Halloween Cakes

Halloween can be an exciting time for both young and old, and the right Halloween cake can only add to the fun. Though experienced bakers can make elaborate creations using their favourite recipes and decorations, even children can create cute cakes that make a hit at their party or activity. Before beginning the Halloween cake making extravaganza, it might be best to gather ingredients and materials that could be useful in the creation of spooky creatures such as spiders, ghosts, black cats, and monsters. For more inspiration, look at pictures of cakes online or in magazines, or just let your imagination run wild!  The following list includes some easy ideas for decorating Halloween cakes: 

• Red hot candies, nuts, chocolate chips, M & M’s, gumdrops, or raisins for eyes

• Red and black licorice for legs,tongues, spider webs or tentacles

• Gummy worms for effect

• Large and small marshmallows for creating appendages

• Skittles for spots

• Candy Corn for teeth or noses

• Chocolate and vanilla icing

• Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, and caramel ice Cream topping in squeeze bottles 

Once any useful ingredients have been gathered for creating the most creative Halloween cakes ever, it is time to begin cooking the actual cake components. Useful parts and pieces might include cake batter cooked in small coffee cans or other round tins, cupcakes, miniature muffin shapes, regular-sized round cakes, or even batter cooked in cornbread fritter pans or metal bowls can be helpful. One good tip for baking cakes when kids are helping is to use a cake mix mixed with one can of some type of cola. Children then do not have to deal with eggs or oil, and the process goes more smoothly. 

Once these cake parts are cooled, they can be used to construct a variety of Halloween cake critters. Some of the easiest to create are the following: 

• Large and small spiders

• Jack-O-Lanterns or pumpkins

• Bats

• Ghosts

• Skulls

• Graveyards

• Coffins

• Eyeballs

• Black cats

• A haunted house

These homemade cakes can be as simple or as extravagant as one wants to make them and can be individualized according to the preference of the baker. Use the icing to glue pieces together and the ice cream topping to fashion spider webs and other wiggly lines as needed. Decorate a whole cake on top by making it into a graveyard with tombstones in various shapes, or cut pieces from cake forms to create bats and snakes. Let younger children use cupcakes to from smaller critters with several arms and legs and a variety of unique eyes made from marshmallows, candies, or chocolate chips. Add strange arms, legs and tails with bits of licorice to take some of the scary away and keep everyone giggling. Young kids also enjoy using candy corn for Jack-O-Lantern teeth or for silly bat ears. Let older children add some gory blood to the brains and eyeballs using the strawberry icecream topping. 

When it comes to themed Halloween cakes, imagination and fun are the words for the day. Bakers sometimes surprise themselves as they let their creative sides take over during this wonderfully entertaining holiday.