Sign From Above Cake (Halloween Cake)
Today, Iโm excited to show you this over the top, but simple high fashion Skull Cake with dripping blood. Itโs 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 Iโll make something and look at it and think, ok, I love it but Iโm not sure anyone else is gonna love it. I didnโt 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 Iโve thought about it. I think the simplicity is what you guys like right? Cos other than that, I canโt figure it out lol.
Anyway, itโs worth noting that this cake was inspired by Lady Gagaโs character in American Horror Story: Hotel. The countess was one of my all-time fave characters on that show and fave character sheโs ever played. If youโve watched her in the show, youโll see the link between the design of this cake and her look on the show.
Nicks favorite thingโฆ
I mean, isnโt it obvious. My favorite thing is what everyone elseโs 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, Iโve got tickets on myself.
What does it taste like?
I adore red velvet cake recipe. In fact itโs my favorite cake and cupcake flavor. Coupled with cream cheese frosting which is perfectly creamy and tangy, itโs 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 itโs 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 youโd like to try your own!
- Liquid Red food dye – yeah, thereโs a fair bit in this recipe. And no, you canโt 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 donโt collapse on the cake.
- Make sure you add the skulls right before youโre 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
Serves 20
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]
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 โ3D Skull Silicone Ice Cube Mold Trayโ 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 donโt have weird air bubbles, so weโre 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; youโll 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 โ 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 itโs 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 donโt 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 itโs 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.
12 comments
Hi!
Why do you do the outer coating with swiss meringue buttercream and not cream cheese? Is that the best for all cakes? I do feel like SMBC is the best for frosting but I was hoping your cream cheese frosting was way more stable than the usual recipe.
Thanks!
Hi Andrea! Purely a visual decision. SMBC is much whiter. Cream cheese would also work, but SMBC also comes out much smoother when frosted on a cake like this one. Hope that answers it! N x
Hello, Iโm a bit confused. When you say trim four cakes in half, how Iโm going to end up with 6 layers of cake? Iโm sure I missed something. Iโm new to this and Iโd love to try this for my daughterโs birthday. Thanks!
Hi Paule! Sorry about the confusion, I’ve gone in and fixed the recipe. Theres no trimming needed for this recipe. ๐ N x
It still says six layers in the recipe??? Did you mean to write 4?
Hi Christy! Yes! Sorry about that! Have gone in and edited the recipe, thanks for letting me know! N x
Weird question if I pipe the โbloodโ on Monday evening for instance, will it still be visible the following day? Just wondering if it will stick to the skills etc or it will just run out completely โฆ..
Hi Ross! I would recommend piping the blood on no longer than an hour before serving for best results! N x
Can I use red food gel coloring for the blood mixed with the corn syrup?
Hmm, you could try it, but unfortunately I’m not sure if it’ll work because I’ve never tried it. Let me know how you go! N x
I saw this cake a few days ago and I got obsessed with the idea of making it. I got my skull molds today. I’m very excited, thanks for the idea!
Yay! Hope you love it! N x