How to Make This Show-Stopping Halloween Cake That Defies Gravity

In the age of Pinterest and Instagram, one cannot simply go through the motions for any holiday, much less for Halloween. But with boundless inspiration at your fingertips (literally), it can be hard to figure out how to make the holiday special and memorable without spending hours at the crafting table or hard at work in the kitchen.

With this simple Halloween cake recipe, you can wow friends and family with both the trick and the treat. Thanks to an ingenious bendable straw covered in frosting (aka, the trick), the bag of M&M’S Ghoul’s Mix candies (aka, the treat) looks as though an invisible hand is pouring it overtop the cake — *insert your own spooky noises here*. This cake isn’t actually defying gravity, but it certainly looks that way.

The flavor of the peanut butter frosting perfectly complements the peanut M&M’S, while the light color of the cake is the perfect canvas for the seasonal Ghoul’s Mix candy colors of purple, orange and vibrant green.

Gravity-Defying M&M’S Halloween Cake

Serves: 20

Prep time: 10 minutes  | Cook time: appx. 40 minutes | Inactive time: appx. 30 minutes | Build time: 20  | Total time: appx. 1 hour 40 minutes

Ingredients:

• • 1 box of boxed chocolate cake mix (plus the ingredients the box mix calls for)
  • 1 ½ cup butter, softened
  • 1 ½ cup peanut butter, creamy
  • 5 cups powdered sugar
  • ½- ¾ cup heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 bag of M&M’S Ghoul’s Mix candies

  Directions: 

  Chocolate Cake:

  • • 1. Follow package directions for boxed cake mix. You can either use two 9” cake rounds or three 6” cake rounds.
      2. You’ll want to make sure to divide evenly between cake rounds and grease the pans well. Once the cakes are done baking, allow cakes to cool to room temperature before frosting (approx. 15 minutes).

    Peanut Butter Frosting:

    • • 1. Using either a hand mixer or a stand mixer, cream softened butter, peanut butter, and vanilla together.
        2. Mix in powdered sugar in ½ – 1 cup increments.
        3. Blend in heavy whipping cream until you have reached your desired consistency.
        4. Whip frosting on high speed for 3-5 minutes until light and fluffy.
        5. If you are using natural peanut butter, make sure to thoroughly stir before introducing to the frosting. If it is not adequately stirred, it can result in a greasy frosting.

      Building the cake:

      • • 1. Stack the cakes while generously applying frosting between the layers.
          2. Begin frosting cake with a thin layer of frosting to make a “crumb coat”.
          3. Once the entire cake is frosted, put cake in freezer for no more than 15 minutes.
          4. Generously apply frosting to cake until you have a desired coating.
          5. If you want to add any piping detail, now is the time to do it. We used a Wilton 1M piping tip for the top cake detail
          6. Take a bendable plastic straw and place in top of cake. Make sure that it is in deep enough to stand on its own without any issues
          7. Using buttercream, “glue” the M&M’S to the straw. You may need to place cake in freezer to help you out with this process. Once you’ve gotten to the top of the straw, place the bag on the top of the straw and “glue” it on with more buttercream.
          8. Top with more M&M’S and enjoy!

        

        This post was created by SheKnows for M&M’S. 

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        Tags:Cake, Defies, Gravity, Halloween, How, Make, Show-Stopping, That, this, to