Trick or Treat Blackout Cake
Hello!
First of all, this is not what I planned to post, but when I woke up this morning, it was stormy and dark, so there was no way I was going to go around the lake. Instead, I made a mess in my kitchen but somehow have managed to clean it all up before the end of the day. Do you believe in miracles?!
A few weeks ago I went home to Wisconsin and got to experience real fall. Cooler temps, apple orchards, Wisco bars playing all the college football games, an iced chai from Racy's, frosty mornings and the leaves were just starting to turn. And then I came back to Texas where it was 90 degrees and back to summer weather even though it's the middle of October. Oh well,
I won't be complaining in a few months when it's -20 and 40 here!
In the spectrum of holidays, I think Halloween falls to the bottom for me. Mainly because there's not a lot of real food that surrounds it. I think I would even put the Superbowl before Halloween if that's allowed. I do miss the zombie pub crawl in Minneapolis. Maybe I just don't really like Halloween because it's too hot here in Texas and I've definitely aged out of getting free candy.
Regardless, I ordered a few Halloween sprinkles from Sweetapolita and wanted to put them to good use. For this cake, I was trying to make it a purple velvet cake with black frosting, but the cake itself turned out to be super black too. I think the cocoa powder and the violet gel color didn't work quite like red does, but the cake still looks pretty cool and is delicious. For the frosting, it's a normal chocolate buttercream but I used black cocoa instead. It's a stronger flavor, a little more bitter, but I think it's perfect and not too sweet.
If you want to get more creative this cake could be a great Frankenstein, mummy, or giant spiderweb by just changing up the decorations used.
Black Chocolate Cake
2 cups All Purpose Flour, sifted
2 cups white cane sugar
3/4 cup Extra Dark Hershey's Cocoa
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon espresso powder
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 oz Violet Gel Food Coloring
8 oz water, almost boiling
Preheat oven to 350-degrees Fahrenheit
In a large bowl, sift all dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, oil, and eggs. Slowly add the liquid to the dry bowl, and when everything is combined, slowly add in the boiling water. Stir until evenly distributed, the batter will be very liquidy. Split batter between two greased 8" cake pans lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.
Black Chocolate Buttercream
3 sticks unsalted butter, softened
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup black cocoa, sifted
4 Tablespoons milk
0.5 oz black gel food coloring
In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer, whip butter on high for 2-3 minutes or until it is creamy. Once the butter is whipped, add in powdered sugar and cocoa in several increments, thoroughly mixing it before adding more in. Once the powdered sugar and cocoa has been mixed into the butter, add in milk and gel food coloring. If you prefer the frosting to be more firm, use less milk.