Halloween Party Food: Graveyard Cake

The centerpiece of my Halloween Party buffet is the Graveyard Cake. Start with any square or rectangular cake. A single layer is fine because there will be so much stuff going on the top of the cake there's no need for additional filling. You want a fairly sturdy cake that will tolerate being poked around and still support the gravestones, fences, ghosts and dead tree. The Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Cake would be a good choice, or try the recipe for October Spice Cake, below.


But don't knock yourself out with a gourmet recipe, because the whole point of this cake is the graveyard it holds.

In the version pictured left, I made a standing cross by adhering one cinnamon stick to another with florists' putty, then drizzled on black icing (from a tube).  

The graveyard path is paved with poppy seeds and outlined in black icing. The fence is made of tiny pretzel sticks and toasted coconut, chopped nuts and brown sugar are scattered around looking like dirt, stones and dry leaves.

The gravestones are Pepperidge Farm "Milano" sandwich cookies, cut in two crosswise and gently pressed into the cake so they stand more or less upright. Tombstones are expected to tip a bit, aren't they? When I'm energetic, I pipe bats, skulls and names onto the cookies with black icing. But here's a secret: I usually use a fine black marker. So far as I know, none of my guests have suffered any horrible fates, at least not from the cake decorations.

Recipe: October Spice Cake

I found the basic Spice Cake recipe in the eleventh edition of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, and only changed it a bit. Well, more than a bit, but not so anyone would notice. Have I mentioned that I am incapable of following a recipe exactly?

Spray a 9" x 13" pan with non-stick spray. Lay a 9" wide strip of parchment or waxed paper lengthwise down the center of the pan with ends hanging over the edges. (See photo below.)Spray paper.

Combine and set aside:
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
a generous grating of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder

In electric mixer bowl, beat until thick:
2 eggs.
Gradually add
1 c. sugar
2 Tbs. honey or molasses

Beat well. Add alternately with dry ingredients:
1 c. sour milk or buttermilk (or soy milk with 1 tsp. cider vinegar)
2/3 c. canola oil

Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake at 370 about 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pan.
Use overhanging paper to lift cake from pan onto cooling rack. When completely cooled, invert onto serving plate or tray.

Penuche Frosting

In heavy saucepan combine:
1 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. white or raw sugar
pinch salt
1/2 c. milk (soy is fine)
2 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. maple syrup or honey

Bring to a boil and boil until temperature reaches 230 degrees.  Remove from heat, add vanilla, then let stand until room temperature. Beat with electric mixer until the glossy syrup becomes thick and the color turns to a light tan. This is one of those times when you will bless your stand mixer. It is worth the trouble to scrape the syrup from the saucepan into the mixer bowl, and save yourself a whole lot of standing over the pot with a hand-held mixer. For this cake I sometimes stop beating while the frosting is still glossy so it makes something of a thick glaze, with lots of messy drips over the edges, as in one of the photos above. In the rest of the photos here, I let the mixer run at high speed until the penuche was quite thick. 

Spread frosting over cooled Spice Cake, leaving it as messy as you like, with puddles on the plate.
Define a meandering path with poppy seeds or fine crumbs; outline path with piped icing, nuts or chocolate chips.

Use a wet knife to make slots for "tombstones." Press the halved cookies into cake so they stand at odd angles.
Press small pretzel sticks into cake edges at angles to form a crisscross fence.
Scatter crumbs, toasted coconut, ground or broken nuts, coarse raw sugar and brown sugar around base of fence and tombstones.
Position meringue ghosts around graveyard and on the plate.

Meringue Ghosts

Prepare meringue from the Brittle Bones post. (The video there may be helpful as well.) Pipe meringue into ghosts (tall "kisses" with extra dabs for arms) and add faces with tiny bits of cut up currants, raisins or nuts. Bake 50 minutes at 250 degrees.

If you forget (as I did) to add faces before baking, simply moisten the decorative bits and position them on the baked meringues with the help of a toothpick.