Spiced chocolate ghost cake
Serves: 16-20
Prep time: 45 mins Total time: 
Recipe photograph by Maja Smend
Spiced chocolate ghost cake
Conjure up our spooky spiced pumpkin chocolate cake with ghost decorations for Halloween
Serves: 16-20
Prep time: 45 mins Total time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
462Kcal
Fat
22gr
Saturates
11gr
Carbs
57gr
Fibre
3gr
Protein
8gr
Salt
0.6gr
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Tamsin Burnett-Hall
Tamsin learned the tricks of the trade from cookery legend Delia Smith. A trusted recipe writer for the magazine for over 25 years, she is now our Senior Food Producer, overseeing testing and editing to ensure that every recipe tastes great, is straightforward to follow and works without fail. In her home kitchen, Tamsin creates fuss-free flavour-packed food for friends and family, with baking being her ultimate form of comfort cooking
See more of Tamsin Burnett-Hall’s recipes
Ingredients
- 1 x 425g tin pumpkin purée (or see tip at bottom of the recipe)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- a few grindings of nutmeg
- 3 large eggs
- 200g light muscovado sugar
- 150g caster sugar
- 5 tbsp vegetable oil
- 3 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 325g plain flour
- 75g cocoa
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
To ice and decorate
- 300g dark chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids)
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 x 300ml pot soured cream
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g cook’s white chocolate, chopped
- 1 x 150ml pot double cream
Step by step
Get ahead
The sponges can be frozen. Assemble the cake up to 24 hrs before serving. Leftovers keep for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4. Grease and line 2 x 20cm round cake tins with baking paper.
- Mix the pumpkin purée with the spices in a large mixing bowl. Reserve 75g for the icing.
- Add the eggs, sugars, oil, milk and vanilla to the mixing bowl and whisk together until smooth. Sift in the dry ingredients then mix to a smooth batter.
- Divide between the tins, spread out evenly and bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
- For the icing, break off 25g dark chocolate and keep for later. Roughly chop the rest of the chocolate and add to a heatproof bowl with the reserved purée, syrup, soured cream and cinnamon. Leave to melt over a pan of gently simmering water. Take off the heat, stir until smooth and leave to cool.
- For the ghosts, melt the white chocolate as above. Leave to cool until it has thickened again slightly. One at a time, dollop a tablespoon of chocolate onto a tray lined with baking paper then use a palette knife or the back of a spoon to spread it out in a gently curved movement away from you, like a brushstroke, to form a ghost shape. You’ll need about 8-10. Don’t spread it too thinly; this is why the chocolate needs to start to thicken up first. Chill to set.
- Melt and cool the reserved chocolate then pipe features onto the ghosts (keep the chocolate-filled piping bag, to fix the ghosts to the cake later). Chill until needed.
- To assemble, slice each cake in half horizontally (if they are quite domed, trim a little off the top for a flatter surface). Weigh 250g icing into a bowl, add the double cream and whisk until spreadable. Use this to sandwich the layers together. Sit the cake on a cooling rack over a tray.
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Warm the remaining icing slightly until it’s a little thinner and glossy. Pour all over the cake and spread it down and around the sides to coat. Chill to set. Add the ghosts to the cake just before serving, securing them with piped chocolate.TipIf you can’t get hold of ready- prepared pumpkin purée, microwave or steam 500g of peeled, diced butternut squash until soft. Drain well, then blitz to a purée.
