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    Home » Dessert Recipes » Decorated Cakes

    Black and Orange Halloween Petal Cake

    Published: Oct 6, '14 · Modified: Sep 30, '19 · By: Beth · This post may contain affiliate links.

    Decorate a 6-layer chocolate cake with orange and black petals using buttercream. This fun orange and black petal cake is perfect for Halloween.

    Black and Orange Halloween Petal Cake | HungryHappenings.com

    As part of the Wilton Sweet Treat Team, I had the opportunity to take a Wilton Course 1 cake decorating class at JoAnn's last month. On the final day of class, I decorated this simple Orange and Black Halloween Petal Cake using one of the techniques I learned.

    I had not taken a cake decorating class since I was 16 years old but felt it was time I learned some new techniques. Back when I was a teenager I decorated cakes for every special occasion, but over the years found my family just really isn't into cake that much, so I quit.

    Over the last year I've been asked to decorate a lot of cakes for Tablespoon.com including a 3-D Pumpkin Pinata Cake and a 3-D Football Cake, and much of the time I have felt like I was flying by the seat of my pants. I knew it was time to learn new cake decorating skills.


    Transfer an image onto a cake using piping gel | HungryHappenings.com

    During each class, our instructor Terry shared tips and tricks for making great cakes.

    I was most excited to learn how to easily transfer an image using piping gel onto a cake. It is really a cool technique especially for those of us who are artistically challenged. I've always been pretty good at tracing so I really love this idea.

    You set a drawing underneath a piece of parchment paper, trace over it with piping gel, turn it upside down, set it on the cake, brush around the edges, lift off the paper, and your design is on the cake. Then you decorate on top of it with icing.

    Halloween Owl Cake | HungryHappenings.com

    I had this owl decorated within 15 minutes. I couldn't believe how easy this was.

    Each class is jam-packed with so much information, and time to practice, that there isn't a lot of time to completely finish the cake. So students often times bring them home and add the finishing touches.

    Wilton Course 1 Decorated Cakes

    Here are some of the cakes created by the students in class. Some are not complete but you can see just how much you learn in four classes.

    Something that has always fascinated me is how you can teach a group of people the same skills and allow them the freedom to use those to best fit their personality. In a cake decorating class, you see that really come to life. No two cakes are exactly alike.

    On our final day of class, we were taught how to make ribbon roses and most students used those to decorate their final cakes.

    Halloween Black and Orange Petal Cake | HungryHappenings.com

    I went another route. I love the simplicity of the pulled dot, also known as the petal technique, and chose to make a black and orange Halloween cake.

    I planned to give this to my husband for our anniversary. I know that seems strange, but we met at a Halloween party and are total Halloween fanatics, so it makes perfect sense, actually.

    I made my husband's favorite chocolate fudge cake with chocolate ganache frosting. It was a great base on which to decorate this cake.

    Halloween Black and Orange Pulled Dot Cake | HungryHappenings.com

    Black and Orange Halloween Petal Cake


    Ingredients:


    Chocolate Fudge Cake:
    1 Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix
    1 cup water
    ¼ cup vegetable oil
    3 eggs
    2 ounces melted good quality dark chocolate

    Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
    1 ¼ cups heavy whipping cream
    16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped

    Orange and Black Frosting:
    12 ounces Wilton White Ready to Use Decorator Icing
    orange gel or paste food coloring
    12 ounces Wilton Chocolate Ready to Use Decorator Icing
    black gel or paste food coloring
    optional, water to thin out icing

    Supplies:
    3 Wilton 6 inch cake pans
    Wilton Bake Easy (non-stick spray)
    3 Wilton Bake Even Strips
    Wilton Cake Leveler
    6-inch cardboard cake round
    8-inch cardboard cake round

    Instructions:

    Doctor up a Duncan Hines Chocolate Fudge Cake Mix

    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

    Spray baking pans with Bake-Easy non-stick spray.

    Combine the cake mix, water, oil, eggs in a bowl and stir to combine. Add in the melted chocolate and beat for 30 seconds on low. Increase mixer speed to medium and beat for two minutes.

    I love adding melted chocolate to this Duncan Hines Chocolate cake. It really intensifies the chocolate flavor.

    Equally, divide cake batter among cake pans.

    Run the Bake Even Strips under water, allow excess to drip off. Wrap each cake pan with a strip, then place cakes on the middle rack in the oven, with at least 1 inch in between each pan. The bake even strips help your cakes bake more evenly, so they come out nice and flat.

    Bake for 22-26 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake, comes out clean. Allow to cool completely.

    While the cakes are cooling, make the chocolate ganache frosting.

    Chocolate Ganache Frosting Recipe | HungryHappenings.com

    Place chopped chocolate in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until chocolate is fine crumbs.

    Heat heavy whipping cream in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir often until it just comes to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, put the lid on the food processor bowl, and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Pulse for 3 seconds.

    Remove lid and scrape down the sides and bottom of the food processor bowl. Return lid and pulse for 5 more seconds or until the mixture, which is called ganache, is smooth.

    Don't over-mix your ganache or it will turn grainy as it sets up.

    Note: A food processor makes easy work of creating a chocolate ganache. If you don't have one, finely chop your chocolate and put it in a microwave-safe mixing bowl. Boil cream as above and pour over chocolate and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Use a whisk to create an emulsion. Begin by stirring just in the center of the bowl, then slowly bring the whisk out to the edge of the bowl. Stir just until combined and the ganache is smooth.

    Allow this to cool until it is thick enough to spread. Keep an eye on it. I can't tell you how long this will take. There are too many variables. So, just stir it every 15 minutes or so and keep an eye on it.

    Leveling and torting a Cake

    Once the cakes are cool, use a cake leveler to cut off part of the cake that did dome up a bit, then slice each cake into two even layers. You can see that I didn't have to cut off much. My cakes baked up nice and level.

    Cut each of those cakes into two evenly thick slices.

    Covering a cake in chocolate ganache frosting

    Set one cake layer on a 6-inch cardboard cake round. Spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache over that cake layer. Stack another layer on top and repeat until all 6 cakes are stacked.

    Chocolate frosted cake

    Then frost the entire outside of the cake and smooth it out.

    You'll notice that the frosting is thick enough that the cardboard cake round is completely covered, so I picked up my cake and set it on an 8 inch round. I used double stick tape to attach the two pieces of cardboard together and actually covered the 8 inch in purple paper.

    How to make a petal cake

    To add the decorative petals to my cake, I first started with coloring my white icing using orange coloring and my chocolate icing by coloring it black.

    Something I learned in class is that Wilton makes different thicknesses in the icing tubs. Some are thick, like the small tub of chocolate, so I had to add a small amount of water, about two teaspoons, to thin it out a bit. The white icing came in a large tub and it was perfect, but if you by the small tubs, you'll need to thin it out.

    To create the pulled dot design, I simply piped a row of dots vertically onto the cake.

    How to make a petal cake

    Then I took my spatula and pulled through each of the dots.

    How to make a Halloween petal cake

    I didn't take a picture of the next step, but I piped another row of dots on top of the frosting that had been pulled from the first dot.

    I moved in the circular pattern around the cake, piping and pulling two black dots then two orange dots.

    How to make a Halloween pulled dot petal cake

    Admittedly I was rushed. We had 35 minutes to decorate our entire cake. So as you can see my dots don't line up perfectly, but in the end, it really didn't matter that much.

    How to make a Halloween pulled dot cake

    I continued around the top of the cake and by doing so was able to fill in the gaps at the top of my crooked rows.

    Halloween pulled dot petal cake

    I was pretty happy with how it turned out especially being that I had so little time to decorate this.

    Happily, my husband loved it.

    At the end of the class, several of the women including my friend signed up for course number two. I wish I could have, but October is just too busy for me. Maybe next time.

    I was allowed to take this course for free and was given the Course 1 Decorating Kit which includes many of these decorating supplies you'll need, from Wilton because I am a brand ambassador for them. All opinions expressed here are my own.

    Items used to create my cakes that are available on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)

    Find over 100 cute and creepy Halloween treats and snacks. Follow the Halloween recipes step-by-step & video tutorials to recreate the most amazing Halloween cupcakes, cookies, rice krispie treats, chocolates, candies, appetizers, and more. Kids of all ages will go nuts over these fun Halloween food ideas .

    If you are looking for more festive Halloween food ideas, be sure to check out my Halloween category page. You'll find over 100 fun and festive recipes for the holiday.

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    • Author
    • Recent Posts
    Beth
    Beth
    Hi, I'm Beth Jackson Klosterboer, a professional chocolatier & baker, cookbook author, and event planner. I love sharing recipes for happy occasions here on Hungry Happenings. I also create easy fudge recipes to share at HowToMakeEasyFudge.com, rice krispie treat recipes at HowToMakeCerealTreats.com, and easy cookie recipes at HowToMakeEasyCookies.com
    Beth
    Latest posts by Beth (see all)
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    1. Marilyn *Pink Martinis and Pearls*

      October 21, 2014 at 3:43 am

      I love this technique and it's so festive in the Halloween colors! Great job, Beth! Thank you also for the Google + info. I really appreciated it. 🙂

      Reply
    2. Cathe

      October 20, 2014 at 8:43 pm

      Thank you so much for sharing...You have given me two really great ideas for the near future...

      Reply
    3. Julie

      October 09, 2014 at 2:50 pm

      Love your website! I like baking cakes and cupcakes, and you have some great tips and designs.

      Reply
    4. Chichi Dodoo

      October 07, 2014 at 10:24 am

      Love the colours. Pinned

      Reply
    5. The Bearfoot Baker

      October 07, 2014 at 1:53 am

      I love that cake!! The orange and black are amazing! You make it look so simple!

      Reply
    6. Michelle Medlin

      October 06, 2014 at 11:34 pm

      Love this! You're so talented! I'm super jealous! And impressed! Pinning!
      -Michelle @TheGraciousWife.com

      Reply
    7. The Partiologist

      October 06, 2014 at 4:27 pm

      Now that's my kind of cake! I love the look of the orange and black petals - 35 minutes? WOW!

      Reply
    8. Danielle Doerr

      October 06, 2014 at 2:24 pm

      You totally outdid yourself with this cake, Beth!! I am so in love with the pulled dot technique - the petals are so pretty!!

      Reply

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    Beth Jackson Klosterboer

    Welcome to Hungry Happenings!

    I'm Beth. I've been a professional chocolatier & baker for over 30 years, have written 5 cookbooks, and love creating fun food for holidays and special occasions.

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