Milk Chocolate Graveyard Cake Food

GRAVEYARD CAKE

Steps:

• In a bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda and salt; set aside. In a saucepan, combine butter, water and cocoa; bring to a boil over medium heat. Add to flour mixture; beat well. Beat in sour cream and eggs. , Pour into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 35-38 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack for 5 minutes., Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine butter, milk and cocoa; bring to a boil. Remove from the heat; stir in sugar and vanilla. Pour over warm cake. Crumble chocolate cookies; sprinkle over frosting while still warm. Cool completely. , For tombstone, use icing to decorate vanilla cookies with words or faces; place on cake. For ghosts, make mounds of whipped topping; use icing to add eyes and mouths as desired. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour. Just before serving, add pumpkins and gummy worms if desired.

MILK CHOCOLATE GRAVEYARD CAKE

Steps:

• For the cake: Put a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 (9 by 2-inch) nonstick round cake pans. Line the bottom of each with a round of parchment paper, and then butter the paper.
• Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together onto parchment paper. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 4 or 5 minutes. Add your eggs, 1 at a time, mixing until completely incorporated before adding each additional egg. Mix in the chocolate and vanilla, making sure to combine really well. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the dry ingredients, alternating with the buttermilk, in 3 batches, starting and ending with the flour mixture. Make sure to let it mix thoroughly.
• Pour half the batter in each pan and spread evenly with a spatula or butter knife. Bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 25 minutes. Remove the pans to racks and allow the cakes to cool for 10 minutes or so. Loosen the edges of the cake from the pan with a knife, then turn them onto the racks. Remove the paper and let the cakes completely cool.
• To assemble: Put some Milk Chocolate Buttercream on top of 1 cake layer, pushing out to the sides a bit. Sprinkle some ground up chocolate wafers on top. Place the other cake layer on top and flip it over so the flat surface is up. Ice with the rest of the buttercream. Don't try to make it perfectly smooth, the more bumpy it is the better, we're creating a graveyard!
• With your black gel, write out RIP on the chocolate sandwich cookies to make them look like gravestones.
• Sprinkle more ground wafers on top of the cake to look like dirt. Pat some more around the sides. Take your chocolate tree and put right through the cake in the back. Add some gravestones and some pumpkins. And the chocolate bones, pressing into the sides like an X. Arrange chunks of rock candy around.
• Combine the butter, salt and 2 cups of the confectioners' sugar in a mixer with the whisk attachment. Beat until light and fluffy. Add the melted chocolates, vanilla and the remaining 3 cups sugar. Whisk on medium-high until smooth and fluffy.
• Put the chips in a heatproof glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir to melt. Fill a zip top bag with the melted chocolate and pipe it out on a baking sheet lined with foil in the shape of a tree. Let cool.
• Put the chips in a heatproof glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir to melt. Add the melted butter to the chips to make the mixture more workable. Take your pretzel stick and push a marshmallow on each side. Coat in the white chocolate, and let dry on parchment paper.

PUMPKIN CAKE GRAVEYARD

Steps:

• For the pumpkin cake: Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• In a large bowl, combine 2 boxes of the pound cake mix, 1 stick of the butter, 4 of the eggs, 1 can of the pumpkin puree and 2 teaspoons of the pumpkin pie spice. Mix with a handheld electric mixer on high speed until blended, about 1 minute. Pour into the prepared Bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes.
• Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then unmold onto a wire cooling rack. Repeat the process to make a second Bundt cake.
• Once the cakes are cooled, level off the bottoms with a serrated knife so the cakes will sit flat. Place one of the cakes cut-side up and spread the vanilla frosting over it. Place the second cake, cut-side down, on top to form a pumpkin.
• For the glaze: In a medium bowl whisk together the confectioners' sugar, cream cheese, milk and food coloring. (The glaze should be a bright orange color; add a few more drops of food coloring if needed.) The mixture will be very thick but still pourable. Place the pumpkin cake on a baking sheet fitted with a wire rack. Slowly pour the glaze over the top, moving in a circular motion around the top of the cake and letting the glaze drip down the sides. Set aside until set, about 1 hour.
• Wrap some fruit leather around the green ice cream cone and press it into place upside down on the cake to form a stem. Dust a work surface with confectioners' sugar, place some fruit leather on top, and cut out a leaf with a leaf-shaped cookie cutter. Press the leaf into place on the cake near the stem.
• For the graveyard: Spray an 18-by-13-inch baking sheet with nonstick cooking spray and line with parchment; spray the parchment.
• Prepare both boxes of brownie mix according to the package instructions and pour into the prepared baking sheet. Bake according to the package instructions. Let cool completely, then remove from the pan and place on a large cutting board.
• Frost the top of the brownie sheet with the chocolate frosting. Slice about 60 of the chocolate ladyfingers in half crosswise. Press the halved cookies, cut-side down, side-by-side around the top edge of the frosted brownie sheet to form a fence. On one of the long sides of the brownie sheet, leave a 3-inch opening in the fence to create an entrance. Place 2 whole ladyfingers on either side of the opening to form the gate entrance. Place another whole ladyfinger on top of the two ladyfingers to make the top of the gate, using a little bit of frosting to adhere it.
• Cover the top of the frosted brownie with the crumbled chocolate cream-filled cookies to make dirt. Place the pumpkin cake in the center of the graveyard.
• To make the gravestones, place the rectangular cookies and vanilla wafer sandwich cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Spray both sides of the cookies with the silver spray food coloring.
• Use a knife to cut slits into the brownie to hold the gravestones. Carefully place the gravestones into the slits.
• Place the small candy pumpkins and marshmallow ghosts in the graveyard around the pumpkin. Serve immediately.

HAUNTED GRAVEYARD CAKE

Steps:

• 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.