Ingredients
For the Cake
- ⅔ C plain yogurt
- 4 egg whites
- ¾ C buttermilk
- ⅓ C vegetable oil
- 2 tsp Adams Clear Vanilla Extract
- 1 box mix of White Cake Mix
- Wilton Color Right pink and orange
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
Step by Step
- For the Cake : Preheat the oven to 325F and prepare 3 - 6" round pans with baking spray and parchment paper. Set aside.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Crumb coat the cake with a thin layer of frosting and place it into the fridge for 30 minutes.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- When ready to serve, add more gummy eyeballs with a bit of buttercream and insert the marshmallow skull into the center of the cake.
My tips
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.
More success tips following.