In Her Kitchen

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Halloween Jack O’Lantern Cake

Posted on | October 26, 2010 | by Jennifer | 5 Comments | Print Recipe

Hey Lauren,

My Jack O’Lantern cake was a huge hit at family night! I created two bundt cakes, chocolate of course, to create the shape of the pumpkin with an icecream cone stem. This cake was so fun! Feel free to make a pumpkin flavored cake to stick with the pumpkin theme; however I justified the chocolate (as I always do) because the black cake against the orange frosting are the very festive Halloween colors :) I baked the cakes and covered with a crumb layer last night and then finished decorating today. Enjoy!

xoxo,
Jennifer

Jack O’Lantern Cake

Source: AllRecipes.com & Disney Family Fun Magazine – altered
Servings: 16

Ingredients

Cakes

  • 2 (18.25 ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
  • 2 (3.9 ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
  • 4 cups sour cream
  • 2 cup melted butter
  • 10 eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Frosting

  • 2 16.2 ounce cans whipped cream cheese frosting
  • red food coloring
  • yellow food coloring
  • 1 tube green decorating frosting with tips

Jack O’Lantern Face

  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips
  • 10 yellow or white gum drops
  • 1 icecream cone

Directions

  1. Before you get started, please note that the cake ingredients above are for two bundt cakes. Divide the ingredients and mix the cakes separately because the ingredients are too much to mix in one bowl. However, it is fine to cook the cakes at the same time, so if you have two bundt cake pans, that will save on time. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 10 inch Bundt pan (or two if you have them).

  2. In a large bowl, stir together cake mix and pudding mix. Make a well in the center and pour in sour cream, melted butter, eggs and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until blended. Scrape bowl, and beat 4 minutes on medium speed.

  3. Blend in chocolate chips.

  4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Repeat steps for remaining half of cake ingredients. Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

  5. While cakes are baking, prepare the frosting by scooping both cans into a large bowl and adding the red and yellow food coloring. Add the food coloring in a little at a time, stirring after each addition, because you can always go darker, but you cannot go lighter unless you have more frosting on hand. The ratio I used is 4 drops of red for every 3 drop of yellow. I ended up using an entire .25 ounce of red, .25 ounce of yellow, and an extra cap full of red. For a darker orange, add more red. Some websites suggest that you can use brown food coloring for a more realistic shade of orange.

  6. After cakes have cooled completely (about 45 minutes), shave the tops with a bread knife until flat.

  7. Stack cakes on a plate with the flat sides together, aligning the grooves from the bundt cake pan.

  8. Using a spatula, add enough frosting around the middle of the cake horizontally to fill the seam where the two cakes are stacked together.

  9. To prevent crumbs from rolling into the topmost layer of frosting, create a crumb layer. You can do this by covering the entire cake with a thin layer of frosting, chilling the layer for about an hour in the refrigerator, and then add the remaining frosting over the chilled crumb layer.

  10. Add remaining frosting to desired thickness and texture creating vertical ridges with the spatula for each sweep. I prefer a bit of a rough texture so that it looks more realistic.

  11. I created the face using white and yellow gumdrops so that the eyes, nose, and mouth look as though it is lit up from the inside with a candle. Gumdrops are fairly easy to work with; however, they are very sticky. You will need to cover a sheet of wax paper with sugar (to prevent sticking), press each gumdrop firmly with a rolling pin, peel the gum drop off of the rolling pin, coat both sides of the gum drop with sugar, and then continue to roll until it is pressed to about an 1/8 inch thickness. I lined my gumdrops up side-by-side alternating colors (to give the illusion of a flickering flame), and then pressed the seams together by hand.

  12. I drew the face onto a piece of paper and cut out the pieces to use as a stencil. Before you start cutting, hold the face on paper up to the cake to make sure that it is the right size. Lay each piece onto the pressed gumdrops and cut around the shape using a sharp knife.

    *** Tip *** I was able to create two eyes and the nose using these four gumdrops and the mouth using five gumdrops.

  13. Turn an icecream cone upside down into the hole of the top bundt cake. Make sure that it does not slip into the hole by using green icing to secure it if necessary. Paint the cone with the green icing, again I like a rough texture for this as well. Create a vine pattern around the top of the cake, from the cone stem down the cake vertically using the tip on a decorating tube and alternating the lengths of each vine. A curly patterned vine looks best.

  14. Clean up any orange frosting that may be on the plate. Create a curly vine pattern around the base of the cake, where the cake meets the plate (this will hide the orange frosting buildup at base of the cake so that the cake looks round at the bottom).

  15. Heat the chocolate chips in the microwave for about 30 seconds and mix until well blended. To begin the face, start with the nose, as this will define the center point of the face on the pumpkin. Dip each side of the nose into the chocolate. This will help secure the pieces to the cake and outline the edges. Secure the piece in place onto the cake by pressing gently, and repeat steps for remaining pieces.

  16. Because the mouth was larger and more flimsy than the other pieces, it started to fall apart as I was dipping it in chocolate. I quickly pressed it into the cake and outlined the chocolate edges using a toothpick.

  17. Here you have the finished super chocolaty, super festive, double decker Jack O’Lantern cake. When I brought this into family night, the paparazzi swarmed with their cameras. It was a huge hit and everyone loved the flavor of the chocolate cake (my favorite chocolate cake recipe all time ever).

Filed Under: Chocolate, Dessert, From Scratch, Holiday

Comments

5 Responses to “Halloween Jack O’Lantern Cake”

  1. Eboni Ife'
    October 27th, 2010 @ 8:38 am

    This is so freaking cool! I don’t bake but the fiance does so I am going to send this to him.. Lol :)

  2. Jeannie
    October 27th, 2010 @ 9:01 am

    You did a FANTASTIC Job….missed your calling :o):o)

    xo
    Me :o)

  3. Jennifer
    October 27th, 2010 @ 2:41 pm

    thanks jeannie!!!

  4. Jennifer
    October 27th, 2010 @ 2:42 pm

    heeeeey eboni!!! thanks so much for checking out our cooking blog! the cake was a lot of fun (and yummy) so i hope your fiance will make it for you! let us know if he does :)

  5. Kat
    October 28th, 2010 @ 10:52 am

    OK, I have read all the directions and will move on to Phase 2 tonight, the best part! Decorating! Keep your phone handy just in case! Griffin is going to love this cake! Thanks for the awesome idea :)

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