Halloween is a holiday for kids of all ages and the desserts you prepare for your planned soirees should be cute and easy to make. In many other blogs I’ve seen the adorable ‘brain’ cupcakes and the ever so cute witches fingers made from shortbread, but I wanted to do something a little different.
I had been dying to try Raven Dennis’s famous recipe for red velvet cake, and of course, what better time of the year to try a blood red cake than at Halloween? My dilemma was what the heck was I going to do with it to fit the holiday??
I wanted to do something cute, but not something that had been done before. I finally decided to make thin layers of the red velvet cake in sheet pans which I would layer with cream cheese filling. Then my goal was to use a small cutter to cut out rounds of filled cake and cover each one with marshmallow to make little marshmallow ghosts…
Is it ‘do-able’? You bet…and just way too cute.
Of course, I didn’t stop there…I also decided to make some strawberry sauce to garnish the plate.
They were so much fun to make and I know that this would be a great project to do with the kids, especially when it comes to making the marshmallow part. I think I ate more of the warm marshmallow out of the bowl than what ended up on the plate…but that was all part of the fun.
Red Velvet Cake
2 ½ cups cake flour (11.5 oz)
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 ½ teaspoon baking powder (I increased from ½ teaspoon)
2 tablespoons cocoa powder (.4 oz)
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups sugar (12.5 oz)
1 cup buttermilk (7.5 oz)
1 ½ cups vegetable oil (10 oz)
2 large eggs (3.6 oz)
1 tablespoon white vinegar (.3 oz)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (.3 oz)
1 tablespoon red gel paste food coloring
Sift together all of the dry ingredients into one bowl and set aside. Add the eggs, sugar, oil, vanilla and vinegar into another bowl and whisk well. Add the dry ingredients and pour into a greased and lined half sheet pan (this will be cut into half so you can add filling in between). Bake at 350°F for about 12-15 minutes until cake has baked through and is firm to the touch. Remove and allow the cake to cool completely. Once it has cooled, invert the cake onto another sheet pan that is lined with a piece of paper or foil. Remove the paper underneath the cake and layer on the filling of your choice (preferably cream cheese frosting). Cover and refrigerate. Then use a small 1.5” cutter to cut small circles out of the cake, you should get 12 pieces.
One another sheet pan, place another piece of parchment paper and grease this with a little vegetable oil. This will prevent the marshmallow from sticking later when it is piped on. Place each cake round on the greased paper and make sure that you have plenty of room between them so that they will not stick together once the marshmallow is piped on. Set this aside and make your marshmallow. You will need to double the recipe in order to make 12 ghosts.
Once the marshmallow is made and is still slightly warm, put it into a piping bag with a large round tip. I used an Ateco #9, the largest one I had. Begin piping the marshmallow over each piece of cake until it falls over the side and covers the cake. Then pull upwards with the bag to create the head and the curly cap.
Allow them to set completely for half an hour and then prepare some royal icing to pipe eyes, mouth and arms. You can buy royal icing mix and just add water, or you can make your own by using sifted powdered sugar, a little lemon juice and egg whites until you have the consistency you want.
Place each little ghost on a plate or large platter and then spoon on the strawberry sauce around each one.
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