When considering how to make a Black Cat Halloween Cake, I arrived at the following conclusion:
Cats have nine lives. Their cakes should have nine layers. Duh!
The only reason I pulled this together is because “May May” arrived yesterday. May is my cousin, but we say “sister” in Thai. As second-generation Thai-Americans, it’s never been clear to us what my kids are supposed to call her. Thais add prefixes to names based on the age of the parent of the person– it can get very confusing. But what is clear is that it’s not respectful to call an elder by her first name. So to address this issue we just added another “May” to “May” making her May May. Cute, right? Respectful. Asian. See, we’re so crafty we be makin’ names up.
I told her my plan to bake a 9-Layer Halloween Kitty Cake and she pounced on it.
“Let’s do it now,” she said.
I looked anxiously at the door. The kids were about to come home and I hadn’t even started dinner yet. “But… things could get kinda crazy.”
By the look on her face chaos in the kitchen seemed like a really lame excuse. I don’t like my sister to see me wimp out on stuff. “OK,” I said. “We can handle it.”
And I was right, things got crazy. Flour spilled all over the floor– just like in the movies. Peeps were eating frosting from the bowl while the electric mixer was still running. We try not to keep refined sugar in the house so when my kids do get the good stuff they inhale it like baby beasts. I’m still finding chocolate streaks on the walls today.
But how good does this look? Sometimes you gotta loosen the sweet belt. It’s a black chocolate Halloween kitty, with nine orange cake layers for cryin’ out loud. Today we break the rules.
How to:
- Mix 2 boxes of Trader Joe’s vanilla cake mix. Dye orange.
- Measure about 1 cup of batter into 9 8-inch round pans.
- Bake at 350 for about 8 minutes.
- Make 2 batches of chocolate frosting. Dye black to darken.
- When layers have cooled simply frost and stack.
- The face was made with almond slivers, white frosting, raisins and yogurt-covered almonds (from the Whole Foods bulk bins).
High Five, May May! We made a great cake and the kids love us a little more today. Respect.
Plus, THIS happens.
