Chocolate Blood Cake

A Halloween chocolate cake designed for maximum theatrical effect. White chocolate gets dyed crimson with red food coloring, folded into a basic sponge, then iced with more red-dyed white chocolate so the whole thing looks like it just walked off a horror set. Strawberry ice cream sandwiched between the layers melts a little when sliced, oozing out like the cake is bleeding onto the plate.

Vampire teeth candies pressed into the icing put the whole thing over the top. The technique is more art project than precision baking. Drizzle the icing irregularly so it drips down the sides, not in tidy lines. Random and messy reads as creepy; neat and precise just looks like a pink cake.

Kitchen Tips

• Use gel food coloring instead of liquid for deeper red without thinning the batter or icing.
• Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler, never directly in the microwave on high power. White chocolate scorches easily.
• Add a teaspoon of strawberry extract or jam to the batter if you want the cake to taste as fruity as it looks.
• Assemble with the ice cream just before serving so it doesn’t melt completely into the cake.

Variations

• Use raspberry sauce or strawberry jam as edible “blood” for the plate.
• Sub vanilla ice cream tinted red for a more uniform color.
• Pipe black-icing spiderwebs over the top instead of (or with) the vampire teeth for a different spooky theme.