Want to make a special dessert for Halloween or Day of the Dead? All sorts of new seasonal molds have come out lately, especially for Halloween: cake molds, cookie molds, chocolate molds, ice cube molds, and some molds that can be used for multiple purposes. One of the "new" molds that I picked up a couple years ago is a skull mold for cakes. In this post I'm focusing on the cakes we make with that mold.
Red velvet cakes with cream cheese or whipped cream cheese frosting are our favorites for the skulls, they taste great and the colors are wonderful ; ) . Cake from preferred mixes, then hybrid recipes, are listed first; scratch recipes are last (frostings can vary, but i tend to use cream cheese or whipped cream frostings).
There are (at least) two good 3-D baking molds for "full sized" skulls available: Wilton and NordicWare. The Nordic Ware pan has a more complete skull shape, with the back of the skull being more rounded, but may be harder to find. Wilton also has a 3-D mini skull baking pan with molds for 4 complete smaller skulls which are great for baking or using as a press mold.
Prep baking mold (grease / lightly flour).
Fill with any standard cake recipe or mix.
Allow to cool and remove from mold pan, breaking the edge of the cake/pan border with a butter knife.
After the cake has cooled, cut the un-molded edges flat and spread some frosting thinly across both facing edges to "glue" together.
Gently frost the cake. Using the Wilton mold I tend to frost the base differently than the skull.
Then pipe decoration. You can use a small plastic food bag with a tiny corner snipped off for piping.
This is the cake we made this year. We had fun decorating it together ; )Cake Box Mixes
Betty Crocker Super Moist Yellow Cake
Duncan Hines Classic Yellow
Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Dark Chocolate Fudge
Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Red Velvet Cake
Store Frosting
Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting
Hybrids ~> Scratch/Box Mix Cake Recipe
1 ~18 oz red velvet OR devil's food cake mix
1 ~3.5 oz instant chocolate pudding mix
1 cup sour cream
4 eggs, beaten lightly
1 cup vegetable oil
CHOICE -> choose one of the following: 1/2 cup warm water, 1tsp instant espresso dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water (allow to cool), OR 1/2 cup warm coffee
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prep baking pan (grease pan, this is a dense batter and is great for suspending extras in the batter).
Beat together cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, oil, and espresso mixture (about 2 minutes on medium with a mixer).
Baking
9 inch pan (this recipe is appropriate for 2 9" pans) - bake at 350°F ~30 minutes.
Cupcakes (this recipe is for ~24 cupcakes) - bake at 350°F for ~20 minutes
Hybrid ~> Scratch/Store Frosting
a couple options here...
-Cream Cheese Frosting - soften 1 8 oz package of cream cheese and blend with a 16 oz can of vanilla (or cream cheese ; ) frosting.
-Fluffy! - 8 oz of whipped cream (home or store bought) mixed with your choice of any 16 oz can of frosting.
-Flavor Enhancer - add ~1/2 tsp of extract of desired flavor to 16 oz can of frosting. Almond extract added to chocolate is wonderful! OR add 1/4 cup of Nutella or peanut butter (and 1 tsp of milk) to a cream cheese, vanilla, or chocolate frosting!
I use paste based colorants to color my frosting, so I don't make the frosting runny.
Scratch Cake Recipe - Red Velvet
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil / butter / or coconut oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp (1 oz) red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil / butter / or coconut oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
2 Tbsp (1 oz) red food coloring
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp distilled white vinegar
Sift together into a medium bowl~> flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt.
Beat together in a large bowl oil/butter, buttermilk, eggs, food coloring, vanilla, and vinegar until thoroughly mixed. Add the dry flour mixture and beat until smooth (~ 2 minutes with a mixer).
Pour batter equally into the 3 cake pans.
Bake ~30 minutes (check with toothpick test). Allow cakes to cool 5-10 minutes, turn out of pan onto plate and then onto cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
Smooth Glaze Coatings
Chocolate Glaze White Glaze
8 Tbs unsweetened cocoa 8 Tbs hot water
2 Tbs melted butter 4 cups powdered sugar
8 Tbs hot water 3 Tbs meringue powder
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar
1 Tbs meringue powder
~> To make the chocolate glaze, combine the melted butter, cocoa and hot water; thoroughly blend in the powdered sugar and vanilla.
~> To make the white glaze, combine powdered sugar, meringue powder, and hot water; blend smooth.
The rest of the directions apply to both glazes.
Add just a little more hot water to get a thin, pourable glaze; the glaze will harden as it cools.
Put the cake on a wire rack over a tray or plate. If you have a 2 part cake mold, make sure you have already put the 2 halves together (toothpicks with frosting or a small amount of glaze will work), you won't have time to do this at this point or your glaze will cool! Pour the warm glaze gently over the skull, using the back of a spoon to smooth the glaze into the details (mouth, nose, eyes, etc.).
Let the glaze harden and gently place the cake onto the plate/ stand, using some glaze to secure the cake to the plate /stand.
This is a great smooth base, you can either stop here or add additional decorations over this glaze coating.
Scratch Frosting Recipes
Cream Cheese
2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
In a bowl, thoroughly blend cream cheese and butter. Add the vanilla and mix. Gradually add the powdered sugar while mixing. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Stable Whipped Cream Cheese Frosting (stable at room temp and stiff)
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2 cups heavy cream
In a large bowl, mix the cream cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, and almond extract (if using mixer, mix on medium until smooth). While mixing slowly add the heavy cream, scraping the bowl occasionally while continuing to whip until cream holds a stiff peak.
Again, I use paste based colorants to color my frosting, so the frosting isn't runny. Make sure to set aside some frosting from your base color if you want to add any designs over the top.
If you have a 2 part cake mold, make sure you put the 2 halves securely together (toothpicks with frosting will work great) before you start frosting the cake!
To decorate smooth your base color over the entire skull, you can make the surface as smooth or textured as you like.
To add additional designs, first separate the remaining frosting into bowls and add desired colorants. Pipe the designs on to the base frosting.
If you aren't sure how you want to decorate your cake, I recommend a web search based on the type of design styles you like (don't restrict yourself to looking at cakes!). You can practice on wax or parchment paper first if you want more experience.
Enjoy!
DeWyk
