Sign From Above Cake (Halloween Cake)

Today, I’m excited to show you this over the top, but simple high fashion Skull Cake with dripping blood. It’s a red velvet cake layered with Swiss meringue buttercream and a show stopping mound of white chocolate skulls that bleed strawberry goo.

Hey guys! Every now and then I’ll make something and look at it and think, ok, I love it but I’m not sure anyone else is gonna love it. I didn’t think you guys would like this cake when I made it back in 2018. Boy was I wrong! I thought this cake was too simple, but it is by far my most highly liked and viewed cake on social media. You guys go berserk every time I post it . And I’ve thought about it. I think the simplicity is what you guys like right? Cos other than that, I can’t figure it out lol.

Anyway, it’s worth noting that this cake was inspired by Lady Gaga’s character in American Horror Story: Hotel. The countess was one of my all-time fave characters on that show and fave character she’s ever played. If you’ve watched her in the show, you’ll see the link between the design of this cake and her look on the show.

Nicks favorite thing…

I mean, isn’t it obvious. My favorite thing is what everyone else’s favorite thing is! The skulls and the perfect blood drips coming out the eyes! From a photographic point of view they look perfect. Back when I made over the top cakes and desserts, that was basically my entire job. Making sure they looked perfect before I photographed but with drips it can be so hit and miss. Not with this cake. Got it in one. Yeah, I’ve got tickets on myself.

What does it taste like?

I adore red velvet cake recipe. In fact it’s my favorite cake and cupcake flavor. Coupled with cream cheese frosting which is perfectly creamy and tangy, it’s so yum! The skulls on top are made of white chocolate. The drips of red coloured glucose syrup for the perfect drip consistency.

What are the ingredients I need?

• All-purpose flour – also known as plain flour.
• Caster sugar – also known as superfine sugar.
• Cocoa powder – I used unsweetened cocoa powder. Make sure you use a good wuality cocoa powder.
• Baking powder – Helps the cake rise.
• Bicarb soda – also known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda. Helps the cake rise and reacts with the acid in the cocoa powder.
• Salt – I used fine salt.
• Eggs – I used large eggs at room temperature.
• Vegetable Oil – helps make the cake moist. You can use sunflower oil in it’s place.
• Buttermilk – This helps give the cake a nice moist texture.
• Vanilla Extract – Always use good quality vanilla extract when baking, it makes a huge difference. I have a great recipe here for it if you’d like to try your own!
• Liquid Red food dye – yeah, there’s a fair bit in this recipe. And no, you can’t sub it with another ingredient if you want to get the same result as I did in this recipe.
• Swiss Meringue Buttercream Frosting – Super smooth and totally delicious. Perfect for shiny, sharp cake edges! Grab the recipe here!
• White chocolate – melt in the microwave or over a double boiler but melt gently and not quickly because white chocolate burns quickly.
• Corn syrup – also known as glucose syrup.

My Top Tips!

• Make sure you melt the chocolate gently and not quickly as white chocolate can burn. I like doing this using a double boiler.
• I would recommend making the skulls at least one day in advance to allow them time to set before using. It’s a lot of skulls, and unless you haver multiple molds, this is going to take some time and patience!
• Make sure you add a support system in the cake when you crumb coat it, as shown in the video, to make sure the skulls don’t collapse on the cake.
• Make sure you add the skulls right before you’re serving.

Other Recipes You Might Like!

• Bad romance cupcakes – a red velvet cake with chocolate spikes!
• Neon Graveyard Cupcakes – Gorgeous neon rods sitting on top of a midnight black cupcake.
• Candy Apple Cupcakes – Apple bobbing but in cupcake form anyone?

Sign From Above Halloween Skull Cake

A perfectly spooky red velvet cake, covered in American buttercream frosting and topped with a mountain of white chocolate skulls with blood dripping out of the eyes.

Serves 20

4.7 from 3 votes

Author: Nick Makrides

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep: 1 hour hr

Cook: 45 minutes mins

Total: 2 hours hrs 30 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Calories: 325kcal

---

Ingredients

Cake

• ▢ 400 g all-purpose flour, plain flour
• ▢ 320 g caster sugar, superfine sugar
• ▢ 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• ▢ 2 tsp baking powder
• ▢ 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda, baking soda
• ▢ 1/2 tsp fine salt
• ▢ 3 large eggs, 55g each
• ▢ 190 g vegetable oil
• ▢ 300 g buttermilk
• ▢ 7 g vanilla extract
• ▢ 20 g red liquid food dye

Frosting

• ▢ 3 batches of Swiss Meringue Frosting

Skulls

• ▢ 1 kg white cooking chocolate, melted

Blood Drips

• ▢ 1 cup corn syrup
• ▢ 2 tbsp liquid red food dye
• ▢ 1/2 tsp strawberry flavoring

---

Learn How To Make it! [VIDEO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8R67FjHjb0

---

Instructions

Blood drips

• To make blood drips, combine corn syrup and red food dye together and mix well.

Skulls

• Skull mold – I used a skull mold that I bought from amazon. The exact name of the mold is ‘3D Skull Silicone Ice Cube Mold Tray’ If you google that it will come up with the one that I bought. The mold comes in two parts. The important thing with these skulls is that you don’t have weird air bubbles, so we’re going to fill the mold up in two sections. Firstly though, you want to make sure the white chocolate is warm (not burnt people lol) and not too stiff.
• To form the chocolate skulls – Fill the face part of the mold first. I piped the chocolate in using a piping bag. Gently tap the mold against your work bench to allow the chocolate to settle into the mold properly. Place the second half of the mold on top of the face part and fill the rest of the mold with chocolate. Tap against the work bench again and place in the freezer for 20 min to set. Repeat this until you have 30 skulls. Set aside on a baking tray in the fridge until ready to use.

Cake

• Please note: To make the 6 layered cake you see pictured; you’ll need to double the cake recipe only. All other measurements are enough to fill, crumb coat and finish decorating the cake.
• Preheat a fan-forced oven to 140C / 280F (160C / 320F for no fan). Spray four 20cm / 8-inch cake tins with oil spray and line the bottom with baking paper. Set aside
• Combine dry ingredients – Add the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and mix on low speed using a hand mixer to help everything combine.
• Add wet ingredients – Next, add the eggs, oil, buttermilk, vanilla and red food dye to the dry ingredients and continue mixing on low speed until everything is well combined. Scrape down the bowl and mix for a final 20 seconds on low speed.
• Divide batter – Divide the batter between the four cake tins. I find using an ice cream scoop to help me do this makes it easy to distribute the batter evenly so that everything bakes at the same time.
• Bake – Bake for 50-60 min or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If the pick comes out with wet batter, bake for a further 10 min at a time until fully baked. Once baked, allow the cakes to cool to room temperature inside the cake tins and then chill them in the fridge overnight. Chilling your cakes overnight makes them easier to trim and decorate. So I bake my cakes the day before I decorate them.
• Trim the cakes – To level the top of your cakes, use a cake leveler or large serrated knife to trim the top off.
• Adding the first layer – To crumb coat your cake, add a dab of cream cheese frosting onto an 20cm / 8-inch cake board or flat serving plate. Use a small offset spatula to spread the frosting around before adding the first cake layer. Gently press down the center of the cake layer to make sure it’s stuck to the frosting underneath.
• To layer the cake – Add frosting to a piping bag and frost a ring around the top of the cake. Fill the center with more frosting. Use your small offset spatula to smoothen out the frosting before you add the next layer of cake. Repeat with the remaining layers.
• To crumb coat the cake – Add more frosting around the top and sides of the cake. Use the small spatula to smoothen out the top and sides of the cake, taking care to fill in any gaps in between each layer of cake. Use a cake scraper (otherwise known as a bench scraper) to smoothen out the frosting on the sides and top. Get it as neat as you can. This should just be a neat, thin layer of frosting which is aimed at trapping any cake crumbs so that random bits of cake crumbs don’t show up on the final layer of frosting. Chill for 2 hours or overnight.
• Final layer of frosting – Pipe more Swiss meringue buttercream frosting around the side of the cake starting at the bottom, making your way to the top. Add frosting on top. Smoothen out using an offset spatula. To smoothen out, use a cake scraper to go around the cake until it’s smooth. Then use the cake scraper to smoothen out the top.
• To finish decorating – Place the skulls on top of the cake. Finish off by piping the blood into the eyes of the skulls and allow it to drip off the sides of the cake.

Notes

Storage

This can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days.

Skull mold.

I get loads of questions about where the skull molds come from. I bought them on amazon years and years ago. I don’t think the same exact ones exist anymore. They’re actually not meant to be chocolate molds. They’re ice cube molds. If you google skull ice cube molds, you should be able to find them.

A note on measurements – This recipe uses weight measurements for the most accurate results. Cup measurements can vary depending on where you are, which affects the precision needed for a recipe like this. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales.

Nutrition

Calories : 325kcal

Carbonhydrates: 37g

Protein: 4g

Fat: 16g

Saturated Fat: 11g

Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g

Monounsaturated Fat : 4g

Trans Fat : 1g

Cholesterol: 24mg

Sodium: 158mg

Potassium : 140mg

Fiber: 1g

Sugar : 28g

Vitamin A: 53IU

Vitamin C: 1mg

Calcium: 96mg

Iron: 1mg

Nutrition Disclosure

Gave this recipe a go?Mention @thescranline or tag #thescranline!