Jack-O-Lantern Cake

Casually trying to carve frosting in 90+ degree weather. # 363: Jack-O-Lantern Cake

Took a break from carving pumpkins this year and decided to carve frosting instead. Because, why not?

Unfortunately, this brain wave struck at the beginning of a 90+ degree heatwave and I don’t have A/C. Did that stop me from using the oven? Nope. (So sorry, Nathan!)

My original plan was to have the orange layer of frosting as the top so it would be as pumpkin-y as possible. But I have zero regrets – I love how the colors pop with the charcoal layer on the top!

The cake hiding beneath all this fluffy frosting is the chocolate malt cake recipe I first tried out in 2021. So. Freaking. Good. It involves a sugared coffee cake soak, but with the heat melting my brain, I accidentally mixed the extra sugar meant for the soak into the batter. Luckily there weren’t any noticeable consequences! I did pull it out of the oven earlier than it called for to avoid any burning/caramelization along the sides and bottom.

The malt powder I have is already mixed with cocoa powder. Too much chocolate you say? Impossible.

It’s one of those glorious mix-with-just-a-spoon kind of recipes, since it uses oil instead of butter. Using a fat that is liquid at room temperature consistently results in a moist cake, which is essential when you’re planning to bury it under four layers of buttercream. Having a dry cake under all of that would be criminally disappointing.

Voila!

The coffee soak is a double whammy: more flavor (yum) and extra insurance against a dry crumb.

Sometimes you have the perfect amount pink sprinkle crunch Swiss meringue buttercream from a previous project in the freezer, and it feels like a sign. (A sign to eat more cake? Clearly.)

I went in search of an American buttercream that wasn’t just butter and sugar, and stumbled on this one. It has milk added in to help keep the texture smooth and to save it from a dense buttery fate.

I used half amaretto and half vanilla for the flavoring, to finish up the last splash in a giant bottle. Recycling that bad boy was so satisfying.

Tell me why these are the most Halloween colors ever? My “spooky” bakes are always more cutesy than creepy, but I guess I balance out all the bloody brain cakes making the rounds on Instagram.

Light grey darkened to deep charcoal after immersion blending it and letting it chill in the fridge for awhile. This color would have been perfect for tombstones though! **Note to self for future Halloween bakes.

The heat made this more of a logistical nightmare than I originally thought… I ended up bringing in a hard-sided cooler to hold food from the freezer so I could have a cake-shaped spot for this baby to chill between frosting layers. Sometimes inspiration strikes at very inopportune times.