Photo Gallery: Decorate spook-tacular cakes

Pumpkin01

1. For a pumpkin shaped cake, trim the tops of two bundt cakes to fit together. Sandwich the cakes with icing. Fill the holes with the cake trimmings.

Pumpkin02

2. Use No. 127 tip or any large rose tip to thickly ice the cake with orange icing. Smooth the icing with a spatula. Then, add the pumpkinﾒs grooves by smoothing the icing again with a piece of cardboard that is cut into an extended ﾓw.ﾔ

Pumpkin03

3. Place a small piece of cake on top of the pumpkin for the stem.

Pumpkin04

4. Add a brown border around the base of the pumpkin with star tip No. 16. Then, use the same tip to ice the pumpkin stem. Smooth the icing on top of the stem with a spatula. ﾓCutﾔ the top of the pumpkin with a cut paper tube.

Pumpkin05

5. With tip No. 8, pipe a yellow jack-oﾒ-lantern face. Then, use a cut paper tube to accent the facial features with brown icing. Add a sugar leaf to the stem.

Pumpkin06

6. Pipe an appropriate message using a cut paper tube, and accent the cake board with sugar leaves.

Scared Cat01

1. For a black Halloween cat, use a single 8-in. round. Cut a 4 in. circle out of the cake, and cut a wedge out of the smaller circle. Place the 4-in. circle (with cut side towards the top) to the upper left of the 8-in. circle to create the head. Place the wedge to the upper right of the 8-in. circle to create the tail.

Scared Cat02

2. Thin black icing to make it easier to spread. (You may use chocolate icing tinted black if you want to use less coloring.) Ice the cat with the thinned icing, ruffling the ﾓfurﾔ with a spatula. Use tip No. 8 to pipe the eyes. For the nose, you can use candy corn (pictured) or pipe it with tip No. 8. Cut the whiskers from cardboard, or use uncooked spaghetti, and warn customers to remove the whiskers before eating. This cat works well on its own, or you may place it on any size sheet cake for additional servings.

Owl01

1. For a wise Halloween owl, you need one 6-in. round and one 9-in. round. Place the 9-in. round below the 6-in. layer. Cut wedges from the left, right and bottom of the larger round. Simply shift the two wedges on the sides out a bit for the wings. Flip the bottom wedge for the tail. Then, trim two small triangles out of the bottom of the larger round and place them at the top of the head for the owlﾒs ears.

Owl02

2. Ice the cake with thinned gray icing, and use a spatula to create the feathers. With tip No. 8, pipe the white claws, tummy, ears and ﾓcheeksﾔ of the owl, smoothing with a spatula. Paint the irises of the eyes with a small brush and yellow food coloring. Trim the tip off a sugar ice cream cone for the owlﾒs beak, and coat with yellow and orange icing. You also may create the beak with icing. Pipe claws using tip No. 8 and a bag striped with yellow and orange icing. Use a cut paper tube to add black details.

Halloween01

For a trick or treat sack, stack and fill three 6-in. rounds, and lightly ice. Roll out a circle of rolled fondant, and place the cake layers in the center. Fold the fondant up along the edges of the cake using the icing to adhere the fondant to the cake. Leave the fondant lumpy and bumpy to give the appearance of a full candy bag. At the top of the cake, fold the edges of the fondant over to give the bag a ruffled appearance. Airbrush the fondant brown. Place candy on top of the cake to cover the top and make the bag look filled to the brim. Use a cut paper tube to pipe ﾓTrick or Treatﾔ on the sack.

Halloween02

To create mini pumpkins, which are great for single serve desserts, stack two small bundt cakes, or other snack-type cake, with the tops together. Use icing to adhere the two cakes. Pour warmed icing fondant over the stacked cakes to coat. You can use orange fondant icing or white and then airbrush it orange. Use a cut paper tube to pipe the jack-oﾒ-lantern facial details with brown and yellow icing as well as a black circle to indicate the top of the jack-oﾒ-lantern. Then, pipe a stem on top of the cake.