Alright, I know, I knowโ€ฆ this one is all kinds of EEEK!!! But each year when I create my Halloween cakes, I LOVE doing at least one gory cake. This year, I knew I wanted to do something extra spooky, and starring teeth, and the vault line trend.

Letโ€™s just say, my little boys were extra nervous when they saw this little guy on my counter a few weeks ago!

This cake looks a little daunting, but I promise it was really quite easy to make. All it takes is a few little steps, and it will come together. This cake doesnโ€™t require any special tools, just your usual cake decorating equipment, cake  rounds, buttercream, and a little bit of fondant.

What youโ€™ll need:

  1. Cake Rounds & Buttercream. I baked up three 6โ€ณ cake layers for this cake. You can do vanilla and then dye them different Halloween colors, red velvet, or dark chocolate cake layers dyed black. I used black and red buttercream. For the black buttercream, my recipe is in my Cake Confidence cookbook, and for the red buttercream, I used my vanilla buttercream tinted red with Wilton gels and a touch of blue and black for that distinct blood color. I also used Red-Red Wilton gel to make the blood around the teeth. I mixed some of it with clear vanilla extract, and some I used straight on the teeth for a more goopy texture.
  2. Fondant: I know you donโ€™t want to hear thisโ€ฆ but I individually shaped each fondant monster tooth! It was actually super easy. I shaped them while I was helping my son with his homework, haha. Roll the fondant into a large skinny log, then slice little 1/4 inch pieces off the log. Roll one end of each piece into a skinny sharp end. Let all the monster teeth harden overnight (at least) until they are stiff enough to not move at all.
  3. Wilton 6B Tip: For the design on top, I added black to the center of the piping bag, then surrounded it with black. The 6B tip makes a really cool texture, and that little black tip at the end turned out really spooky for this cake. I love it!
  4. Paint Brush: Make sure itโ€™s a clean one from your baking cabinet, and not one that the kiddos used for their art projects, haha.
  5. Cake scraper: This is probably a given, but youโ€™ll need a cake scraper for the fault line effect on the sides.

Now that weโ€™ve chatted about what weโ€™ll need, lets go over how to make this little guy!

STEP 1: Stack and crumb coat your cake, then freeze for about 5 minutes.

STEP 2: Add on RED buttercream around the center band of the cake. This will be what peeks-through the โ€œfault lineโ€ of the cake. Freeze for about 5 minutes. You donโ€™t want this layer to smear when you add on the black, and making sure itโ€™s frozen helps a lot.

STEP 3: Add your black buttercream to your piping bag, then pipe the black buttercream in a thick layer above and below the red fault line of the cake. Use a cake scraper to smooth out the black buttercream, without smearing it into the red layer. You can leave the top rough, or smooth out the top edge. Itโ€™s up to you! I left it rustic on purpose for this guy so heโ€™d be a bit more ragged.

STEP 4: While the black buttercream is wet, press in the fondant teeth above and below on the rim of the black buttercream. The teeth should be stiff after drying out for a couple days.

STEP 5: Itโ€™s time to get a littleโ€ฆ messy! This is what really brings the cake to life. Mix a bit of red gel coloring with your clear extract and use a paintbrush to add & speckle the โ€œbloodโ€ onto the teeth. If you want a more gory blood-like texture, use more coloring and less extract, or even use it straight out of the coloring gel (you may want to warn your guests so that their teeth donโ€™t look just like these ones when theyโ€™re through, although I donโ€™t know many people who will actually eat hardened fondant).

STEP 6: Pipe on the buttercream with the 6B tip in the way I outlined in the instructions above.

Thatโ€™s it!!! Not too bad, eh? Instead of hiding or using my cake lifter to separate them, I left the 8โ€ณ cardboard round around the bottom of the cake because I loved the way the blood splatter looked against the white at the bottom.

And thatโ€™s it! Hopefully no one has nightmares after making this one ;). It sure is fun to make, and will be quite the centerpiece at your Halloween spread this October!

Hereโ€™s a video of the process:

Canโ€™t wait to see your cakes, and as always, donโ€™t forget to tag @bakingwithblondie on your account so I can see all the fun!

As always, happy baking!

xo, Mandy