A Monster Mash Halloween

Happy almost Halloween, everyone!

I wanted to share a little bit of of this guy’s backstory (you might remember him from the Halloween Party I posted about a couple weeks ago). I thought it would be fun to show you a little behind the scenes of how he was put together.

The question I received multiple times was, “but is it really all cake?”….yes! He is made of 5 cake layers and pistachio buttercream (which, if you haven’t tried, is my new favorite!).

Here’s a short breakdown of the process…

I started with 6 cake layers—4 devil’s food and 2 German chocolate (the German chocolate were half the height of the devil’s food, and I wanted multiple sizes to get the size of his head just right).

Then I stacked the cake layers, each topped with a layer of pistachio buttercream, until I achieved a good height. Once I was happy with the size, then I started carving!

There’s no scientific way I can describe the method I used to carve his face, other than I made my husband stand beside the cake multiple times to help me gauge a couple of curves.

And I know what you’re thinking—but Julie, what happened to all of those cake scraps? Well…what else did you think I was going to eat for breakfast that day? I hear pistachios have a slew of health benefits, so I’m confident those are only amplified once incorporated into buttercream, right? Pretty sure.

After he was fully carved, then he needed a few layers of pistachio buttercream to smooth him out. Once the buttercream was set, he was completely covered in pink fondant. This is always my favorite part where I can add all the little details (lines, shading, eyes, etc.). So I kept adding until I felt like he was the right combo of creepy/cute.

And there you have it! A Monster Mash Halloween party cake. I hope you all a wonderful Halloween! 🙂