spookydoodle pumpkin chocolate cake
J’s stroke of brilliance named this eerie triple layer of decadence. Eek!
I really do think this is one of the neatest creations I’ve birthed on FMG. He’s a Halloween forest, haunted with cuteness rather than guts and fright. My type of Halloween.
See, I am a massive ninny and while I don’t shirk at the sight of blood, hyperrealistic gore and excessive violence or hints to don’t appeal to me at all. You’ll never catch my ass at Howl-O-Scream or Horror Nights or any of those events meant to make you piss yourself and dream ghoulish haunting images for a month. I hate bugs and creepy-crawlies, really don’t enjoy the witch trope, deplore chainsaws and masks and clowns. Nope. No thank you.
I lean instead towards the spooky, maybe a bit bizarre, but largely adorable decor decisions. For instance, on a train ride in Chicago J and I spotted a life-sized skeleton chilling on a balcony chair. Amusing, right? Another house was splattered with cotton spiderwebs and massive stuffed arachnids attacked to the webs. Odd in any other circumstance but the month of October, yet totally appropriate for the incoming celebration.
This cake, then, serves to make you say awwww rather than holy fucking shit is that bloody hand REAL?!!
Yeah that’s great and all dude, but what is this cake, Kellie?
Glad you asked, you impatient imp.
Moist pumpkin cake, dotted with buttery cinnamon sugar lumps, spread with a rich whipped chocolate buttercream similar to the one gracing my Triple Layer Chocolate Explosion Cake. The cake is then wrapped in melted marshmallow cobwebs and topped with meringue ghost sentinels. Guardians of the dessert, if you will. It’s a wonderful centerpiece for a Halloween gathering as you send one unlucky parent to parade the kids around the block for candy and spend the remainder of the evening noshing on scary good food. Like what’s coming tomorrow and Saturday…
Screamin’ Good Batter
The cake batter comes together like any ole gooey mass of awesome. Get your oven preheated to 350, grease three 6-inch baking pans, and ready yourself for the quest.
First, toss together some brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and all purpose flour. This is your snickerdoodle slab.
Set that aside and snag a large bowl from your stock. Beat first brown sugar, white sugar, and melted coconut oil until creamy and smooth. Whip in three eggs, one at a time, pumpkin puree, and a touch of vanilla.
In a second small, sift or whisk flour, cinnamon, ginger, clove, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
To the pumpkin batter, alternate in three turns the flour mix and buttermilk, finishing with the last of the flour. Mix only until the final streak of flour disappears.
Divide the batter among the three prepared pans. Scoop teaspoon-sized balls of snickerdoodle batter and dot atop. Bake for 30-35 minutes. The layers are done when a toothpick emerges with just a few crumbs attached. Cool the cakes in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then flip onto a wire rack and set in the freezer for 30 minutes.
What to do with the downtime, you ask? Well…
Keep Calm and See Ghosts
…Ghost meringues!
If you are savvy with egg whites, you can definitely create your own meringues for the ghosts, but I didn’t want to be bothered and instead swiped a container of vanilla meringue cookies from Trader Joe’s. This is a perfectly acceptable strategy.
Take a pinch of dark chocolate and melt in the microwave until smooth. To draw the faces, I carefully poked a toothpick covered in chocolate and maneuvered it on the meringues to create eyes and mouths. More or less a dab and swirl motion.
When the layers are nice and set, blend up the buttercream: powdered sugar, softened butter, cocoa powder, whipping cream, and vanilla. The result is a very smooth, deeply chocolatey frosting you’ll want to spoon and devour on its own.
Instead of taking that route, layer the cakes atop one another with a barrier of frosting between. Frost a light layer over the whole shebang and set back in the fridge for 15 minutes. Patience really is important with cakes. The crumb layer prevents strays from loosening from the cakes and visually flawing your beautiful arrangement.
Now, the cobweb portion. Microwave some mini marshmallows briefly and stir until fully melted. While the cake cools, let the marshmallow floof cool as well. No need to scald your hands for the sake of cake.
Alright, you’ve got the crumb layer down. Now, let’s have some fun. Swipe and swirl the remaining buttercream over the cake until thickly coated and creamy. Dip your hands in that cooled marshmallow fluff, stretch and pull and twist until you’ve got some webby patterns forming in the white stuff. Gently set it onto the cake. It will not be perfect like a black widow’s death nest, but with a few turns you’ll definitely achieve a twirling mass of spiderweb-esque marshmallow.
It looks so cool, people.
Remember your little ghosts? How you display them is up to you, really. They can hang out on the cake or around it, or a combination of both. I chose the lattermost latter. The pale blobs are adorable toppers and great sentinels for the whole affair. Especially the slanted-eyes ones. They’ll shoot a judgmental glance so strong anyone too weak too withstand will shy from the cake, knowing they don’t deserve a slice.
Snickerdoodle, pumpkin, chocolate, decoration? Check, check, check, check. I enjoyed thoroughly the whole process of this cake and hope you do, too, if you’ve an event to scramble to this weekend which requires some sort of edible contribution. You’ll steal the show, guaranteed. Maybe point whoever is in charge of the imbibements to an Apple Butter Dark and Stormy – simple, quick, and drinkable as they come.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup melted coconut oil
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 3 eggs, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground clove
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2/3 cup buttermilk
- 12 vanilla meringues, homemade or store bought
- 1 tbsp melted dark chocolate chips
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
snickerdoodle pieces
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 tbsp melted butter
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
whipped chocolate buttercream
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1 tbsp instant espresso powder (optional)
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease three 6-inch cake pans generously with butter or oil.
- For the snickerdoodle pieces, toss together the brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and flour until fully combined. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, beat the melted coconut oil and sugars until creamy, about 2 minutes. Whip in the pumpkin puree and vanilla, then add eggs one at a time and beat until fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, clove, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In three turns, alternate beating in the flour mixture and buttermilk, ending with flour. Stop mixing when the final streak of flour disappears from the batter.
- Divide the batter evenly among the prepared cake pans. Dot teaspoon-sized rounds of snickerdoodle batter onto each layer. Bake 30-35 minutes until the center is set and an inserted toothpick emerges clean. Let cool in the pans for 5-10 minutes, then invert onto a wire cooling rack and set in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- While the layers set, draw faces on the meringues with the 1 tablespoon of melted chocolate.
- When ready to frost, whip together the powdered sugar, butter, cocoa powder, heavy cream, and vanilla until soft and fluffy. Set one layer onto a plate or cake stand and spread 1/3 cup of frosting atop. Place a second layer and frost with an additional 1/3 cup. Finish with the third layer and spread a thin coat of buttercream all over the cake. Set in the fridge for 15 minutes to create the crumb layer.
- Microwave the marshmallows in a small bowl for 30 seconds. Stir until melted. Let cool while you frost the remainder of the cake with the rest of the buttercream. If you have leftover buttercream, just eat it. Kidding. You can store the remnants in an airtight container for up to 5 days in the fridge.
- Pull a handful of marshmallow fluff from the bowl and stretch between your fingers. Carefully lay atop the frosted cake in your desired shape – well, probably not your desired shape, that shit does what it wants. Repeat until satisfied with cobweb arrangement. Arrange the meringue ghosts on the helm of the cake and complete the look with a smattering of plastic spiders. Such spook. Much eek. Very 'ween.
