Out of the three Halloween cakes I made this year, this Ghost Cake received the highest number of votes from the kids – for both flavour and looks. 

I used a chocolate cake. However, if you don’t like this,  you can use a vanilla cake or have a look at this section of my blog and you’ll find plenty of options. 

For the fillings, I made chocolate ganache and a strawberry mousse. For the frosting, I used this Chocolate Ganache Buttercream. However, any chocolate ganache or buttercream frosting would work for this. You only need to apply a thin layer of frosting to crumb coat the cake before covering the cake with fondant.

If you want something simpler, you can also use this Chocolate Filling with Walnuts for filling the cake. You can also use it to cover the cake but just save a few tablespoons of filling before adding the walnuts in. 

In case you have your cakes, fillings and frosting ready, then you can watch this video tutorial that shows you how to assemble and decorate the cake. If not, read through the sections below.

Ingredients

Chocolate Cake:  

• 7 eggs
• 40 ml water (7 Tbsp)
• 160 g flour 
• 50 g cocoa powder
• 210 g sugar 

You also need two pans greased with butter and coated with flour: 

• a 16.5 cm x 8.25 cm (6.5 inch x 3 1/4 inch) hemisphere pan or oven-proof bowl
• a 20.3 cm x 7.6 cm (8 inch x 3 inch) round pan 

Sugar Syrup to Moisten the Cake:

• 200 ml water
• 5 Tbsp sugar
• 3 Tbsp rum extract 

Ganache and Strawberry Mousse Filling:

• Unwhipped chocolate ganache filling made of 100 g dark chocolate, 125 g milk chocolate and 200 ml whipping cream. Optional: you can add 2 Tbsp of hazelnut spread/Nutella if you like the hazelnut flavour. 
• Strawberry mousse made of 350 g frozen strawberries, 50 g strawberry syrup, 350 ml whipping cream, 100 g powdered sugar and 14 g of unflavored gelatine softened in 150 ml of water 

Chocolate Ganache Buttercream Frosting:

• 200 g white chocolate 
• 200 ml whipping cream
• 200 g butter, at room temperature 

Note: All chocolate should be a good-quality baking or couverture chocolate. 

Covering the Cake:

• 3 lbs white fondant ( 1.4 kg)
• Black food colouring or a bit of black fondant for the eyes and mouth 

Other Tools/Items:

• 8 inch & 6 inch cake boards
• Boba plastic straws or cake dowels

Directions

Making the Cake

Use the ingredient quantities listed in this post and follow the step-by-step instructions in this other post to make your cakes.

Split the batter between the two pans (~2/3 of the batter will go in the round pan and 1/3 in the hemisphere pan). Bake the cakes, let them cool off and cut each of them horizontally in three.

Lastly, make your sugar syrup by boiling the water with the sugar and adding the vanilla extract at the end. Let it cool off.

Making the Filling 

Make the unwhipped chocolate ganache following the steps in this recipe. Make this at least a few hours before you are ready to assemble the cake as it needs to cool off and have a thick pouring consistency before you use it. 

For the strawberry mousse, thaw the strawberries and bring them to a boil on the stovetop. Once boiled, some of the liquid will evaporate and you should have 300 g left.

Puree the strawberries with a hand blender. Mix in the strawberry syrup. Let the mixture cool off, it can be warm to the touch but not hot when you mix in the gelatine and whipping cream. 

Soften the gelatine in water for 10 minutes. Melt it in the microwave a few seconds until all the granules are melted. Before you start melting your gelatine, beat the whipping cream with the powdered sugar with a mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. 

Pour the melted gelatine over the strawberries & strawberry syrup and mix it slowly until it’s well incorporated. Add the whipped cream over and mix slowly. 

Assembling and Decorating the Ghost Cake

This video tutorial will show you how to assemble and decorate the cake.

Assembling the Cake

Line the pans in which you baked the cakes with plastic foil. Then, place the first cake layer of the 8’’ round cake and moisten it with sugar syrup.  Spread unwhipped chocolate ganache filling and pour strawberry mousse. Repeat the steps for the 2nd layer. Add the 3d cake layer and moist it with sugar syrup.

Repeat the same steps for the dome cake.

Cover the cakes with plastic foil and refrigerate them for 8 hours or overnight.

Frosting and Decorating the Ghost Cake

To make the Chocolate Ganache Buttercream Frosting, use the ingredients listed above and follow the steps in this post.

Spread a bit of frosting on the 8 inch cake board and add the 8 inch round cake. Cut 4 boba straws or cake dowels to the height of the cake and insert them into the cake. Spread another bit of frosting on top. 

Spread a bit of frosting on the 6 inch cake board and place the dome cake on top. Place this cake over the other. 

Crumb coat the cake using a thin layer of frosting. Smooth it out using a straight or offset spatula. It doesn’t have to be perfect as the cake will be covered with fondant. 

Refrigerate the cake for 1-2 hours. 

Roll out the white fondant in a circle (~ 18 inches in diameter) and cover the cake. Smooth the fondant on top and trim any excess edges at the bottom.

Arrange the fondant at the base to create creases and give it a fabric effect. Place some folded paper towels under the sections of the fondant that you’d like to be a bit lifted at the base. Remove them after 30 mins – 1 hour.  

Make the eyes and mouth out of black fondant. Use a bit of water to attach them to the cake. 

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