This Halloween Pumpkin Bucket Cake is easy to make and is great if you don’t like working with fondant. It’s also a fun cake to make… the kids are undecided what they like more – the cake or all the goodies in the “bucket” :-)!

I used vanilla cake. However, if you don’t like this, 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 peach mousse. For the frosting, I used this Chocolate Ganache Buttercream.

If you want something simpler, you can also use this Cream Cheese Buttercream for both filling the cake and frosting it.

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

Vanilla Cake:

10 eggs
3 Tbsp oil
300 g sugar
300 g flour, sifted
140 g flour
3 Tbsp vanilla extract

You also need two 24.13 x 8.57 cm (9 1/2 x 2 3/8 inch) fluted tube pans greased with butter and floured to bake two cakes.

Sugar Syrup to Moisten the Cake:

200 ml water
5 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp vanilla extract

Ganache and Peach 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 Nutella if you like the hazelnut flavour.
Peach mousse made of 350 g peaches from compote, 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.

Other Tools/Items:

An 8-inch cake board
Boba plastic straws or cake dowels
Halloween candy
A bucket handle – I used one from a plastic bucket but you could make it out of a fondant and a wire, the ones that are used for fondant flower stems should work

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 vanilla cakes.

Then, split the batter between the two fluted tube pans. Bake the cakes, let them cool off and cut each of them horizontally in two.

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 post. You can make this at least a few hours before you are ready to assemble the cake as it needs to have a thick pouring consistency before you use it.

For the peach mousse, remove the peaches from the syrup. Puree the peaches with a hand blender.

Soften the gelatine in water for 10 minutes. Then, melt it in the microwave for 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 pureed peaches and mix it slowly until it’s well incorporated. Add the whipped cream over and mix slowly.

Assembling and Decorating the Halloween Pumpkin Bucket 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 and moisten it with sugar syrup.

Spread 1/2 of the unwhipped chocolate ganache filling and pour 1/2 of the peach mousse.

Add the 2nd cake layer, and moist it with sugar syrup. Cover the cake with plastic foil and refrigerate for 8 hours or overnight.

Repeat the same steps for the second cake.

Frosting and Decorating the Halloween Pumpkin Bucket 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 a platter or a 8’’ cake board and add the first cake. Cut 4 boba straws or cake dowels to the height of the cake and insert them into the cake. Then, spread another bit of frosting on top and place a cake board. Spread more frosting and place the second cake on top of the other, face down.

Color the frosting using orange oil-based or gel food colouring. Apply a layer of frosting using a straight or offset spatula. Smooth it as much as you can with the spatula and then use a flexible plastic dough scraper or something similar. This will allow you to smooth out the round sides of the cake perfectly.

If you’re looking for perfect smoothness, refrigerate the cake for 2 hours and then apply another layer of frosting to cover any imperfections.

Make the eyes and mouth either out of black fondant or some black frosting, add halloween candy on top and insert the bucket handle.