Devil’s Food Blackberry Bat Cake

Awww yessss! This post is yet another an opportunity for me to embrace my two favorite deadly sins, gluttony and sloth.  Gluttony because it’s a huge chocolate cake that I’m gonna eat once it’s done and sloth because I’m knocking out two very important dates with one epic cake: my friend Battywampus’ birthday and National Bat Day!

First off, happy birthday Battywampus!  She’s a fellow Halloween and bat lover as well as also being a blogger in our group, the Samhain Society.  If her name sounds familiar to you all, it’s because she helped inspire Lucifur’s Battywampus Bites a few months back.

Secondly, National Bat Appreciation Day is coming up on the 17th of April, and as you know from my previous posts on Lunar Bat Cupcakes and Easy DIY Bat Lanterns, I love bats!  In fact, next to Lucifur herself, they’re my favorite animals, which is probably why I dress her (and her sister, Pandamonium) up like a bat every chance I get.

Having two such auspicious days and an opportunity to celebrate my (second) favorite animal in such close proximity called for nothing less than a single epic cake to celebrate!

Behold, the bat cake!

Battywampus loves chocolate (as do I) and also loves fresh spring berries.  I was at the store trying to figure out how to make this bat cake when I spotted a whole display of fresh blackberries.  I quickly scooped some up and knew instantly that they were the perfect decoration for our cake, as well as the jumping off point for the color scheme, black and purple.

Making a three-tier cake isn’t anything new to me, but figuring out how to do the huge bat wings on top was something that took a bit of mental wrangling, starting with an easy to follow  Chocolate wing template that I sketched up in Photoshop to help make sure both the right and left wings I was going to end up making were both even and the same size (this is your hint to go and download and print this template before you start making this cake!)

Once that was taken care of, it was time to start making the cake!

I used a slight variation on the recipe I usually use for my Death by Chocolate cake.  Because we’re making three tiers and not one huge skull, the recipe is cut down in size but should still be more than enough to make your three stacking cake layers.

Of course, before we go any further, I do need to let you know that this post contains affiliate links.  Feel free to read my full advertising disclosure for more information.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s make bat cake!

To make the cake you will need:

• 1 1/2 Cups flour
• 1 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I prefer the special dark)
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 Teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 Cups whole milk
• 1/2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 Teaspoon almond extract
• 1 Tablespoons espresso powder
• 1 Cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 Cups sugar
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 Cup sour cream
• 1 cup (or 1 berry basket) freshly washed blackberries

To make the fondant, you will need:

• 2 Cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 3/4 Cups miniature marshmallows
• 1/3 Cup black candy melts
• Black gel food color

To make the buttercream you will need:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 Tablespoons whole milk
• 1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
• Purple gel food coloring
• 1 can of regular store bought white butter cream frosting (save for later…you’ll see)

To make your chocolate bat wings you will need:

• 2 cups purple candy melts
• 1/2 cup black candy melts or black food safe black cookie marker

You will also need:

• Bowls for mixing (at least one must be microwave safe)
• Wooden spoon for mixing
• Rolling pin
• Electric mixer
• Fondant smoother (optional)
• 7 cardboard sucker sticks
• Scissors
• Knife or cake leveler
• 6” cake board
• 8” cake board
• Icing spatula
• 2 piping bags with small tip -or- heat-resistant plastic squeeze bottle with a small tip
• Waxed paper
• Tape

You will also need three baking pans in graduated sizes.  The ones I’m using are from Wilton and come in a set that contains a 4″, 6″ and 8″ round pan.  I picked mine up at my local craft and hobby store but you can get a set here as well.

Start by first setting your oven to 350F/176C and allowing it to pre-heat.  While that’s happening, prep your cake pans by first thoroughly buttering and flouring them all.

Cream your butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in your eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of your bowl as you mix.  Add in your vanilla, almond, and espresso powder.

In a separate bowl, whisk together your sour cream and milk until well incorporated and then add to your butter and sugar mixture.

Sift together your flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking powder and baking soda and add the mixture slowly to your wet ingredients.  Blend until thoroughly mixed but don’t overwork.

Pour your batter into your pans, filling each one no more than half full (trust me on this).

I like to put my pans all onto a single cookie sheet when they’re baking.  This serves several functions.

1.  It’s easier to move all three cakes at the same time when they’re on the pan.
2. If a cake overflows, it hits the pan and not the bottom of the oven, making clean up MUCH easier.
3. I’m using a Wilton air cookie sheet which provides an extra cushion of air for my cake pans, helping to ensure that my bottoms are perfectly cooked without burning.  Bonus!

Allow your cakes to cook for approximately 20-25 minutes, making sure you peek in and check on them at the 20-minute mark by inserting a knife into the deepest section of each pan. While mine all baked at the same speed, you want to keep an extra sharp eye on the smallest 4″ pan as that will cook faster and the last thing you want is a burned topper!

If your test knife pulls out clean, your cakes are done.  If it comes back with wet batter still on it, pop back in for an additional 5 minutes.  Keep checking and cooking in 5-minute increments until your knife comes back clean.  Remove your cakes from the oven, cover them with a towel and set them aside to cool.

While your cakes are baking (or cooling, whichever step you’re at), we’re going to make the fondant.

For the fondant you will need:

• 2 Cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 3/4 Cups miniature marshmallows
• 1/3 Cup black candy melts
• Black gel food color

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt your marshmallows and lemon juice together, cooking them in 15-second bursts and stirring between each cooking.

When they are smooth and melted, add in your candy melts.  Continue to cook in the microwave in 15-second bursts until all the candy melts are melted and mixed in.

At this point, add in enough gel food coloring to get a rich black color.

Slowly pour the liquid candy into your powdered sugar, mixing as you go until you achieve a thick, dough-like paste.  When you are unable to stir the mixture any longer using a wooden spoon, turn out onto a surface liberally dusted with powdered sugar and knead until smooth and pliable.

Place your fondant in a zip-top plastic food bag and set it aside for now.

Time to make the buttercream frosting.

For this you will need:

• 1/2 stick of unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening (Crisco)
• 4 Cups powdered (confectioners’) sugar
• 2 tablespoons whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Purple gel food coloring

In your electric mixer, cream together your ½ cup Crisco with your ½ cup softened butter until light and fluffy.

Do NOT use your can of storebought frosting yet.  We’re not to that step quite yet…

Slowly sift in 4 of your 8 cups of powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until fully combined with your butter/Crisco mixture. Make sure to scrape the sides of your bowl as you go to ensure all your frosting is well mixed.

Pro tip: Shut your mixer off before you add your powdered sugar and bring the speed up slowly when you do turn it on. This will prevent the powdered sugar from exploding in a cloud of white that will end up everywhere in your kitchen except your frosting!

You should end up with a mixture that is extremely thick and hard to stir. To loosen it up, slowly drizzle in your 2 tablespoons of reserved whole milk as well as enough purple gel food coloring to achieve a rich deep purple and whip for an additional two to four minutes or until smooth and thick.

By now your cakes should be cool (this is MANDATORY!!!  A warm cake will melt your buttercream frosting faster than a snowflake in Hell, leaving you with a messy, drippy disaster).

Using a sharp knife or a cake leveler, cut the domed tops off each of your cakes, making sure they’re all perfectly flat.  Either discard or eat the tops.  You won’t need them for this recipe.

Use a small blop (yes, that’s a real word) of buttercream to glue your 8″ layer to the center of your 8″ cake board and your 6″ layer to the 6″ board.

The recipe calls for an 8″ cake board, but as you can see in my photos that I’m using a 12″ which leaves me with a good overhang and makes it easier for me to pick it up and move it.  If you use an 8″ cake board, you won’t be able to see it as it’ll be the same size as your cake.  The size of cake board you use on this bottom layer is completely up to you.  For your 6″ layer, however, you will definitely want to make sure your board is tucked up completely under the cake so it doesn’t show. 

Slice each of your cake layers in half and add a thick blanket of purple buttercream.  This will not only make your cakes moister, it’ll give you some good height.  Pop the tops of your cakes back on to create a cake-frosting-cake sandwich and let’s start frosting the outsides of our layers.

Apply a thick coating of buttercream to each layer, using your spatula to smooth it out and remove the majority of it.  We’re crumb coating these layers as well as providing a bit of glue for our fondant, so too much frosting won’t work. You almost want to scrape it all off…almost.

Once covered, put the whole thing into the fridge to firm up while you repeat the process with your 6” layers and your 4” layer (by now your 6” layer should also be glued to the 6” cake board using buttercream as a glue, but remember, don’t worry about your 4” layer going onto a cake board).

Because we’re stacking these cakes, we’ll want to give them a bit of structural integrity, which means popping some sucker sticks into your 8″ layer.  This will help support the cake and ensure that the bottom layer doesn’t get crushed with the weight of all the decorating we’re going to do on top of it.

Eyeball the center of your 8″ layer and sink a sucker stick right there.

Pull it out and trim it so it’s perfectly flat with the top of your cake.  Using this sucker stick as a guide, cut down four more sucker sticks so they’re the same height, giving you a total of 5 trimmed sticks (save the final 2 sticks for later…and whatever you do, don’t cut them down!)

Give them each a dip in buttercream and then push all five of your now trimmed cardboard sucker sticks into your cake through the frosting in the following pattern, making sure that they’re at least one inch in from the outer edge:

Now let’s start covering everything in fondant.

Lightly dust your work surface and your rolling pin with a little additional powdered sugar to prevent your fondant from sticking. Roll out ¾ of your black fondant until it’s the size of your 8” stacked cake.

Gently place your fondant over the stacked 8” cakes and smooth, using your hands or a fondant smoother.

Beginning in the center of the cake, move outwards and down the sides, making sure to gently press the fondant into the buttercream and smooth out any bubbles or wrinkles. Work slowly, as the fondant can tear if moved too quickly or roughly.

Trim off any excess fondant at the bottom of your cake with a sharp knife or clean, food only scissors, leaving you with a smooth, black fondant-covered base.

You should now have:

One 8” two-layer black fondant-covered cake

One 6” two-layer black fondant-covered cake

One 4” black fondant-covered cake

Using more buttercream as glue, stack your 4” layer on top of your 6” layer. You should now have a fairly impressive, three-tiered black cake. Congratulations!

Now it’s time to make our purple drip frosting.

Pop your tub of pre-made frosting into the microwave for about 20-30 seconds or until fully liquid (see, this is why we saved it!)

You should still have a ton of the purple buttercream we made left over. Scoop about ½ a cup of this into a bowl and then pour your now liquid pre-made frosting over and mix well.

Add a few more drops of purple gel food coloring to really give your glaze a deep electric color and mix to combine.

While you’re mixing, I’d like to say a word about this glaze.  To be honest, I’m not sure quite why these two frostings come together like they do, but it’s a beautiful thing when they do.  You’ll end up with a thick, smooth, glossy liquid mix almost but not quite like a gel.

Working as quickly as you can, transfer this to a piping bag and immediately pipe a generous drizzle down the sides of each of your 8″ and 6″ tiers, creating thick, drippy perfection.  Hold off on your 4″ tier for the moment.

WARNING: This frosting sets up fast so be prepared to move fast! 

Before your frosting drips harden, gently press your blackberries down around your 6″ and 8″ layers, spacing them evenly and using the still sticky frosting as glue.  Reserve 4 or so for the final, 4″ tier.

Set this aside and allow it to harden at room temperature (it slows down and stops dripping after about 5 minutes and hardens to a slick, shiny glossy finish after about 30 minutes or so).

While that’s firming up, let’s make your chocolate bat wings!

Hopefully, you’ve already downloaded and printed out your bat wing template.  If not, now’s the time to do it.

Tape your printed out bat wing template to a cookie sheet and then tape a layer of wax paper (not parchment…it HAS to be wax) over the top.  You should still be able to see the outline of your template through the wax paper.

To make your bats you’ll need the purple candy melts and the black candy melts.  Of course, I’m not going to stop you should you decide you want to use higher grade chocolate.  I have a full rundown on how to properly temper white chocolate in my post, My Bloody Valentine.  Simply follow those directions but substitute the red powdered color with purple and black.

Regardless of what you’re using, Candy Melts or chocolate, start out by first melting the purple chips down by zapping them in the microwave and stirring every 15 seconds until smooth and glossy (if you’re using real chocolate, definitely don’t microwave them.  Go to the Bloody Valentine post and follow those directions.  When you’re done tempering and melting, come back here.)

Once your purple is melted, transfer it to a piping bag (or heat resistant squeezy bottle with a narrow tip) and trace around the outline of the bat wings.  Then move into the center and fill in the entire design.  Do this for all four bat wings.

Place a second piece of waxed paper on top of the melted purple chocolate and gently press down.  This will help smooth out the back of your wings giving you a flat surface on both sides.

Now before you go back and look at the final cake photo and the come here and count bat wings and accuse me of not being able to count, yes, I know…I’m having you make four wings but there are only two on the cake.  Consider those two extra wings a failsafe.  If you’re anything like me, you’ll drop break at least one…if not two (case in point, the three-tier cake I dropped on top of poor Lucifur last Sunday…and yes, she was fine.  She managed to snag a few bites while I was cleaning it all up), and that means having backups is always a good idea.  If you think you can manage with just two…well, then, just pipe two.  Just make sure you’re doing a right side and a left side.

Carefully transfer your wings to the freezer and let them harden for about 10 minutes or so.

Once they’re hard, peel off your top layer of wax paper and use a knife to trim the edges of your wings down so they’re bat-like and crisp.

Using either a bit of melted black chocolate or your food safe marker, outline each wing with a black line and trace out where the fingers bisect the wings.Place a small bit of melted purple chocolate on the back of one right wing and one left wing and use it to glue one of your two remaining sucker sticks to each of your wings, basically making a bat-wing “pop.”  This will help it to stay put in your cake.

Place them both back into the freezer so the glue can harden.

While your wings are chilling, it’s time to finish up your 4″ layer.

Re-melt your purple gel frosting in the microwave and, starting from the center, give your top layer an even glaze of frosting, making sure to get drips that match the layers below.

While it’s still soft, gently press your finished bat-wing pops into the top of the cake, using the sticks to help anchor them into place.

Top your cake with your remaining blackberries, using them to bridge the gap between the two wings and help hide where the sticks (and tips of your wings) are jammed into the cake.

Step back, take a deep breath and celebrate…your bat cake is done!

And remember, happiest birthday Battwampus! Why not swing by her blog and tell her yourself?!  Then, when you’re done with that, pop on over to Bat Conservation International and spend some time learning about all the awesome things bats do for us and why they really do deserve their own National Bat Appreciation Day!

Bone appetite!

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