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Day of the Dead Cake

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I’d return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I'd return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    Day of the Dead Cake

    Now, I must take a moment to let you know that I knew nothing about the Day of the Dead before I watched “Coco”. What I knew, was totally not real, but what the holiday has evolved into on TV, movies, and social media. I had to do some research and learn a few things for myself before I decided to decorate this cake.

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I'd return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    This Mexican tradition is all about remembering and celebrating the lives of our ancestors who have passed away. It’s not a sorrowful event, instead it’s a celebration of life.

    People will pay tribute to their ancestors by decorating their graves, making their favorite meals, and dressing up in bright clothes because death is not viewed as the end of life. Instead, the dead are still with us and it is only during this time that they can travel from the beyond back to the living.

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I'd return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    Día de los Muertos

    I really like this idea that the dead are not gone. So this cake was made to celebrate my grandparents and my dad, all of whom have passed. They would have loved to have one last slice of cake with their families, and I hope that there’s cake wherever they have gone.

    The skulls that you see painted on to faces and made into sugar skulls are on display because even though we are all the same under our clothes, there is even more similarity under our skin. Maybe the world needs a little bit of a reminder about this…

    Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead Cake in bright colors of pink and orange with a hint of turquoise.

    I was inspired to make this cake because of the marshmallow skull I received from Treat Street. I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew that it had to be a part of it. The bight colors in the Sugar Skull Sweets & Treats sprinkle mix had the perfect pops of color with the contrasting black that would be wonderful for a Day of the Dead Cake.

    Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead Cake in bright colors of pink and orange with a hint of turquoise.

    You can get as creative as you like with the colors and decorations. Have fun with the cake colors. Paint a skull on the side. Use real marigolds as decorations.

    Enjoy the time with your family and talk about your memories of your loved ones.

    Día de los Muertos - Day of the Dead Cake in bright colors of pink and orange with a hint of turquoise.

     

    Giveaway

    Happy Halloween! We hope you’re ready for a spooktacular event as we celebrate Halloween with the first annual #HalloweenTreatsWeek event hosted by Angie from Big Bear’s Wife. This haunting week-long event is filled with fantastic Halloween treats, recipes and some frightfully fun giveaways.

    “When witches go riding, and black cats are seen, the moon laughs and whispers ‘tis near Halloween.”

     

    For our very first #HalloweenTreatsWeek event we have 30 talented bloggers that are sharing their favorite Halloween recipes throughout the week! There are going to be over 100 Halloween themed recipes shared during this year’s #HalloweenTreatsWeek and we can’t wait for you to see them all!

    Plus, don’t forget that we have 5 (five) great giveaways for you this week thanks to our amazing sponsors!

    Scroll down to take a look!

    #HalloweenTreatsWeek sponsored by Dixie Crystals, Wilton, Adams Extracts, Sweets and Treats, and Treat Street.

    • Prize #1 — Dixie Crystals is giving away one (1) Instant Pot (8 Qt) to one lucky winner!
    • Prize #2 — Adam’s Extract is giving away – 1 Gift Pack – including Pure Vanilla Extract, Ground Cinnamon, Caramel Extract, Almond Extract, Pumpkin Pie Dip Mix and Adam’s Best Twice as strong Vanilla
    • Prize #3 —Wilton is giving away a Wilton Gift Pack – including – Halloween Cookie House Bat, Tombstone and Skull 3-Piece Cookie Cutter Set, Halloween Skull Tube Pan, Zombie Cupcake Liners, Skull Sugar Decorations
    • Prize #4 — Sweets and Treats Shop is giving away 1 (one) 1.5lb Sprinkle Mix Kit from their shop
    • Prize #5 — Treat Street USA is giving away a $25 Visa Gift Card

     

    a Rafflecopter giveaway

     

    Giveaway open to US Residents 18 years or older. All entries will be verified. No PO Boxes Please. Prizes will be sent directly from sponsors to winners, bloggers are not responsible for prizes. This giveaway runs from October 1st – October 6th at 12AMEST. Winners will be selected soon afterward and contacted by e-mail. Winners will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. There are a total of 5 (five) prizes and therefore we will have a total of 5 (five) winners. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited by law.

     

    Disclaimer: These posts and recipes are part of the week-long event, #HalloweenTreatsWeek but all opinions are 100% mine! We would like to Thank our amazing sponsors: Dixie Crystals, Adam’s Extract, Wilton, Sweets and Treats Shop and Treat Street USA ! These wonderful sponsors provided the prize packs for our giveaways and also sent samples and products to the #HalloweenTreatsWeek bloggers to use in their recipes.

     

    Check out the amazing #HalloweenTreatsWeek recipes from our bloggers today!

     

    Here’s a few more Halloween Cake Ideas – Halloween Peeps Cake

    Simple cake decorated with Halloween Peeps.

    Halloween Sugar Cookies and pumpkin candies decorate this Graveyard Cookie Cake.

    The kids are going to LOVE baking, decorating, and creating this fun Graveyard Cake for Halloween! Cookie decoration on a sheet cake!

     

    Yield: 16

    Day of the Dead Cake

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I'd return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    This Day of the Day Cake is perfect to serve up as a celebration of life of your past loved ones. I'd return from the dead for a slice of this colorful cake.

    Prep Time 1 hour
    Cook Time 30 minutes
    Additional Time 4 hours
    Total Time 5 hours 30 minutes

    Ingredients

    For the Cake

    For the Frosting

    • 2 cups unsalted butter (4 sticks)
    • 1 Tbsp Adams Clear Vanilla Extract
    • 2 pounds Dixie Crystals Powdered Sugar
    • 3 -5 Tbsp heavy Cream
    • pinch of salt
    • Wilton Color Right

    For the Black Ganache

    • Wilton Black candy melts
    • 3 Tbsp heavy cream
    • Gummy Eyeballs from Treat Street
    • Marshmallow Skeleton Pop from Treat Street

    Instructions

    1. For the Cake : Preheat the oven to 325F and prepare 3 - 6" round pans with baking spray and parchment paper. Set aside.
    2. Mix together all the ingredients for the cake. Divide the batter into thirds. Color 1/3 pink, 1/3 orange and leave 1/3 white.
    3. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove cake from the oven and cool fo r 5 minutes. Turn out on to a cooling rack and let come to room temperature. This is best done the day before. Torte the cake layers and freeze over night for best results.
    4. For the Buttercream Frosting : In your stand mixer fitted with ta paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed for several minutes until the butter is light and fluffy.
    5. Gradually spoon in the powdered sugar, clear extract and tablespoons of cream until all of the sugar in incorporated. Your frosting should be smooth and fluffy. Add more cream as necessary to get the desired thickness. Give the butter a final mix with a large spatula to knock out any air bubbles.
    6. Remove a half cup of the frosting and tint it pink. Place another 1/2 cup of frosting in another bowl and tint it orange. Then tint a third bowl of frosting turquoise. Place them into piping bags or cover them with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.
    7. To decorate the cake: Remove the cold cake from the freezer while making the buttercream. Add a layer of frosting to the first cake layer and smooth over. Continue adding cake and frosting until all layers are used. For this cake, I just added 5 layers.
    8. Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting and place it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
    9. Coat the final layer of frosting. While the frosting is still soft, add the sprinkles to the lower quarter of the cake. Simply press a handful of sprinkles to the side of the cake. It will be messy, but that's ok.
    10. Melt the half the bag of black candy melts and heavy cream in the microwave for 1 minute. Mix until smooth and glossy. Transfer to a plastic baggie and snip off the corner. Create the drizzles and coat the top in the black ganache. Add more sprinkles to the wet topping.
    11. Place the three colored buttercream bags into one piping bag fitted with a round Russian Ball Piping Tip with the "S-shape" cut out. Make three big flower swirls on top of the cake and fill in the center hole with a gummy eyeball candy.
    12. When ready to serve, add more gummy eyeballs with a bit of buttercream and insert the marshmallow skull into the center of the cake.

    Notes

    To get really white buttercream, a little trick is to use a hint of purple food coloring to counter the yellow hue that the butter can give the frosting. Just put a little bit on a toothpick and add it to the buttercream. A little goes a long way.

    Did you make this recipe?

    Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram


    Images, text and all other content Copyrighted©Karyn Granrud, Susanne Queck and Wunderlander Verlag LLC, or ©Pro Stock Media via Canva.com. Unlicensed republishing permitted. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn on qualified purchases.

    Karyn Granrud

    Karyn Granrud

    I'm Karyn, a mom and wife, and I founded this little baking blog. Baking and making desserts have been my passion since I was a kid. I love experimenting with different flavors and sharing delicious recipes with all of you. Read more.

    23 thoughts on “Day of the Dead Cake”

    1. do you by any chance take orders for items to be sent? Or can you suggest somone? MyDaughter is at Berkley. She loves th theme and I think it would surprise her roomates! Thank You!

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