Spider Halloween Cake Recipe | Devour The Blog: Cooking Channel's Recipe and Food Blog

Oct 7

A Creepy, Crawly Spider Cake Recipe for Halloween

by Zoë François posted at 1:31 pm | 19820Comments (914)2011-10-07+17%3A31%3A59Zo%C3%AB+Fran%C3%A7ois

Before I had two boys it would never have occurred to me to put spiders on a cake. Thank god for little boys! Of course, there are deeper things that I have learned since parenting, but seeing the world through their eyes has made me happier, younger and sillier, which is such a gift.

Spiders on a cake are just plain creepy and a whole lot of fun. The marble cake will satisfy your cravings for both vanilla and chocolate. Nutella buttercream and bittersweet ganache spiders are the perfect finishing touches.

Spider Cake for Halloween

Marble Cake:
2 1/4 (7 1/8 ounces) cups sifted cake flour – sift it into the measuring cup
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 large eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup sour cream
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
6 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons cocoa powder

Nutella and Chocolate Buttercreams:
1 cup egg whites (about 8 large egg whites)
2 cups sugar
1 ½ pounds unsalted butter, softened
Pinch salt
½ cup nutella
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

Chocolate Ganache for Spider Body and Cobweb:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 tablespoons (2 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

Chocolate Spider Legs:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted

To make the marble cake:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare two 8-inch cake pans with parchment rounds and grease. Set aside.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time and mix after each, until well combined. Add the sour cream and vanilla.

Add the dry mixture in 3 batches, alternating with the milk.

Spider Cake Recipe for Halloween

Split the batter in half and sift the cocoa powder over one half. Stir gently to combine.

Spider Cake Recipe for Halloween

Place some of the white batter in the bottoms of the two 8-inch cake pans. Add the chocolate batter in blobs.

Spider Cake Recipe for Halloween

Very carefully stir the white batter into the chocolate, to achieve a marble pattern. Bake for about 25-30 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Once baked cool on a rack.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the buttercream:

Buttercream Recipe

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the egg whites and sugar. It will be very thick and grainy.

Put the bowl over a double boiler and stir it with a rubber spatula until the sugar is completely melted. Brush the sides down with the spatula to make sure all the sugar is melted.

Buttercream Recipe

Feel the egg mixture between your fingers to check for graininess. Once it is completely smooth, put the bowl on the mixer and beat with the whip attachment on medium high speed.

Buttercream Recipe

Whip until it is light, fluffy, glossy and the bowl feels just about room temperature. If the egg whites are not cooled off sufficiently it will melt the butter when you add it.

Once the egg whites are whipped and cooled, add the butter, 2 tablespoons at a time on medium speed.

Warning: After you have added about half of the butter, it may look curdled and runny, this is normal and you should continue adding the rest of the butter.

Buttercream Recipe

Once you have finished adding the butter and it has mixed on medium speed for about a minute the buttercream will be creamy and glossy looking again. Add the salt, and vanilla.

Divide the buttercream in two bowls, 1/3 in one bowl and 2/3 in the other. Add the nutella to the bowl with 2/3 of the buttercream. Add the cooled, melted chocolate to the other.

Unmold the cooled cakes and cut each later in half. Spread about 3/4 cup of the chocolate buttercream on the first layer. Repeat with the next two layers of cake and buttercream.

Top with the final layer of cake.