To keep with this year’s quick and easy theme, once the cake was completed, uncomplicated decorating was in order to create a Bloody Knife Skull Cake.
My previous skull cakes have been elaborately decorated. Like this Day of the Dead Skull cake, I created a few years ago.
Last Halloween I made a black and orange tiger striped cake and covered the entire thing with black sugar glitter. Trying to get the sugar to stick to the sides of the cake was a whole lot of fun. Not.
The reward for all my hard work? The dang thing sat untouched on it’s Halloween themed cake stand the entire evening of my Halloween party. Everyone thought it was a decoration. They had no idea it was a cake. I completely forgot about the cake until the end of the party. Consequently, the cake ended up in a bag whisked home by a grateful, notorious cake loving guest. Lesson learned.
For this Bloody Knife Skull Cake, I whisked together a simple white sugar glaze and poured it over the assembled cake then rummaged through my kitchen drawer to find a cool knife (thank you, Wüsthof!) and stuck it in the top of the cake.
The finishing touch was pouring homemade edible fake blood around the base of the knife, letting it drip down the cake.
The Skull Pan:
Unless you have got some mad cake carving skills, you will need a skull cake pan. I lusted after, at that time, this fairly expensive pan ($45.00) for months before scoring one for $15 at Michaels. The store was blowing out their Halloween stock in early November plus I had a coupon which further reduced the price of the pan. I practically danced out of the store but my excitement was short lived when I realized I would have to wait a whole year to use it.
It was worth the wait. I love using it and would like nothing more than to make skull cakes for every season or holiday if it wasn’t so inappropriate.
Wilton and Nordic Ware both make their own version of this skull pan. The pan significantly came down in price ($25.00 ish) since I bought it. There are a few tricks to using it properly. So make sure you thoroughly read and follow the instructions included with the pan.
Knife in the Head Skull Cake
Ingredients
You will need:
- Skull cake pan
- Cake recipe or cake mix
- kitchen knife
For the sugar glaze:
- 3 + 3/4 cups powdered sugar
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1+1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
For the edible fake blood:
- 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
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Make the cake in the pan according to the directions.
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Once you have made, de-paned and properly cooled the cake, the last step is to glue the two halves together with buttercream.
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Let the cake set in the fridge for another 1/2 hour.
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After removing the assembled cake from the refrigerator, place it on a baking cooling rack positioned over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or foil.
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In a separate bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the glaze. You can adjust the thickness by adding more milk or powdered sugar. You want an opaque but pourable glaze.
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Before glazing the cake, make sure you sweep away any crumbs that fall onto the baking sheet. In case you need to scoop up glaze that has dripped onto the pan to reapply to the cake to fill in holes, you don't want cake crumbs in the fallen glaze.
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Tip the bowl over the top of the cake and pour the glaze over the top. Use a rubber spatula to help fill in the sides and other spaces the glaze misses.
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Stick the kitchen knife into the cake. Position it where ever you like, front, side, back, etc.
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In a separate bowl, whisk the edible fake blood ingredients together. If the blood looks too fake, add more cocoa powder a bit at a time until it looks realistic.
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Carefully spoon the fake blood around the knife and let it drip down the cake.
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Wait until both the glaze and the blood have hardened before transferring the cake to a serving plate or cake stand and serving.
