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Itsy bitsy Spider cake for Halloween
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The "Itsy Bitsy Spider" cake or Orange Cream Cake with Chocolate Jelly filling

Fun cake baking & decoration project for Halloween. Variate the flavor with orange cream covered and Chocolate jelly filling. Based on a simple easy sponge cake
Course Cake decoration, Dessert
Keyword Chocolate Jelly, Chocolate modeling clay, Orange cream cake, Whipped Buttercream
Author Victoria

Equipment

  • Mixer
  • Kitchen scale
  • Nonstick mat (silicone), parchment paper or surface
  • Spatulas
  • Mixing bowls

Ingredients

  • 2 Sponge cakes recipe below or any base of your choice

Easy Sponge cake (per each 8-in sponge)

  • 3 eggs
  • 30 g flour
  • 30 g cornstarch
  • 60 g sugar
  • 25 g vegetable oil or melt butter
  • 12 ml whole milk
  • 12 ml juice or extract for flavor
  • ½ tsp cream of tartar
  • pinch of salt
  • food colors of choice

Whipped buttercream

  • 1 lb butter
  • 180 g sugar or powder equivalent
  • 600 ml heavy cream
  • Color and extract flavor of choice

Chocolate Jelly

  • ½ tsp agar
  • 1 tsp carrageenan
  • 70 g sugar
  • 30 g dark cocoa powder

Decoration

  • Chocolate
  • Marshmallow
  • Candy cones, M&M, puff...

Instructions

Chocolate Jelly

  • Bring 2 cups of water to boil.
  • Meanwhile, measure and mix all agar, carrageenan, sugar and cocoa powder well.
  • When water is boil, reduce heat to simmering (medium-low), then slowy pour in the agar mixture with one hand and constantly stirring on the other.
  • Just keep stirring until everything dissolve, and the liquid became thicker (around 3 minutes)
  • Remove from heat and carefully transfer to mold/bowl.
  • Let sit and cool to room temperature, then chilling in fridge for at least an hour before cutting/layering with cake.

Buttercream

  • Take butter and heavy cream out of fridge the same time.
  • Slice butter into ⅓ to ½ inch chunks, and scatter them in you mixing bowl.
  • Whip heavy cream till soft peak.
  • Let both rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes to soften butter. I.E. Go bake your cake or start on some chocolate spiders.
  • After butter is soften (press a finger on it to check, butter should soft but still feel a little cold), now it's time to whip.
  • Whip butter on medium speed until all slices incorporated, turn off and scrape the bowl with spatula.
  • Turn to slowest speed setting, add all sugar into your butter, whip until sugar and butter are all mixed up.
  • Increase mixer's speed gradually (until almost highest speed) and whip until butter's volume is doubled/tripled while its color becomes pale.
  • Adjust speed down to medium, spoon in whipped heavy cream, one at a time, wait for the prior to fully mix before adding the next.
  • After finished adding whipped heavy cream, increase mixer speed to high for 15 second then reduce to lowest setting and beat for 3 minutes to smooth out the cream of air bubbles.
  • If cream becomes sweaty, let it rest for 15 minutes before beating again on high speed and smoothout with low. Note that it will be splatter (a lot) to beat on sweating butter, so cover the bowl well.
  • Divide, add color & extract to each portion and mix by hand with spatula to ensure all air bubbles are out.

Sponge cake base (optional - instruction per cake layer)

  • Separate eggs' white and yolks, whites go into mixing bowl. Note that mixing bowl and egg beaters/attachments have to be cleaned from yold, oil, etc. or eggs' white won't fluff.
  • Weight and sift flour/cornstarch.
  • Measure wet ingredients (milk/oil/juice or extract) into separate container.
  • Prepare a cake pan by line or spraying only its bottom. Do not grease its side or cake getting harder to climb onto.
  • Preheat oven to 350 F or 330 F if you're using darker cake pan (the non stick ones)
  • Beat eggs' white to soft peak: start by adding a pinch of salt to eggs' white, beat until you see large bubble. Then add cream of tartar and beat till bubbles getting smaller and forming foam. Finally add sugar and beat till soft peak.
  • Adjust mixer speed to the lowest setting, then add 1 yolk at time, wait till incorporated before adding the next (should be about 5 seconds each yolk).
  • Pour in the wet ingredients mixture while mixing.
  • Divide sifted flour into three parts, add each to mixing bowl, wait till fully mix before adding the next.
  • Divide this batter into portions, add colors(i used orange, blue and yellow to make marble green) and folding mix by hand.
  • Randomly spoon between each colored batter into prepared pan to create the marble effect cake.
  • Bake in over for 25 to 30 minutes. Do not open in between or cake will collapse.
  • Once done, carefully remove pan from oven and flip it upside down over backing rack.
  • Let it cool down on baking rack, cake should fall down on its own or you can pop it out with a paring knife around the edge. Make sure cake is cool down all the way before assembling.

Decorate and assemble

  • Cut some truffles in halves, lay their flat side atop a large piece of parment paper or silicone mat.
  • Melt some chocolate, and pipe a small sphere on the half truffle to create the spider head.
  • Next, pip some curves to create spider legs. Let them cool.
  • Now on to your cakes, trim and level the sponges.
  • Creme and cover them, don't forget to layer the chocolate jelly between the layers.
  • Chill for 15-20 minutes, dye some creme orange and cover the whole cake. Or you can dye some green to marble it. Refridgerate the cake some more (~ 20 minutes) to let the creme firm.
  • Warm some marshmallow in microwave for 30 seconds, stir to mix them. Wait a couple minutes to let it cool down to the touch, dip your hands in and draw it into cotton strings like.
  • Wrap these strings onto your cake as much as you like. Once done, let set for 5 to 10 minutes.
  • Adhere all the spiders on, use melt chocolate as glue if need.
  • Pipe some decorative line with remaining creme if desire.