A Birthday Cake Fit for the Queen of Halloween

We just spent a wonderful weekend with my parents to celebrate my mom's birthday. We took them to the traveling Cirque du Soleil show, Crystal, yesterday. I was in absolute awe of the talent and performance of the entire cast, while simultaneously being very much so aware of the fact that I have difficulty communicating with my left foot what my right foot is doing at the same time. I may never be able to perform acrobatics while suspended from the air (or the ground) or be able to complete a triple axle on ice (or even in my imagination), but what I can do is bake and decorate cakes so good they'll leave you speechless. I may be a little sad that as a baker no one ever gives me a standing ovation for my creation/performance, but I'm also extremely introverted and turn into a statue when a group of more than 5 people are paying attention to me directly, so I suppose it's all for the best. But I knew I had to make my mom a birthday cake fit for the Queen of Halloween and the woman who spent countless hours always ensuring my birthday cakes were absolutely perfect. I am fortunate that both her creativity and attention to detail were passed on to me, as well as that flair for the dramatic where Halloween is concerned. This meant my cake needed to be as scrumptious as it was spooky, and I thought it the perfect chance to test out two styles I've been dying to use: a semi-naked cake oozing with ganache dripping down the sides.

I was also pretty stoked to make my own swirled chocolate bark.

This is a variation of my dark chocolate cake recipe with a chocolate amaretto buttercream frosting, a chocolate amaretto ganache, and swirled chocolate bark. It was gothic but chic and delectable while full of Disaronno. For those of you looking for calorie content, I will say that this 3-tier, 6-inch cake yields 12 servings at about 312 calories a serving, and that does include all of the full-sugary goodness that is buttercream frosting. I ended up barely using any frosting save for in between layers, and I used less than half of the ganache I made, so this helped. Knowing I have a large Tupperware full of amaretto buttercream in my freezer is both tempting and terrifying, but I'll find another use for it (read: will eat it by the spoonful when I'm bored). I was actually able to cut a veritable buttload of calories by trying out what I shall now refer to as Kate's little helper: Truvia baking blend.

Yes, I used my family as guinea pigs, but I trust their opinions on dessert more than anyone else.

I ate a small amount of Truvia baking blend all by itself to make sure it had no weird aftertaste or wouldn't make me die of dysentery or sadness. It tasted fine, and I am obviously not dead (although I will probably find a way to blog in the afterlife because I am delightfully weird). I will offer you a few tips about using this stuff: you will need to add more baking soda (1/4-1/2 tsp) so that things bake evenly. I did not know this until after I was horribly shocked by how uneven and domed my cakes became in baking (don't worry, I leveled them and ate the remaining evidence). You also lose some bulk, but since this was a 3-tiered, 6-inch round cake, I didn't require a ton of bulk to my recipe. If you wanted to yield two 8-inch cakes at full size, swap out some or all of your recipe's butter for vegetable oil or applesauce instead. Applesauce will make it wayyyy healthier, but sometimes you just need to go calorie crazy to yield a cake worthy of applause (I'm still angling for the standing ovation). To make this version of my dark chocolate cake, gather:

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup + 2 TBS Truvia baking blend
• 1/4 cup Hershey's dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup Hershey's regular cocoa powder
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs at room temp
• 3/4 cup buttermilk at room temp
• 1/4 cup sour cream at room temp
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup boiling water

Super important that your buttermilk, eggs, and sour cream are at room temp so they don't cook and curdle respectively when you add boiling water to them later. Start by preheating your oven to 350 and greasing three 6-inch pans. I only had two, so I had to bake my last layer after I was done using my pans the first time around.

It was very hard not to eat the batter from the cake layer that got left behind.

Mix together the flour, Truvia, cocoa powders, baking powder, baking soda, and salt on low in your stand mixer until blended. Then add your eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Blend on medium-high for about two minutes, until things have come together nicely. While this is mixing, boil 3/4 cup of water. Turn your mixer off and add the boiling water. Blend slowly and carefully until fully mixed. I turned out about a cup and a half of batter into each prepared pan and baked for 35 minutes.

Not pictured: the evidence I ate.

Let your cakes cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. If you have uneven tops, wait until your cakes are mostly cooled and then use a cake leveler to even out the tops of your cakes. You want each layer to sit perfectly on top of one another with a naked cake because all flaws aren't easily covered by frosting with this technique, so don't skip on leveling. Once cooled and leveled, wrap in plastic wrap and let freeze overnight or at least for a few hours. Scraping frosting down for the naked cake technique is hard on your cake, so you want it to be a dense cake recipe (a.k.a., no box mixes need apply) and you want it to be mostly frozen (like my demeanor).

Yes, I have a holiday bottle of Disaronno that has lasted since before Christmas 2016.

Disaronno is my beverage of choice when I run out of wine. But since I never run out of wine (the horror), this stuff tends to last me for the better part of a decade. I did a lot of adding and experimenting with this frosting, so keep in mind what I used, you only need about 1/4-1/3 of for a semi-naked cake. If you're frosting a full 2-tier 8-inch or 9-inch cake, you will need about the full recipe (with several spoonfuls leftover for "taste testing"):

• 1 1/2 cups of butter at room temp
• 1/4 cup Hershey's dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup Hershey's regular cocoa powder
• 6 cups of powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract (I literally never remember to take a photo of this ingredient)
• 6-8* tablespoons of Disaronno
• Dark purple gel dye

*For a naked cake, you want a thinner consistency frosting that is easier to swipe off the cake, so use more Disaronno. For a thicker frosting you can smooth and pipe with, use less Disaronno.

Whip the butter in your stand mixer for a few minutes until fluffy, then add in the cocoa powders, vanilla extract, 2 TBS of Disaronno, and 2 cups of powdered sugar. Blend slowly until mixed, then add in 2 more TBS of Disaronno, 2 more cups of powdered sugar, blend, and repeat this step until you've used all the sugar and Disaronno you need for the right consistency of frosting. If you're dying your frosting (it will be a light brown shade), add in a darker gel dye. I wanted my color to be a chocolate cherry hue, so I used quite a bit of dark purple gel dye to achieve this.

The circle of life.

 Remove your cakes from the freezer, unwrap, and place the first layer on top of a prepared cake round (place it upside down so the top of the cake is facing the cake board). I always pipe a little frosting on my cake board so my bottom layer stays put. For a naked cake and even layers in between each tier, I used a large round tip (Wilton 1A) and piped a circle around the outer edge of my bottom layer. I then piped inside of this circle and smoothed things out with an angled spatula:

There will be overhang, and this is good.

 Now, take your next layer, and once again, place it face down on top of your first cake layer:

Like a giant, delicious Oreo.

 By putting your layers upside down, you're ensuring each layer has an even and flat surface. Remember, much like when you're naked, it's pretty difficult to hide flaws sans clothing, and this cake follows that same principle without a lot of frosting to cover it up. Repeat the outer-circle with your piping bag of buttercream, fill it in, and smooth. Then place your final layer (upside down again) on top:

Is a triple-stuffed Oreo a thing yet or should I patent that?

 Place a large blob of frosting on top of the final layer and smooth out with an angled spatula. You will have lots of overhang, and again, this is good. Take more frosting and spread it in varying thickness all over your cake. It should be pretty much covered for a semi-naked cake. For a mostly naked cake, don't use as much frosting on the sides.

Got a few spots poking through, but this was mostly covered.

 Now, take a bench scraper and run it around the sides of your cake like this video shows you at the 4:00 minute mark. Clean off your bench scraper after each pass, and continue scraping frosting off the sides of your cake until you have it as naked as you want.

I loved the amount of dark chocolate peeking through here, so I stopped.

Do whatever you want with copious amounts of leftover frosting that you've scraped off, like eating it with a shovel or using it for another baked good. Use an angled spatula to even out any weirdness you see on the top of your cake after scraping. If you're ganaching the top of the cake, freeze it for a few hours so your buttercream stays firm. While it's setting up, you can make your chocolate bark.

Not pictured: the vegetable oil you will definitely need.

 Melted chocolate is a fickle nightmare. It seizes up at the slightest sign of moisture, so when you're trying to dye it a different color, you're gonna need vegetable oil. I recommend making life easier for yourself by buying chocolate melts in whatever color you want your swirled bark to be. If I had purple chocolate melts, my bark would've turned out better because I wouldn't have spent precious time adding oil into my dyed chocolate to get it smooth again, all the while my dark chocolate was firming up to the point where swirling the two colors together was a small nightmare. The things we do for our mothers... ;-)

For the bark:

• 2/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup white chocolate
• Dark purple gel dye
• 1-2 teaspoons of vegetable oil

Place Parchment paper down on a baking tray. Melt your semisweet chips following package directions (usually 30 seconds at a time on 50% power in the microwave, stirring after each time). Using an angled spatula, smooth out the melted chocolate onto the Parchment paper to form a large rectangle:

Like so.

 Then, melt your white chocolate melts and add in the purple dye and vegetable oil. Stir well, then drop dollops on top of the semisweet chocolate layer:

Not much rhyme or reason to my dolloping.

 Had I used purple chocolate melts, things would've swirled together better since my semisweet layer was hardening fast by the time I finished mixing my white chocolate, dye, and oil. I was able to swirl with a chopstick somewhat, but it didn't mix as well as I had hoped. Moral of the story: colored chocolate melts are your best friend here. Set your tray in the fridge to firm up for a half an hour. Then simply chop into triangles:

Nice, stabby, pointy triangles.

Set this back in the fridge until you're ready to ganache the top of your cake. I did a lot of reading to test out adding booze to a ganache after the nightmare that was adding gel dye to melted chocolate earlier. I was determined to make adding liquid to a melted chocolate work, rules be damned!

Otherwise this Disaronno wasn't going to see any action again until like 2019.

To make the amaretto ganache, you need:

• 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup of heavy whipping cream, with 1 tablespoon removed
• 1 tablespoon of Disaronno

Basically, when you want to add booze, you need to keep the liquid level at the same amount. So if you wanted two tablespoons of Disaronno, remove two tablespoons of heavy cream from your 3/4 cup. Melt your chocolate using the method described above while bringing your heavy whipping cream to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the chocolate is melted, pour the the heavy whipping cream on top of it 1/4 cup at a time, blending very, very well in between additions. Once completely smooth, add in the tablespoon of Disaronno and blend well again. I used a strainer to remove any air bubbles from my ganache.

Hello, gorgeous.

 Remove your cake from the freezer, place it on a cake plate, and then spoon ganache on top of your cake. Use an angled spatula to smooth out and allow the ganache to run down the sides of your cake:

This moment was positively divine.

 So if you don't want as much of a drip, don't use as much ganache on top. I only used about half of my ganache. While the ganache is still soft, remove your bark shards from the fridge and gently secure them in the top of your cake with a bit of pressure.

Arrange however you like--I was going for "Halloween crown."

 Place everything into the fridge at this point so your ganache can set up for a few hours.

It will be hard to take your eyes off this beauty, but no one wants to eat an unset ganache.

 It's pretty much like just eating chocolate syrup straight out of the bottle at this point, so give it time. I also found some glittery purple candles to complete the look:

I didn't put them in until after the ganache had firmed, so this was an interesting experience.

 Birthday song was sung, presents were opened, and cake was had. And oh how gloriously delicious it was. I didn't tell anyone until after we were done drooling over it that I used the Truvia. Everyone agreed it still tasted exactly like dark chocolate cake should. And since it was covered in booze-laden frosting and ganache, it was still plenty sweet all around. The first bite hits your taste buds with chocolate and finishes with that sweet cherry flavor from the Disaronno. This chocolate amaretto buttercream is probably the craziest frosting combination I've concocted to date, but it works oh. so. well.

Seriously, you just have to try it.

 Most importantly of all, my mother loved it. It was wonderful to give her a cake that is probably only half as good as anything she's ever baked for me, but to know how much she enjoyed it and appreciated my efforts made all the tiny heart attacks that occurred during baking and chocolate melting worth it. I may not ever be a Cirq performer with my two left feet and an intense avoidance of the spotlight, but I know how to say "I love you" with cake and the steely determination only a Type-A introvert can have. So happiest of birthdays to my biggest fan and best friend--love you, Mom! I'll be back this weekend with one final Halloween delight. 'Til next time, my fellow eaters!

P.S., I'm bringing the bottle of Disaronno with to Christmas, or it'll never get finished.