This Beetlejuice Cake Tutorial includes recipes, step-by-step videos, supply lists, helpful tips & tricks, and more. The perfect cake for birthdays, Halloween, or any spooky celebration!
I’ve always been slightly obsessed with the movie Beetlejuice. Even as a kid I realized the cast was amazing, the movie is hilarious, and the dance scene…ICONIC!
I was working on my Beetlejuice Cookie House, and one of my friends spotted the sandworm cookie, and asked if it was for a cake topper. So I obviously had to make a cake.
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Cake Supplies, Equipment, and Ingredients:
- cake recipe: I used my sugar cookie cake recipe, but feel free to use any recipe of your choice, or even box-mix. You will need enough batter for two 6″ round cake pans for each color. I doubled my sugar cookie cake recipe, which made 3 6″ round cakes (in each color), and I used the leftover cake for cakesicles.
- buttercream frosting: I’ve included my american buttercream recipe, but you can use whatever frosting you like. I made two batches total. One entire batch I colored black, and the other batch I left ⅔ white, and colored the remaining ⅓ purple.
- simple syrup: This is an optional step, but I always soak my cakes in simple syrup during assembly to add moisture to the cake. To make simple syrup, boil equal amounts of water and granulated sugar (I used ½ cup of each) until sugar is fully dissolved. Allow to cool before using.
- 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
Cookie Supplies, Equipment, and Ingredients:
- cookie dough: I used my lemon shortbread recipe, but I have 30 other cookie recipes to choose from.
- royal icing
- chefmaster liquagel
- black edible pen
- tipless piping bags
- x-acto knife
- cardstock
- brown petal dust
Beetlejuice Cookie Instructions:
- Print out the 2 cookie cutter downloads on cardstock, cut out templates, and use an x-acto knife and templates to cut out your cookies.
- My Lemon Shortbread Sugar Cookie and Royal Icing Recipes have lots of helpful tips and tricks for cookie decorating.
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 8: Candy Melt Drips
- Did you know you can thin down candy melts with water and it won’t seize up on you? The ratio is 3 ounces of candy melts, to ¼ ounce of water.
- Measure out candy melt wafers and water and microwave for 30 seconds on full power, and then mix.
- If not fully melted, microwave for 15 second increments, stirring in between, until fully melted.
- Test to make sure it’s the right consistency. I just use an overturned cup and add some drips.
- If your mixture is too thin, you can add 1 or 2 candy melt wafers, mix it up, and test again. If mixture is too thick, add a tiny bit of water at a time, mix, and test.
- You want the mixture to slowly drip down the cup without clumping. If it drips too fast, thicken it up with 1-2 wafers.
- You can use a spoon to add the drips to your cake, but I like to transfer the mixture to a condiment bottle because it gives me more control.
- I did add a few drops of neon green gel food coloring to my mixture to make it a little more vibrant.
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.
Sugar Cookie Cake
Equipment
- measuring cups and spoons
- mixing bowls
- whisk
- spatula
- stand mixer with whip attachment (hand-mixer can also be used)
- cake or cupcake pan
- parchment paper or cupcake liners
- non-stick spray
Ingredients
- 1 cup white granulated sugar
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or seeds from 2 vanilla beans
- food coloring
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ cup milk room temperature
Instructions
- Sift together dry ingredients and set aside.
- With whip attachment, cream butter and sugar, on medium-high speed, until fluffy and pale in color.
- Add eggs, vanilla extract, and food coloring. Mix on medium-low speed until fully incorporated.
- Add dry ingredients into wet and mix on low speed, drizzle in milk, then mix on medium-low speed until batter is smooth. Do not overmix.
- Spray cake pan with non-stick spray, line bottom with parchment paper, and spray again. Or line cupcake pan with liners and fill ⅔ way full with batter.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes (20-25 min for cupcakes), rotating pan halfway through. Cake is done when it is golden brown and springs back to the touch, or inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Allow cake or cupcakes to fully cool before frosting.
Video
Nutrition
American Buttercream
Ingredients
- 2 cups unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 7-8 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
- 1-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- pinch salt (optional)
- food coloring (optional)
Instructions
- Cream butter with whisk attachment on medium-high speed for 5-8 minutes, until light in colour and fluffy.
- Switch to paddle attachment and add powdered sugar, 2 cups at a time, and vanilla extract. Let mix on low for 1-2 minutes between each addition to fully incorporate sugar.
did u make 3 individual batches of butter cream i.e same recipe for each colour 3 times over
I did make a few different batches of frosting, one for each color. However, depending on the size of cake, you can make one batch, and then divide it and color it.
hi! i wanted to make this for halloween but how sweet is the vanilla cake? i would like to follow this recipe but want to make sure it is not an overly sweet cake. Thank you so much
Thanks for the tutorial. My daughter wanted this fr her bday and it was amazing.
This makes me so happy! Happy belated to your daughter!