How to Decorate Cake for Halloween

Halloween provides so many different and unique opportunities for decorating your party cakes that it often becomes difficult to select only one theme. Witches, ghouls, ghosts and skeletons, the list is as endless as the inspiration. In fact, there is no reason to stop at a single cake. Make your celebration shine with a pair of centerpieces that are sure to stand out from the crowd.

Items Needed:

• 3 twelve-inch round cakes (plus extra in case something goes wrong)


• 10-inch Styrofoam ball from craft store


• Butter cream icing in parchment piping bag


• Spinning cake plate


• Fast drying tacky craft glue


• Cling wrap


• Round foiled cake base


• Hacksaw with a new, clean blade


• Sharp kitchen knife


• Fondant rolling pin


• Orange fondant


• Black fondant


• Dark brown fondant


• Light brown fondant


• Corn starch


• 2-inch soft bristled paint brush used only for edibles


• Shortening


• Metal cake frosting spatula


• Nine-inch cardboard round


• Ball tool


• Alcohol


• Paint brush

Create the pumpkin base:

1. Cut your 10-inch Styrofoam ball in half using a clean hacksaw blade.


2. Apply a generous amount of tacky craft glue to the bottom of your sphere and attach it to your round foiled cake base.


3. Allow glue to dry completely before continuing


4. Apply shortening all over the surface of your 10-inch Styrofoam ball using your metal frosting spatula, making sure to cover the surface completely.


5. Lay a large sheet of cling wrap over the body of the pumpkin, smoothing the sheet down along the shape of the sphere with your hands. This ensures that the Styrofoam will in no way touch the cake surface.


6. Place a dollop of shortening on to the bottom of your nine-inch cardboard round and press into the very center of the flattened top of the newly wrapped styrofoam ball.

Build your pumpkin:

1. Place one of your 12-inch round cakes in the center of the Styrofoam ball, using a cardboard round as your support base. You are using a 12-inch round for a 10-inch styrofoam ball because the cakes will tend to shrink when cooked.


2. Pipe a large circle of buttercream frosting on to the top of the cake round, spiraling inward as you go. You want to put on enough buttercream to support the other cake round when you stack them together. 


3. Delicately stack the rest of the cake rounds, making a total of three in all. It is strongly suggested that you have more cake rounds on hand when making this particular cake just in case something goes wrong and you need to replace one of your cake layers.


4. Begin cutting the cake layers to resemble the bottom half of the styrofoam ball, carefully removing small portions at a time and smoothing the edges along all three layers as you go. Be very careful here; work slowly and carefully.


5. Ice the freshly carved cake layers with a ¼-inch crumb layer and place the cake in the refrigerator for the duration you work with fondant.

Decorate your pumpkin cake:

1. Sprinkle your work surface with a generous amount of corn starch.


2. Remove a very generous portion of the pumpkin orange fondant from its container. Be sure to remove more than you think you will need as you will be trimming the fondant from the base of the cake later.


3. Work the fondant between your hands until it is malleable. 


4. Roll the fondant into a large ball and place it in the center of your work surface.


5. Use a fondant rolling pin to roll out the fondant until it is completely flat.


6. Roll the end of the orange fondant on to the rolling pin then continue to loosely roll the fondant on to the rolling pin, leaving a fair length hanging down from the pin.


7. Drape the pumpkin cake with the orange fondant by allowing the hanging length of the fondant on the pin to fall on the foiled cake base in front of the cake and working the rolling pin so that it unrolls the fondant as you move your arms from the front of the cake to the back. Be careful not to tear the fondant.


8. Smooth the fondant very carefully around the round pumpkin cake, using the palms of your hands to smooth the surface of the fondant as you go. Pull out the edge of the fondant to smooth under the sphere as you work.


9. Trim the fondant with a sharp knife when the sphere is covered. Don’t worry if you cannot cover the last inch or so of the sphere as that area will be covered with vines.


10. Use your ball tool to make the pumpkin lines in the fondant on the cake, begin from the top and work your way down.


11. Roll out the black fondant very thinly and cut out the pumpkin eyes, eyebrows and mouth. 


12. Apply the facial features to the pumpkin by adding a bit of alcohol to the back side of the fondant and attaching.


13. Wipe the facial features with a two-inch paint brush to remove remaining cornstarch and to help set the facial features on to the surface of the cake.

Make your pumpkin vines:

1. Blend together the light brown and dark brown fondant and twist it about itself until the light brown is worked into the dark brown via long thin streaks.


2. Work the brown fondant around the bottom of the pumpkin cake, making sure that some of the vines swirl up and on to the pumpkin cake itself, securing with alcohol.


3. Break off a medium-sized amount and fold it over onto itself then twist it around until it has a ridged swirl in the fondant. 


4. Curl the top of the fondant to create a mild hook. 


5. Press the end of the fondant on to the table to flatten and cover the area with alcohol. 


6. Apply the fondant to the top of the pumpkin cake, pressing down firmly and smoothing the joins between the vine fondant and the pumpkin. You have just completed the stem.