This ghost cake is the perfect Halloween dessert, made with three layers of chocolate cake, cream cheese frosting, a chocolate ganache drizzle and meringue ghosts on top. If you’re short on time, skip the meringues and pipe the ghosts directly on the cake! You can use all-purpose, whole wheat or gluten-free flour for this recipe.
Before anyone runs away screaming, thinking this cake recipe is too daunting – it’s not. Even if you have limited baking and decorating experience, it’s an easy-to-follow recipe.
This recipe is based on this Jack Skellington Cake Recipe but with a bit more black cocoa powder and less Dutch-process. If you’ve ever had the famous Hershey’s One Bowl Chocolate Cake, it’s adapted from that recipe!
I keep reusing it because it’s the perfect chocolate cake recipe. It’s so insanely moist and chocolaty!
I also used it for this Spiderweb Cake recipe. If you’ve already checked that out, you can skip right to the exciting parts of this post – the rich chocolate ganache drip and ghost meringues!
I also used the version without the black cocoa in these Eyeball Cupcakes for Halloween, in case you’re looking for something quicker.
Ingredients
Below are the ingredients for the cake.
For complete instructions and measurements, see the recipe box below.
Here’s what you need for the frosting. I recommend some natural food coloring below, but if you don’t want to use those, then please use gel food coloring and not the liquid kind, which would make the frosting too runny.
I’m not sure why I don’t have a ingredients shot for the ganache, so here’s what you need.
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- Heavy cream
- Black gel food coloring OR black cocoa powder and a little maple syrup (or a tasteless liquid sweetener like agave syrup or simple syrup)
Make sure to use the gel kind and not the liquid one! You’d need too much of the liquid to get the ganache black, and just like with the frosting, that’d make the ganache too runny.
Black cocoa
Black cocoa is an ultra-dark, Dutch-processed cocoa powder that’s been heavily alkalized to neutralize its acidity. This gives it a smooth, almost bitter-free taste and a striking, deep black color, similar to the flavor and look of Oreos.
This recipe doesn’t use a lot of black cocoa. It’s really just to make the cake darker in color.
So your cake won’t taste of Oreos. If you want a black cocoa treat that tastes of Oreos, try this amazing Black Milkshake!
Black cocoa is often used in recipes where a rich, dark color is desired, like in Halloween baking or black velvet cakes. Since it has a low-fat content and is milder than regular cocoa, it’s typically combined with a bit of standard or Dutch-processed cocoa, like in this recipe, for a balanced flavor.
I have a few more recipes that use black cocoa if you want to use it up, like these Mummy Cookies and this Black Ice Cream.
Don’t worry if you don’t have black cocoa. Dutch-process or regular cocoa can be used.
Your cake will be lighter in color if you use Dutch-process cocoa powder, and much lighter if you use regular cocoa powder like Hershey’s. So, less black and more brown.
If using regular cocoa powder, your cake will be less chocolaty than with Dutch-process.
Warning!
As black cocoa powder passes through your digestive system, it doesn’t lose color.
I just don’t want you to panic because there’s no need to go to the doctor or start googling symptoms – it’s just the black cocoa powder in this spooky cake.
How to make the cake
As I said before, the full directions are below.
This is just to give you a visual overview.
And is not meant as a substitute for the actual directions. So please read them. 😉
What’s a crumb coat?
A crumb coat is a thin layer of frosting that traps any crumbs before applying the final frosting layer. It gives the cake a smoother finish and helps the frosting adhere better.
Freezing the cake layers before applying the crumb coat also makes it cleaner. You don’t have to do it, but it does help.
After applying the crumb coat, place the cake, unwrapped, in the freezer for at least 20-30 minutes before adding the final layer of frosting.
Ganache drip
You can either make a basic ganache and add black gel food coloring for a black ganache, or you can make that same basic ganache, add 2 1/2 to 3 teaspoons of black cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon of maple syrup to make a very, very dark brown ganache.
You don’t have to add the maple syrup, but it was too dark for my taste without it. Note that the ganache tastes like a dark chocolate ganache, even with the maple syrup, and not like Oreos. I say that because black cocoa so often makes things taste like Oreos.
For the perfect drip, let your chocolate cool slightly before applying it. You’ll want the ganache to be thick enough so that it doesn’t run too much down the sides but is still fluid enough to drip slowly down the sides.
You can test the consistency on the bottom of a glass before adding it to the cake.
I like to pour the ganache into a squirt bottle. You can also use a spoon, but I find I have more control with a squirt bottle.
If you’re new to chocolate drips, I found this video helpful.
It’s set to start where she applies the drip, though the earlier part explains ganache consistency well, in case you’re curious.
For best results, chill the frosted cake for at least 2 hours to ensure the frosting is nice and firm before adding the ganache.
The chilling time will depend on whether the cake layers were frozen before you frosted them and how long the frosting was chilled before and during decorating.
Ghost meringues
I used the Ghost Meringues I posted recently to top off this cake.
Don’t be intimidated! They’re actually pretty simple to make. All you need are egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and a little patience for piping.
I’ve also used them to decorate my Halloween Cookie Cake and Halloween Milkshakes (which have a lovely, natural purple color!). They’re just so cute! It’s hard to resist putting them on everything.
And the great thing is you can make them in advance! Just store the ghost meringues in an airtight container at room temperature.
They can last up to 2 weeks if kept dry. Don’t put them in the fridge, as it’ll make them soggy. Freezing meringues can lead to a sticky texture, so I don’t recommend that.
Alternative to meringues
If you don’t have time or don’t want to make meringues, you can pipe on the ghosts like I did for these Ghost Cupcakes. That recipe yields 16 cupcakes, meaning 16 little ghosts. I think you could get away with just 8 ghosts on this 8″ cake.
So feel free to halve the amount of frosting that’s called for in that recipe.
Food coloring
I like to use natural food coloring like Supernatural Kitchen Food Colors and Color Kitchen, but both are pretty pricy. I usually stock up when iHerb has a big sale.
The colors are so vivid, and both brands have worked well on all the fun Halloween food I’ve made with them.
Here’s what Color Kitchen purple looks like using the cream cheese frosting recipe from this ghost cake. You can make it even more intense in color if you’d like!
But you can use any food coloring that you’d like. The photographer used about a teaspoon of purple Wilton gel food coloring.
How to make ahead, freeze and store
You can definitely whip up this cake in one day, but taking it slow over 2 days is less hectic.
I like to bake the layers and make the frosting the day before, then frost and decorate the day of serving.
Here’s a timeline for how you can prepare each element in advance.
- Cake layers – cool the baked layers, wrap them in plastic wrap, and place them in a Ziploc bag. Store them at room temp (2 days), in the fridge (3 days), or in the freezer (3 months). If you freeze them, they’re super easy to handle, and you can assemble them straight from the freezer without defrosting them.
- Cream cheese frosting – unlike plain cream cheese, cream cheese frosting freezes well due to its high-fat content. You can freeze it for up to 3 months, and I’ve even kept it frozen for over a year with great results. Store it properly, and it’ll taste fresh. Or refrigerate it for up to 4 days total. Just don’t make the frosting 4 days ahead of time; make the cake, and then store it for another 4 days. It’s 4 days in total.
- Crumb-coated or totally frosted cake – once you’ve put the cake together, crumb-coated it, and frosted it, you can freeze it for up to a week. Just wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in an extra large freeze-safe bag.
- Decorated cake – add the ghost meringues just before serving. I recommend making the ghost meringues a few days before making the cake. That way, you won’t be rushed. Again, make sure they are stored at room temperature in a dry, airtight container.
How to store
Once assembled, you can store this cake in the fridge for up to 4 days. But I would really recommend preparing it the day before serving.
Because fresher is almost always better! When you’re ready to serve, add the ghost meringues, and you’re done.
If you have leftovers, you can store them in the fridge for up to 4 days – I would just remove the meringues so they don’t get soggy.
Gluten-free option
I usually use King Arthur Flour Gluten-free Measure for Measure Flour, but for this recipe, Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour was key.
After seven unsuccessful attempts with King Arthur, where the cake either collapsed as it cooled or ended up too sticky, I tried adjusting the baking powder, baking soda, water, flour, and black cocoa without success.
Finally, I switched to Bob’s Red Mill, and it worked immediately. The only issue was that the baked cakes were stickier than usual, likely due to the black cocoa powder.
After some research, I learned that reducing the amounts of baking soda, baking powder, and water could solve this problem. And it did.
So! The cake is absolutely perfect with Bob’s. I have no idea how you’ll fare with a different brand.
But if you feel like experimenting, whatever flour you use needs to be a 1:1 sub for all-purpose flour. This means no coconut, almond or oat flours.
More kid-friendly Halloween recipes
I hope you’ll enjoy this ghost cake! If you try it out, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Thanks! 🙂
Ghost Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
- 3 cups (600 grams) granulated sugar or (580 grams) coconut sugar
- 2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons (328 grams) flour
- 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (101 grams) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup (28 grams) black cocoa powder (or more Dutch-process)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 3 large (50 grams each), out of shell eggs, room temp or chia eggs
- 1 1/2 cups (355 ml) milk
- 3/4 cup (177 ml) olive, canola or vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp (266 grams) boiling water
Frosting:
- 3 8-ounce packages (680 grams total) full-fat cream cheese, room temperature
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons (253 grams) unsalted butter
- 3 3/4 cups (450 grams) powdered sugar (or more if you like)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon purple gel food coloring or Color Kitchen food coloring powder
Ganache drip:
- 1/2 cup (85 grams) semi-sweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate
- 1/3 cup (80 ml) heavy cream
- black gel food coloring or 2 1/2-3 teaspoons black cocoa powder + 1 teaspoon maple syrup
Topping:
- meringue ghosts
Instructions
Make the cake:
- Preheat your oven to 350 °F (175 °C). Line three round 8" cake pans with parchment paper on the bottom and grease the pan sides.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the sugar, flour, Dutch-process cocoa, black cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
- Add eggs, milk, oil and vanilla.
- Mix until combined, and then stir in the boiling water. The batter will be quite thin.
- Divide the batter between the three prepared pans. That’s 658 grams of batter per pan (675 grams per pan if using Bob's GF flour).
- Bake for 24-28 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with some moist crumbs but no uncooked liquid.
- Let cool for 10 minutes in the pans, and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely - about 2 hours. My cakes weren't flat, but not very rounded, either. If you want to, you can level them (I didn't bother).
Prepare the frosting:
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese and butter together with an electric hand mixer at medium speed until well combined. It's okay if it looks a little crumbly.
- Gradually beat in the powdered sugar until totally combined, and then beat in the vanilla and salt.
- Beat in a little purple food coloring at a time until you're happy with the color. The photographer used about a teaspoon of Wilton purple gel food coloring.
Assemble the cake:
- Place the bottom layer of cake, rounded side down, on the serving plate.
- Spread 1 1/4 cups (288 grams) of frosting over the bottom layer, almost until the edge.
- Put on the next cake layer, rounded side down, and spread the same amount of frosting over the top of that.
- Place the third cake layer on top of the frosting, rounded side up.
Crumb coat:
- Use 1/2 cup (115 grams) of frosting as a crumb coat. Keep the frosting refrigerated until it's ready to use. And if you ever think it's not firm enough, put it back in the fridge.
- Spread it all over the cake.
- Place the cake in the freezer for 20-30 minutes after putting on the crumb coat or for 1-2 hours in the fridge. You can also refrigerate it overnight to help break up the workload.
Frost:
- Reserve and refrigerate 3/4 cup (173 grams) of frosting to pipe little swirls at the base of the cake. Cover the cake with the remaining frosting.
- Place the cake in the fridge for 4-8 hours, or even overnight, so that it's as firm as possible. How long you'll need depends on if the cake layers were frozen and if/how long you chilled the frosting before and during the decorating process. With my very warm kitchen and not chilling the cake or the frosting, 4 hours was enough to firm it up.
- Pipe little swirls, stars, or whatever you'd like at the base of the cake.
Make the drip:
- Add the chocolate to a small heatproof bowl.
- Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until hot and steamy but not bubbling.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let sit for about a minute before stirring.
- You can either add black gel food coloring (about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon), and stir the chocolate until totally smooth OR you can stir in black cocoa powder. Taste and add 1 teaspoon maple syrup, if desired.
- Let cool for about 8-12 minutes or until just slightly warm and thickened a bit.
- Pour the ganache into a plastic squirt bottle (if you have one). Use the bottom of a glass to test the drip's consistency. Turn the glass upside down and squeeze some ganache over the top of the glass bottom. If it's too runny, then wait a few minutes and then do another test on the bottom of the glass. If it's too thick, rewarm it just a tiny bit or add a tiny bit of cream.
- Do the drip around the cake, spread the remaining ganache on top of the cake, and smooth it out.
- Chill until hardened, about 30 minutes.
- Add the meringue ghosts just before serving.
How to store:
- If you want to make the cake elements in advance, let the layers cool, wrap the layers individually in plastic wrap and place inside a Ziploc bag. They can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, refrigerated for 3, or frozen for 3 months. No need to defrost before assembling the cake.
- The frosting can be refrigerated for up to 4 days total or frozen for up to 3 months.
- You can assemble the cake, add the crumb coat and frosting and then freeze it for up to a week. I would wrap it in plastic wrap and then place it in a big bag, just to be safe. Ghost should always just be added right before serving.
Notes
- You can use all-purpose flour, white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour. If you're gluten-free, use, use 2 1/2 cups + 2 tablespoons (363 grams) Bob's Red Mill 1-to-1 Gluten-free Baking Flour.
- If you want to make the cake eggless, mix together 3 tablespoons of ground chia seed with 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon (133 grams) of water until well combined. Let sit for about 1-2 minutes or until goopy like regular eggs.
- You can use whatever type of milk you'd like. If using canned coconut milk, water it down so that it's runny like regular milk. Keep in mind the potential coconut flavor!
- If you're outside the US, your cream cheese is likely different from the US kind, which is firmer and better suited for baking than the kind typically used for spreading on toast (which is all you find elsewhere). For every 8 ounces (225 grams) of cream cheese required, buy a 300-gram package (store brands work just as well as Philadelphia). Place it in the center of a clean tea towel or cheesecloth and squeeze out the liquid until it reduces to 225 grams. For this recipe, you'll need to start with 900 grams of cream cheese and squeeze out the liquid until you’re left with 680 grams. Additionally, keep in mind that medium eggs in the EU are equivalent to large eggs in the US, so if you’re in the EU, use medium eggs.
- If using Color Kitchen natural food coloring, follow the directions on the box to make purple.
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