Hi friends! Today I have something extra special to share with you. While this passion of mine grows along with the blog, I’ve always made it a priority to only work with brands that truly share my niche. I want you to trust my opinions and reviews, and only share things I know will be of most benefit to you – as a fellow cake enthusiast! So when Wilton contacted me to do an Instagram takeover, and share a fun Halloween cake using my favorite Wilton products, I naturally jumped for the opportunity!

Halloween cakes are a favorite fall tradition in my kitchen, and I’ve had a lot of fun on my Instagram page sharing some fun new designs using less-traditional elements. Today, I’m sharing a bit of the classic drip cake, as well as a fun hidden shape inside of this cake – a candy corn!

Truth be told, I’m not a huge fan of the taste of candy corns, but I love the bright vibrant colors and what the represent – that the fall season is here, and Halloween is upon us!

Let’s get started, shall we?

First things first, you’ll want to start off with three black cake layers, and three white cake layers (one tinted yellow, one tinted orange, and one left white). To achieve a black cake, I started off with my dark chocolate cake recipe and added in a touch of the Wilton “Black” Color Right Food Coloring System.

For the orange and yellow, I added a touch of orange and yellow gel coloring to one cake round each before baking. What I love about the Wilton gels is that you only  need a drop or two to achieve the right shade. In this case, we are going for the classic Halloween candy: candy corn colors! You’ll want to wrap your black cake layers in plastic wrap and freeze them for our next step!

Next, we are going to be carving out our black cake to create space for a hidden candy corn inside. It sounds tricky, but I promise it’s super easy, and really creates a fun “WOW” factor when slicing into it. First (as painful as it may be to rip up the cake layers), tear the yellow, white, and orange cake layers into cake crumbs. Save the other halves for cake pops or a cake trifle (yum!).

Next, carve out your frozen cake layers – think about a 3D cone shape. The bottom layer will be the tip of the cone shape (white), the next will be the middle of the cone shape (orange), and the top will the the widest part of the cone shape (yellow, just like a candy corn hidden inside the cake). You can mix your cake crumbs with white buttercream, or just pack it in super tight with clean hands. When everything is assembled, you can FLIP (yes! Ahh!!) the cake so the candy corn is right side up. If you’ve nervous about filling a cake with the candy corn shape, you can always just frost the cute colored cake layers as is, and skip the black cake layers altogether. Either way is still pretty fun for Halloween. Crumb coat, freeze, then add on the final cake layer using a Wilton scraper to make everything smooth.

Black buttercream is PERFECT for Halloween. To avoid staining your teeth black (eek!), use a very dark chocolate buttercream and add in a tiny bit of Wilton black gel coloring. Going from dark brown to black is less of a jump than white to black, so less coloring is needed (and it tastes delicious!). I gently pressed on these super cute Wilton pumpkins on the bottom rim of the cake while the black buttercream was still wet. I then froze the cake for a minute to chill the cake, and then added on my favorite ganache drip using Black Wilton Candy Melts melted with a little heavy cream in the microwave, and my purple Wilton squeeze bottle. I love the way the black drip looks on the black buttercream.

The final touch on a cake should almost always be some fun sprinkles. At last, I topped my the black ganache drip on my Halloween cake with these darling Wilton candy-corn-colored sprinkles. Adding on the sprinkles when the ganache is still a little bit wet is key – that way they stick where you want them to. Wilton has a really amazing selection of sprinkles this year (as always), so it was so hard to choose just one for this cake. I love the way it echoes what’s hidden on the inside!

Here’s the final shot! I love how the dark cake contrasts with the bright candy corn on the inside. I loved using all the bright and dark colors of Halloween, and creating a fun surprise while cutting into the cake. Speaking of cutting the cake, make sure your cake is very cold when you cut into it. When your cake is chilled, slice into it with a hot knife to reveal your cute candy corn. I hope you enjoyed making this fun Halloween cake along with me today on @wiltoncakes Instagram page. Let me know what kind of Halloween cake you have planned for this month, and make sure to check out my other cakes on my Instagram page @bakingwithblondie for more ideas, easy recipes, and fun tutorials to build your cake confidence.

Huge thanks again to Wilton for sending me these fun Halloween goodies to work with, including these darling spider web table decorations (I have them up on my wall by my fireplace now, I love them so much!). I can’t wait to share more Halloween cakes with you, and see what you create!