I’m no stranger to Halloween baking, as I do something every year, but this year I thought I would do something a little different, and bake a cake!
We don’t need an excuse for cake in our house in all honesty, so I thought it would be fun, to make something tasty, sweet and Halloween themed, basically so I could blog about it this month.
I usually do some baking every month or so, whether it’s brownies, cake, flapjacks or cookies, it’s fun to have a little treat in the house, and I find baking quite relaxing.
This weekend I made a simple sponge cake with blackcurrant jam and a delightfully berry coloured purple buttercream frosting, complete with fun themed sugar decorations, just so we’re clear it’s definitely Halloween baking.
What you need:
2 baking tins (I have 15cm sponge pans, but equal sized pans of around that will do; obviously you will get thicker or thinner cake depending on your pan sizes, so adjust accordingly.
Grease and line with parchment paper, to avoid sticking.
Preheat your oven to 190°c, fan 170°c, Gas Mark 5
- 150g softened butter
- 3 eggs
- 150g self raising flour
- 150g caster sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp milk
- Jam of choice (I used a very fruity blackcurrant conserve)
For the buttercream frosting:
- 125g softened and creamed butter
- 250g (approx) Icing Sugar
- A few drops of food colouring in blue and red
For more Halloween baking ideas check out my fun shortbread recipe here.
What you need to do:
Mix your eggs and butter until creamy, before folding in your dry ingredients, until you have a good batter.
Divide the batter between two pans and bake in the oven for 20 minutes, until a skewer or knife comes away clean on checking, allow to cool fully before decorating.
To make the frosting, fully cream your softened butter, slowly adding icing sugar until you reach the right taste and consistency, finally adding in your food colouring until fully mixed.
Decorating:
Spread one side of your cooled cake with a layer of jam, match this with the second cake spread with buttercream, and lay these covered sides together. Cover the cake in frosting, add any decorations you wish, and you are ready to serve!
Do you do any Halloween baking? Let me know in the comments, or find me over on Twitter!
