The flavors of orange and vanilla play so nicely with chocolate that combining all three yields a lovely taste experience. Sophisticated yet subtle, this chocolate creamsicle ombre Halloween cake is sure to be the hit of your adult Halloween party! The cake base is Hershey's perfectly chocolate chocolate cake with quite a number of modifications. If you'd like to use the original recipe, it's on the back of all their cans of cocoa powder, and here's a link. This is a great chocolate Halloween cake for adults because why should the kids have all the fun?
*If you don't have black cocoa powder, use 2.25 oz regular. If you don't have a scale, use a 3/4 cup measure and fill it with mostly regular cocoa powder and just some of the black. Or just use 3/4 cup of regular.
1tablespoonespresso powder
2teaspoonsbaking powder
1teaspoonbaking soda
1teaspoonfine sea salt
2large eggs at room temperature
4oz(1/2 cup) buttermilk, slightly warmed (about body temperature)
4oz(1/2 cup) whole milk, slightly warmed (about body temperature)
4oz(1 stick) melted butter
2teaspoonsvanilla extract
3-5drops orange oil, to taste
8oz(1 cup) boiling water)
For the Creamsicle Frosting
2oz(scant 1/2 cup) all purpose flour
10.5oz(1 1/2 cups) granulated sugar
⅜teaspoonkosher salt(yes, that much)
12oz(1 1/2 cups) whole milk
12oz(3 sticks) unsalted butter at cool room temperature
1teaspoonTahitian vanilla extract
2-3drops orange oil, to taste
Optional but lovely: several shakes of chocolate bitters, to taste
Instructions
For the Cake
Preheat oven to 350F and set a rack in the center of the oven.
Prepare 3 6-inch cake pans by spraying with pan spray, lining the bottom with a parchment circle and spraying again. If you don't have parchment, spray and then dust the pans with sifted cocoa powder to prevent sticking. Set aside on a jelly roll pan. You should be able to fit all three on the pan.
In a large bowl, thoroughly whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powders, espresso powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In another bowl, thoroughly whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, milk, melted butter, vanilla extract and orange oil. You want the milks warm so the melted butter doesn't seize up into little hard butter pebbles.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and whisk well for about 3 minutes. While your whisking, heat up your one cup of water to a boil.
Pour in the boiling water and whisk thoroughly so the water is completely and evenly incorporated. Make sure the scrape the sides of the bowl while you're mixing. The batter will be fairly thin--much thinner than with the creaming method.
Divide the batter evenly among the three prepared pans and bake for 20 minutes.
Carefully turn the pan from front to back and bake an additional 10-15 minutes or until the cakes spring back when touched and an instant read thermometer registers 200F.
Remove to a rack to cool in the pans for 15 minutes.
Run a slim knife around the insides of each pan and then turn out. For super moist cake, wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cool. Otherwise, just let them sit out until cool. Refrigerating them once cool will make them easier to stack and frost. Frost and decorate as desired.
For the Ermine Frosting
In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, combine the flour, sugar, salt and milk. Cook over medium to medium-high heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes to a boil. Turn the heat down to low or medium low and maintain a very slow boil, stirring frequently, for a minute or two.
Strain through a fine mesh strainer into a metal bowl. Stir for a few moments and then press plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding and refrigerate until cool.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, whip the butter on medium and then high speed until light and fluffy, scraping the bowl as necessary.
Add a large spoonful of the pudding at a time and whip until incorporated before adding the next spoonful. Continue adding the pudding and whipping in between until it is all incorporated.
Add the flavorings and beat well. Taste and adjust as necessary.
Color all the frosting a pale orange. Remove about 1/2 of the frosting to a bowl and then color the remaining frosting a slightly more intense orange. Remove a third of the frosting to another bowl and color the remainder a bit darker. Remove half of the frosting that's left and color the last bit the most vibrant orange ever.
To Frost and Decorate
Fill and crumb coat your cake with all but about 1/2-3/4 cups of the palest frosting. Place in the freezer, uncovered, for about 15-20 minutes to firm up the crumb coat.
Frost the top and an inch or so down the sides of the cake with the remaining pale orange frosting. You don't have to be precise here at all.
Using a small offset spatula, apply the rest of the frostings from palest to most vibrant down the sides of the cake in rough bands of color.
Using a medium offset spatula, smooth the top of the cake completely, allowing the excess frosting to extend over the edges. Don't worry about the sides yet. Just get the top as smooth as you can get it.
Hold a straight edge longer than the cake is tall perpendicular parallel to the sides of the cake and rotate your cake stand (or whatever the cake happens to be sitting on) allowing the straight edge to pick up excess frosting and smooth out the sides of your cake. Scrape off the excess and make more passes until the sides of the cake are as smooth and lovely as you want them. You'll have a "wall" of frosting that extends up past the smooth top of the cake. Holding your offset spatula parallel to the top of the cake, sweep the wall inward in sections. wiping the blade of your spatula between each pass and proceeding around the cake until the wall of frosting is gone and your cake is completely finished.
Decorate with strategically places Halloween Decorations. Store in the fridge and cut the cake cold, but serve at room temperature.
Enjoy!
Notes
Don't expect your cake slices to stand up nice and pretty. Lay them on their sides. Since the cake is very rich and moist, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever to cut each slice in half allowing each serving to be only 1 1/2 layers tall.