at the top and end with the darkest at the bottom.

Using a small offset spatula or round ended butter knife, press gently on each icing dot and spread horizontally in the one direction.

Pipe a second line of dots over the trails of icing, continue piping and spreading the icing around the rest of the cake.

When you get to the last gap between the icing, finish with a line of  dots.

For the top of the cake use the same technique but work in circles, starting at the edge complete one circle at a time.

Once again work through the colours from light to dark.

Continue until the entire cake is covered.

 Yum!!