Spiderweb Pumpkin Cake | Halloween Recipe

It´s almost Halloween, which means that it´s time to get creative in the kitchen! So why not try and make this delicious Halloween Spiderweb Pumpkin Cake and get decorating with some feathered icing!!!

This recipe uses the same cake recipe as for this Pumpkin Cake Traybake. So check out that recipe for more information on homemade pumpkin purée and pumpkin cakes! Instead, however, of making a traybake and cutting it into squares, this spiderweb pumpkin cake for Halloween is round (as any good spiderweb should be…).

The Halloween Spiderweb Pumpkin Cake requires you to make homemade pumpkin purée if you are unable to buy the tinned version. You can then use the leftover stringy bits of the pumpkin to make this spiced pumpkin loaf cake!

Also, I have replaced the cream cheese frosting with an easy water icing, as it is a lot better for colouring and piping. You can choose any food colouring you like, but I decided to go for orange and black.
Water icing is really easy to make, by simply mixing some icing sugar with a small amount of water. You could also use lemon or orange juice as the liquid to introduce a little extra flavour to the icing.

The spiderweb effect of the icing is created by a simple feathering of the icing. Simply pipe concentric rings of black icing over the iced cake before running a toothpick through it to create the feathered effect.
If you want to watch a video on how to feather icing, check out this post for easy iced biscuits with feathered icing!

This recipe will make two 20cm round cakes. However, feel free to half the recipe and only make 1. Or make one cake as a spiderweb cake, and the other with my cream cheese frosting that I used in the traybake pumpkin cake recipe.

Spiderweb Pumpkin Cake | Halloween Recipe

Recipe

Ingredients:

FOR THE CAKE:

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp each of ground nutmeg, ground cloves, allspice, ground ginger
• 240ml vegetable oil
• 4 large eggs
• 200g light or dark brown sugar (I used 100g of each)
• 100g caster sugar
• 425g (1 can) pumpkin puree (from ½ large pumpkin ~600g)
• 1 ½  tsp vanilla extract

FOR THE WATER ICING:

• 400g icing sugar
• 4-6 tbsp cold water (or lemon juice, orange juice)
• Orange food colouring
• Black food colouring

YOU WILL ALSO NEED:

• 2 round, 20cm sandwich tins
• a piping bag (or a sturdy freezer bag)

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Method:

1. Start by making the pumpkin purée. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
   With a large knife, carefully quarter the pumpkin. Place the pumpkin quarters cut-side-down on a baking tray lined with baking parchment. Bake in the preheated oven for 45-60 minutes until the flesh is soft and starts coming away from the skin. You might want to turn the pumpkin half-way through.
   Leave the roasted pumpkin to cool slightly, before separating the flesh from the skin (you should be able to peel it off easily). Then put the flesh into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth (or purée it with a stick blender).
2. For the cake, preheat the oven to 180°C. Lightly grease and line the baking tin with baking paper.
3. Start by adding all the dry ingredients (except the different sugars) to a large mixing and stir them together.
4. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vegetable oil, brown sugar, caster sugar, pumpkin purée, and vanilla extract until well combined.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well to form a smooth, thick batter.
6. Transfer the batter into your prepared baking tins.
7. Bake the pumpkin cake in the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until it is starting to shrink away from the edges and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
8. Leave the finished cake to cool in the tin for a few minutes before carefully transferring it to a wire rack. Leave to cool completely.
9. To make the water icing, slowly add the liquid to the icing sugar a little at a time. Mix well between each addition and continue adding liquid until the icing is smooth and not too runny. You want it to be spreadable but not run off the sides of the cake.
10. Place a small amount of the icing into a separate bowl. Add some black food colouring and mix well. Add orange food colouring to the remaining icing.
11. Spread the orange icing all over the top of the cake. Spoon the black icing into a piping bag (or you could use a freezer bag) and cut off a tiny corner. Pipe concentric circles of the black icing from the outside into the middle of the cake.
12. To create the feathered effect, draw a toothpick through the icing, starting in the middle and then making your way to the outside of the cake.
13. Leave the icing so set before cutting the cake into slices.