We are in the second week of the Great French Bake Off and this time I opted for the creative challenge about Halloween. I love this theme and it was the perfect opportunity to give you an idea for your party on October 31 !!! Well, maybe this monster eye cake would not have received a lot of praise in the competition because of its simplicity, but it only makes twice as easy to make at home ;-)
Mercotte (one of the judges of the French version) would surely frown upon my using industrial cookies… But I don’t mind, what I want is for you to be able to make this cake at home easily ;-) Have fun making this monster eye cake, and last but not least, enjoy letting it puke its candy insides when you cut it… scary! I’m sure that among your relatives you may also win the title of Best Baker with this Halloween cake.
Monster eye cake
Ingredients
- 3 18cm diameter cakes
- 1 packet of Oreo cookies
- 1 packet of mini-Oreo
- 5 paper straws in black and orange stripes (or skewers)
- 100g chocolate flavour brown fondant
- colourful Halloween-themed candies to fill the cake like snakes, vampire teeth ...
- Wilton #233 multi-opening tip
For the vanilla buttercream
- 750g icing sugar, sifted
- 240g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 7cl full fat milk
- a few drops of liquide vanilla extract
- orange food gel colouring
Instructions
Prepare the vanilla buttercream
- Using a stand mixer or an electric hand mixer, beat the icing sugar and butter together on low speed until well-blended and the mix has a sandy consistency.
- In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and vanilla and add to the butter mixture by pouring a few tablespoons at a time. Once all the milk has been incorporated, increase the speed and continue to beat for at least 5 minutes until the icing becomes light and fluffy. The more the icing is beaten, the softer and fluffier.
- Once the buttercream is fluffy, add the orange colouring, it takes at least a teaspoon of dye to get a deep orange. Beat again to distribute the colour.
Assemble the cake
- Using a 8cm cookie cutter, take out a circle in the middle of one of the cakes. Dig slightly the other 2 cakes in the center to create a small cavity (careful not to dig too deep in order not to weaken the structure of the final cake).
- Stack the cake, applying some of the orange buttercream in between. But be careful not to put icing inside the cake hole! Fill the cavity with candies before closing it with the last cake.
- Ice the cake with a thin layer of buttercrean and let it set 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
Prepare the eyes of the monster
- Open the Oreos by gently twisting the two parts in opposite directions. Keep the side with the white cream. Gently scrape the cream with a knife in order to remove any possible stains from the white part,
- Roll out small balls in the brown fondant and place them in the center of the Oreos or closer the the edge to create the pupils of the eyes.
- Attach 5 or 6 big Oreos eyes on the straws using balls of brown fondant.
Make the hair
- Once the first layer of icing is set, transfer the remaining frosting in a pipping bag fitted the multi-opening tip. Start from the bottom and go up around the cake in layers. Keep in the fridge until serving.
- Before serving, decorate with the Oreos eyes, sticking them in pairs around the cake and stick the straws with the eyes on the cake.
Leave a Reply