Halloween Haunted House Dark Chocolate Cake: A spooky Halloween Party Cake with decedent chocolate cake layers, a raspberry center all covered in a light and fluffy dark chocolate cream cheese frosting. With out a doubt the perfect Halloween Party Cake. I’ll show you how easy it is to create your own haunted Halloween cake with easy instructions for the Graham Cracker House, Haunted Candy Trees and Dirty Pumpkins not to mention this delicious dark chocolate cake.

How to Make Melted Candy Halloween Haunted Trees

SUPPLIES (printable list and directions below)
- tree templates (download below)
- parchment or wax paper
- melting candy ( I used black candy melts from Wilton)
- squeeze bottle
- candy eyes
- tweezers
- 3 (7½ inch) skewers
DIRECTIONS
- Tape one print out to a hard transferable surface ( I used a cookie sheet)
- Tape a piece of parchment or wax paper on top of the print out.
- Pour 1 bag of candy melts and 1 tablespoon of vegetable shortening into a microwavable safe bowl, heat on high 1 minute, stir until melted and creamy. NOTE: If the candy is not melted continue heating in 30 second increments at 60% power.
- Pour melted candy into a squeeze bottle ( I use the ones from Wilton).
- Start by outlining the tree and then filling in. Use a heavy hand you want the candy to be thick.
- Once you have the tree outlined and filled use tweezers to place the eyes.
- Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to harden ( at least 30 minutes).
- Save the melted candy that is leftover in the bottle.
- ADDING STABILITY: If necessary reheat the candy (still in the bottle) 30 seconds on high.
- Carefully turn the trees over, add a strip of melted candy to the center of the trunk and up as far as you can to the top.
- Place skewer in the melted candy and lightly press in place.
- Once all the trees have skewers, refrigerate until ready to decorate your cake.

Halloween Haunted Trees

Yield: 3 Spooky Trees

These fun homemade trees are super easy to make. All you need is a few items and a template!

Materials

tree templates (download below)
parchment or wax paper
melting candy ( I used black candy melts from Wilton)
candy eyes

Tools

squeeze bottle
tweezers
3 (7½ inch) skewers

Instructions

Tape one print out to a hard transferable surface ( I used a cookie sheet)
Tape a piece of parchment or wax paper on top of the print out.
Pour 1 bag of candy melts and 1 tablespoon of vegetable shortening into a microwavable safe bowl, heat on high 1 minute, stir until melted and creamy. NOTE: If the candy is not melted continue heating in 30 second increments at 60% power.
Pour melted candy into a squeeze bottle ( I use the ones from Wilton).
Start by outlining the tree and then filling in. Use a heavy hand you want the candy to be thick.
Once you have the tree outlined and filled use tweezers to place the eyes.
Place the cookie sheets in the refrigerator to harden ( at least 30 minutes).
Save the melted candy that is leftover in the bottle.
ADDING STABILITY: If necessary reheat the candy (still in the bottle) 30 seconds on high.
Carefully turn the trees over, add a strip of melted candy to the center of the trunk and up as far as you can to the top.
Place skewer in the melted candy and lightly press in place.
Once all the trees have skewers, refrigerate until ready to decorate your cake.

Melted Candy Haunted Tree Templates

PDF FILE DOWNLOADS→TREE 1, TREE 2, TREE 3

How to Make New Candy Pumpkins Look Old and Dirty

Favorite Tool When Baking Layered Cakes

**BAKING STRIPS:** These fabric bands insulate the sides of your cake pan so that the batter cooks evenly. No big dome in the center just a nice even flat cake layer. There are many brands…I use Wilton Strips.

HOW TO MAKE HALLOWEEN HAUNTED HOUSE DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE

To get the most out of your chocolate, use unsweetened Special Dark chocolate cocoa. Regular unsweetened cocoa is more of a milk chocolate and doesn’t offer as much deep chocolate flavor. I usually use Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate Cocoa.

Don’t forget about the chocolate rocks!

HALLOWEEN GRAHAM CRACKER HOUSE CAKE TOPPER

CAN THIS HALLOWEEN PARTY DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE BE MADE AHEAD OF TIME?

DARK CHOCOLATE CAKE: Prepare cake as the recipe directs. Once the cake is completely cooled, wrap each layer individually in plastic wrap and then in foil. Can be frozen up to 3 months. When ready to use, unwrap and frost frozen.

DARK CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING: Frostings that are made with shortening can be stored at room temperature in an air tight container on the counter up to 2 weeks. Frostings with butter and milk should be stored in the refrigerator with an air tight lid up to 2 weeks or freezer up to 3 months. REVIVE: For frostings that are frozen or refrigerated. Set them on the counter and wait for them to come to room temperature. Spoon into a large mixing bowl. Fit the mixer with a paddle attachment, beat on medium high until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes.

DECORATIONS: House—The house can be made a week before needed. Store in a cool spot. Trees—Keep refrigerated up to a week until ready to use.

BLACK COCOA POWDER instead of BLACK FOOD COLORING

**BLACK COCOA POWDER:** is simply a cocoa powder that has been heavily dutched or alkalized. Black cocoa powder has smoother non-bitter taste, and we think it actually tastes much less chocolate like, than the more common natural or dutched cocoa powders do. As the name suggests, black cocoa powder is much darker in color than natural cocoa powder is – it’s *extremely* black. This super black color is achieved by heavier alkalizing, and no food colors have been used to create it. This means that black cocoa powder is an amazing natural coloring agent.

MORE HALLOWEEN PARTY TREATS

WITCHES BREW HALLOWEEN BUTTER COOKIES 2. MONSTER PARTY HALLOWEEN CUPCAKES 3. WITCHES CAULDRON CAKE POPS 4. HALLOWEEN MONSTER PARTY FUDGE

Halloween Haunted House Dark Chocolate Cake

Yield: 2 (8 inch) Layer Cake

A spooky Halloween Party Cake with decedent chocolate cake layers, a raspberry center all covered in a light and fluffy dark chocolate cream cheese frosting.

Ingredients

For the Dark Chocolate Cake:

2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
3 large eggs, room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1½ cups buttermilk, room temperature

For the Raspberry Jam Filling:

2/3 cup seedless raspberry jam

For the Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

see link below ↓↓↓

Instructions

For the Dark Chocolate Cake:

Preheat oven to 350°.
Spray two (8 inch) baking pans with non stick cooking spray, cut two pieces of parchment rounds to fit the bottom of each pan. Place parchment in each pan, spray the parchment paper with non stick cooking spray and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whish together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined and vanilla.
Add flour mixture and buttermilk alternately until combined. Pour batter into the prepared pans. Spread evenly.
Bake 35 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool cake in the pans 10 minutes. Run a knife around the edges, remove from pans and cool completely on cool racks.

For the Raspberry Jam Filling:

Measure jam and set aside.

For the Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting:

Click here for the recipe---->>>>DARK CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Black Frosting:

If you are making a black frosted cake, you have two options. A: Add plenty of black food coloring gel B: Use black cocoa and a little bit of black food coloring gel.

Bringing it all Together:

Using a round tip, pipe frosting around the edge of the bottom layer creating a dam. Spoon jam inside of that dam.
Add second layer on the top of the jam.
Now you can frost and decorate the cake as you see fit.

Notes

This cake was baked in a convection oven. Baking times may vary depending on your oven.

Lady Behind the Curtain

Bringing the simplicity of entertaining into your life

Halloween Haunted House Dark Chocolate Cake

How to Make Melted Candy Halloween Haunted Trees