October 28, 2015
My niece just celebrated her birthday with a spooky themed party. Over the last few years, I’ve become her “official” party cake maker. It’s fun to be able to focus just on the cake rather than pulling together an entire party — I have more time to get a little creative.
Well, my niece does have a knack for asking me to create cakes I’ve never done before. It always pushes me out of my comfort zone. Her unquestioning belief in my cake skills and the fact that this auntie just can’t say no, ever, has led me down the path of a Harry Potter cake stuffed with candy corn and layered with Nutella frosting, a Parisian cake covered in a swath of buttercream roses and layered with Nutella frosting and the order for this year —a spooky theme cake layered with (bingo!) Nutella frosting.
This spider crawling creation was one of the most fun cakes I’ve ever made. It came together quickly once all the “ingredients” were made and assembled.
The Nutella frosting is a reoccurring request for good reason — it’s beautifully, silky and sinfully delicious. I can pipe this frosting on anything and it’s suddenly transformed into a decadent treat. The recipe below makes a big batch of frosting. I always prefer having extra frosting — who wants to be mid-cake making and run out of frosting?
I went for a “naked” look, piping the frosting only in between layers and then squeezing down so it would ooze out the sides.
Chocolate cosmos and rosemary from the garden brought a little organic touch to the gummy worms and spiders.
I found the tombstone candy forms at Michael’s and filled them with bittersweet Guittard chocolate.
I couldn’t resist making a batch of these meringue ghosts to serve with the cake. Boo!
Click here for meringue ghost directions. Happy Halloween!
Note: My butter preference is Plugra, which has less water concentration that normal butter, making it extra creamy. It comes in ½ lb. bars, so you would need two unsalted bars room temperature for this frosting.
1 lb. unsalted butter, or 2 cups, room temperature
4 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 cups Nutella
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup heavy cream
Beat room temperature butter in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Periodically, stop the machine to push down the butter from the sides of the bowl — a rubber spatula works well. Mix for 4-5 minutes until butter is creamy and smooth. Next, mix in the confectioners’ sugar one cup at a time. Then, mix in Nutella, kosher salt and cream. Once it’s uniform in color and fully incorporated you’re good to go. Use immediately.
