How to make a Halloween Bat Cake

I never celebrated Halloween as a child. Growing up in Austria we celebrated, or sometimes feared come to think of it, many other Holidays like the Krampuß for example. (Google it! It’s the stuff of nightmares…) Until this day I don’t leave the house on December 5th, which is ridiculous since I live a continent away. But there you have it, scarred for life. (Update: now of course, a decade later, the free candy idea caught on and Halloween is everywhere in Austria.)

Halloween sounded kind of creepily wonderful in a not so scary way. And it is. Just like this cake:

So here is the making of the Bat Cake:

For the bats you will need black modeling chocolate, an X-acto knife, a rolling pin, some corn starch and of course bats!

I prefer working on a self healing work mat like this one. It protects your work surface, makes your fondant less sticky, and it magically never becomes any cuts. For the bats, you can print some silhouettes on a piece of paper and cut them out. Or you can most certainly hand draw them as well!

 

Roll your modeling chocolate to a bit thicker than 1/8 inch, attach with a bit of shortening the paper bat and with the help of your X-acto knife start cutting.

 

I tend to always make an extra 1/3 decorations because breakage, you know. I guess I can be a little bit of a klutz. If you want to add some movements to your bats prop them on some straws and let them dry for a while. You can also pop them into the fridge. That works beautifully for modeling chocolate.

Next step; the marbled fondant. This technique is so easy and it so beautiful. It gives the fondant such depth and layers of colors and best of all  you don’t need any extra tools!

 

For this cake I used three different colors, grey, white and black. You could also add a warm color to the mix like ivory or a bit of yellow. I rolled each color in different sized ropes and squished them together.

Start twisting your rope until it is quite long,  fold it in half and pat it flat, start rolling, twisting, patting and so on until you have a marbled effect. Kind of like that:

 

can you see the swirls?

There is no right or wrong, just personal preference. Once you’re happy with the swirls and layers apply the fondant to the cake.

Grab your dried and hardened bats, melt a bit of chocolate and dab a small amount on the bat and attach it on the cake.

 

Et Voila, Bat Cake!