Beetlejuice Cake Tutorial

• microwave safe bowls
• mixing bowls
• candy melts (grey and lime green)
• non-stick spray
• bamboo skewers
• bread/cake knife
• beater blade kitchenaid paddle
• ezy-hem frosting smoother
• stripe contour comb
• black and white paper straws
• 6″ round cake pans
• 6″ parchment rounds
• headstone silicone mold

• 2 condiment bottles
• acrylic cake disc
• 8″ cake drum
• cake turntable
• non-slip mat
• #1M piping tip
• offset spatula
• 21″ piping bags
• sprinkles
• chefmaster liquagel
• food safe tweezers
• spatula
• scissors

Step 1: Cake Batter

• I doubled my sugar cookie cake recipe for each color, and I ended up with 2 ½ 6″ round cakes in each color. I used the extra cake to make cakesicles.
• You can also use extra cake batter to bake matching cupcakes.
• Cake freezes well and will stay fresh for 3 months. Just wrap any extra cake in cling wrap and pop it in the freezer.

Step 2: Fill Pans & Bake Cake

• Spray your cake pans with non-stick spray, line the bottom with parchment rounds, and spray again.
• My favorite non-stick spray is Trader Joe’s Coconut Oil Spray.
• Fill cake pans ⅔ full with batter.
• Bake at 350°F for 30-40 minutes, rotating pans halfway through.
• Cake is done when it is golden on top and springs back to the touch.
• Always allow cakes to fully cool before torting/frosting.

Step 3: Make Frosting

• The trick to getting creamy, smooth American buttercream is to whip the butter first until it is fluffy and light in color. Then switch to a paddle attachment and only add 2 cups of powdered sugar at a time, allowing the sugar to fully incorporate before adding more. This prevents your frosting from being grainy.
• I made 2 batches of frosting for this cake. One entire batch I colored black. The other batch I left ⅔ white, and the remaining ⅓ I colored purple.
• The trick to making black icing that doesn’t stain your entire mouth black, is to only add enough black food coloring to get your frosting to a charcoal grey shade. The color will develop and get darker over time.
• These 21″ piping bags will hold an entire batch of icing.

Step 4: Torte & Crumb Coat

• You will need a cake turntable to torte and frost your cake.
• I love using these acrylic cake discs, instead of cake drums or boards, while torting and frosting my cakes. That way you can transfer your cake to a clean cake drum after it’s frosted.
• To remove cakes from pans, run an offset spatula around the perimeter, and then tap the pan on the counter.
• Using a sharp bread/cake knife, cut off the rounded tops of cakes, then cut cakes in half horizontally. Save cake scraps for cake pops or cakesicles.
• Drizzle each cake layer with simple syrup to add extra moisture to the cake. I find it’s much less messy to use a condiment bottle.
• Alternate green and purple layers.
• Crumb coat cake, and refrigerate until firm to the touch.

Step 5: Frost Cake

• Frost cake with white frosting and then refrigerate until buttercream is firm.
• The video only shows me adding one later of frosting, but I added a second layer. You want to make sure you can’t see any cake thru the frosting before moving on.
• I have found that adding a couple thinner layers of frosting, instead of one thick layer, prevents air bubbles in the frosting.
• The ezy-hem frosting smoother is great for frosting taller cakes. It’s also very lightweight and much easier to handle than heavier frosting smoothers.

Step 6: Contour Comb

• Using a stripe contour comb, remove stripes of frosting from your cake.
• Refrigerate until firm to the touch.

Step 7: Add Black Stripes

• Fill in stripes with black frosting.
• Smooth and remove enough frosting until you end up with clean stripes.
• Be careful not to remove too much frosting!
• Cleaning your frosting smoother between passes will prevent you from smearing the frosting stripes.
• The video cut off before I was finished, but smooth the top as well.
• Refrigerate cake until firm.

Step 9: Add Drips, Sprinkles, and Pipe Purple Frosting

• Transfer cake to a clean cake drum.
• Add drips to cake.
• While drips are still wet, add sprinkles.
• I used tweezers to add the sprinkles and it took about 10 minutes. A quicker, though messier, way to add sprinkles, is to kind of just…gently throw them at your cake. As long as you don’t mind sprinkles going everywhere.
• Pipe purple frosting around top and bottom of cake using a #1M piping tip.

Step 10: Finish Decorating

• “Glue” cookies to black and white paper straws and trimmed down bamboo skewers with melted candy melts.
• I made the headstones using this headstone silicone mold, and I mixed white and black candy melts to make grey.
• Add cookie toppers, headstones, and sprinkles to cake.