Halloween Bundt Cake
A ghoulish guest appears in this Spooky Halloween Bundt Cake, a fun and easy Halloween dessert!
Halloween Bundt Cake Recipe
A couple of years ago, Surprise Cakes were all the rage – lead by Amanda Rettke’s book Surprise Inside Cakes.
I decided to try my hand at it and I think it was a mixed result, but worth sharing!
There are a couple ways to achieve this spooky “surprise” in your cake:
- cutting and freezing cake shapes in the ghost shape and then placing them in a second batter
- attempting to pour the batter in ghost shapes before baking
Cutting out ghost shapes and then freezing them is definitely the easier of the two methods. Basically, you make a thin (jelly roll style) cake and then cut your chosen spooky shapes out of the baked cake and freeze them before arranging in your second (deeper) cake pan, before surrounding with the final batter.
Freehand pouring the ghost is a lot trickier, and there is a chance you won’t end up with anything more than a few swirls – but I like to live dangerously, so I just went for it.
A couple things to do to make freehand pouring your shapes a bit easier:
- keep in mind that your batter will rise, and if using a bundt pan like mine, they will rise in a dome shape
- go slow, and try to pick shapes that can be suggested and don’t require perfect edges (etc)
- go slowly, layering the different batters to create your effect, and don’t get frustrated – worst case scenario, you can just swirl the batter to make a pretty tie-dye effect
Even if your surprise shape doesn’t turn out perfectly, this bundt cake is delicious and still a lot of fun for Halloween!
Ingredients for Halloween Bundt Cake
- Butter, room temperature
- Egg Whites
- Eggs
- All-purpose Flour
- Baking powder
- Salt
- Baking Soda
- Buttermilk <– I always have a container of this instant buttermilk powder in my fridge – so much more convenient than buying buttermilk everytime
- White sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Neon orange, neon purple and black food coloring <– this set of food coloring has lasted me forever and I love that it creates highly saturated colors with just a drop
Frosting Ingredients:
- Butter, room temperature
- Powdered icing sugar
- Heavy Whipping Cream (or milk, if desired)
- Black, neon purple, and neon orange gel food coloring
Scroll down to the printable recipe card for full measurements.
Tip: feel free to swap in a vanilla cake mix in for this from-scratch recipe.
Kitchen Tools You May Find Helpful
- Bundt cake pan
- Measuring cups and spoons
- Mixing bowl
- Electric mixer <– this is a great hand mixer if you don’t want to make the investment into a stand mixer
- Cooling racks <– I have and love these tiered cooling racks, they save so much counter space and are also oven-safe
How to Make Halloween Bundt Cake
Preheat oven to 350ºF.
Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl. Set aside.
Beat butter on high for 30 seconds, then add sugar and vanilla extract to the butter until well combined.
Add egg whites, one at a time, mixing after each, then repeat with the whole eggs.
Add 1/3 cup flour mixture to the wet mixture followed by adding 1/3 cup of the buttermilk; add 1/3 cup flour mixture again then add 1/3 cup buttermilk mix on low speed, add 1/3 cup of flour and add the rest of 1/3 cup of buttermilk mix in low speed until thoroughly blended.
Divide the batter into three bowls. Add black gel food coloring to one, add neon orange gel food coloring to the second, and add the neon purple gel food coloring to the third bowl. Stir well.
Grease and flour the bundt pan.
Add a layer of orange batter, then a layer of black, then layer in stripes to serve as the ghost’s eyes (color-black-color-black-color-black-color with the black lines touching the outermost black batter and forming the “eye” holes). Add another layer of black, then the nose stripes (color-black-color-black-color) and then a final black stripe for the chin (color-black-color).
Marble the remaining batter overtop.
Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove the cake from the Bundt pan and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.
Frosting Directions:
Cream the butter and powder sugar until it looks light and creamy.
If it doesn’t cream add several drops of the heavy whipping cream until it creams. Once the frosting has the right consistency then divide it into 3 bowls.
In each of the three bowls add several drops of gel food coloring. 1 st bowl add black, 2nd bowl add neon purple, 3rd bowl add neon orange. After each color addition stir well to mix the colors.
When the colors are right, starting with the black frosting using a spoon drizzle the frosting on the cake. Allow the black frosting to dry. Then repeat the process with the neon purple frosting.
Lastly, repeat the frosting process with the neon orange frosting.
Allow all frosting to dry on the cake.
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Halloween Bundt Cake
A fun Halloween cake recipe for a Halloween party, this Spooky Halloween Bundt Cake has a surprise inside!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, room temperature
- 2 egg whites
- 2 eggs
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Neon orange, neon purple, and black gel food coloring
Frosting Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter, room temperature
- 4 + cups powdered icing sugar
- 4 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream (or milk, if desired)
- Black, neon purple, and neon orange gel food coloring
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together in a bowl. Set aside.
- Beat butter on high for 30 seconds, then add sugar and vanilla extract to the butter until well combined.
- Add egg whites, one at a time, mixing after each, then repeat with the whole eggs.
- Add 1/3 cup flour mixture to the wet mixture followed by adding 1/3 cup of the buttermilk; add 1/3 cup flour mixture again then add 1/3 cup buttermilk mix on low speed, add 1/3 cup of flour and add the rest of 1/3 cup of buttermilk mix in low speed until thoroughly blended.
- Divide the batter into three bowls. Add black gel food coloring to one, add neon orange gel food coloring to the second, and add the neon purple gel food coloring to the third bowl. Stir well.
- Grease and flour the bundt pan.
- Add a layer of orange batter, then a layer of black, then layer in stripes to serve as the ghost's eyes (color-black-color-black-color-black-color with the black lines touching the outermost black batter and forming the "eye" holes). Add another layer of black, then the nose stripes (color-black-color-black-color) and then a final black stripe for the chin (color-black-color).
- Marble the remaining batter overtop.
- Bake the cake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clan.
- Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 20 minutes then remove the cake from the Bundt pan and place on a wire rack until completely cooled.
Frosting Directions:
- Cream the butter and powder sugar until it looks light and creamy.
- If it doesn't cream add several drops of the heavy whipping cream until it creams. Once the frosting has the right consistency then divide it into 3 bowls.
- In each of the three bowls add several drops of gel food coloring. 1 st bowl add black, 2nd bowl add neon purple, 3rd bowl add neon orange. After each color addition stir well to mix the colors.
- When the colors are right, starting with the black frosting using a spoon drizzle the frosting on the cake. Allow the black frosting to dry. Then repeat the process with the neon purple frosting.
- Lastly, repeat the frosting process with the neon orange frosting.
- Allow all frosting to dry on the cake.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
12Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 569Total Fat: 26gSaturated Fat: 16gTrans Fat: 1gUnsaturated Fat: 8gCholesterol: 98mgSodium: 390mgCarbohydrates: 82gFiber: 1gSugar: 64gProtein: 5g
Sugar, Spice and Glitter uses an auto-generate nutrition calculator. Nutrition information isn’t always accurate unless analyzed in a scientific lab, so these should be considered more of a guideline than medical information.
This fun surprise-inside Halloween cake is easy to make and it’s so much fun anticipating if the shape will turn out – or if you will just have a pretty, marbled Halloween cake.
For more delicious Halloween recipes, check out our Cream-filled Spiderweb Cupcakes or our Monster Meringue Cookies.
