This cake was, shall we say, a freewheeling design. I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do for my son’s annual Halloween-themed birthday party – an all-black cake (inside and out) with bugs somehow involved (because eight-year-old boys, et cetera), and I thought maybe it’d be cool to have the bugs sort of coming out of the cake as if they’d been inside, but when I got to the part where I’d actually do that, I was stumped.
I wanted a crack in the cake of some sort, but didn’t want it to look like, you know…a mistake.
And then I remembered the geode cake. It’s all over Pinterest these days, and I’ve been dying to try one, and you know what geodes have?! CRACKS. (Sort of; you know what I mean.)
So?
Spooky Black Geode Cake (plus bugs!) it was.
Improvisation, whee!
The flavor of cake I went for was Devil’s Food with dark chocolate icing and a strawberry jam center, but of course for the cake part you can do as you will. I do think this particular look benefits from a dark interior, though.
What You Need:
- 1 package Devil’s Food cake mix (plus the eggs and oil you need to make it according to package instructions).
- 1 can dark chocolate frosting
- 1 cup strawberry jam
- 1 package black fondant
- A few sticks each of red and clear rock candy
- Plastic bugs of your choice (washed and rinsed well)
Step 1. Cook the cake (in two round pans) according to package directions. Once cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate a few hours or overnight.
Step 2. Using a very sharp knife, level the top of each cake to create a perfectly flat surface. Spread jam onto just the top of one cake, then place the other neatly on top.
Step 3. Spread a thin layer of frosting all over the outside of the cake.
Step 4. Roll out the black fondant into a thin layer (approx 1/4″), and gently drape it over the top of the cake, then pull it down along the sides and use a sharp knife to cut off the excess. If you’ve never done this, you might want to watch a quick tutorial.
Step 5. Now, the geode crack. Basically, just hack a piece out of the cake – as big or as small as you want to go – then spread a thin layer of frosting over the exposed surface. Note: I wish I had used vanilla frosting here, since it would be easier to cover with white crystals, but hey.
Step 6. Break up the rock candy into pieces – you want pieces of varying size for the most natural effect. When you layer on the candy, remember that the darker color should go on the inside for depth.
Step 7. Add spiders and optional bloody knife, and there you go: Spooky Black Geode Cake. With bugs.
