The Halloween Cake

Quick! Tell me the most haloweeny ingredient that you can think of. Raspberry right? No? But consider that both blood and raspberry are red. And they both go great with chocolate. Cannibalism humour aside (I know it's not everyone's cup of entrails... stopping now) I love, love, love the Raspberry Blackout Cake from Vegan with a Vengeance.

For a year I've been toying with the idea of turning it into a graveyard. First I'd make the Ganache-y Icing all bumpy and wild, then I'd sprinkle some shaved chocolate on top for a freshly dug grave and then have a hand reaching out. Spooky!

This is my picture, hail the glory of office lights.

Of course reality hit when I was making my cake. I'm not the best cake decorator. I'd like to learn but I haven't yet. I've done a bit of marzipan with my guides so I knew how to knead the colour into the marzipan and a little bit about how to shape it but I lack the delicacy of someone who really knows what they are doing.

As for the floor of my little graveyard I spread the icing on the top so perfectly smoothly that I had to go back and mess it up. I've never spread icing smoothly in all my life so no idea what that was all about. Then for the life of me I couldn't get the sides smooth. Some things stay the same at least.

This one is from Amy

I carried the iced cake to Stephen's work where I finished assembling the grave with a sprinkle of dirt and I ceremonially attached the headstone. The hand was installed without fuss but when I called Stephen's co-workers over all hell broke loose.

I have a lot to learn about decorating cakes but I love this one anyway.