Aren’t they the cutest little things you’ve ever seen?? I knew the moment I saw these on Pinterest and from a fellow insta-caker, I wanted to give it a try on an upcoming cake I needed to make. With a quick swoop with a circle buttercream tip, these little ghost might be the easiest way to doll up any Halloween cake or treat you’re making this year!

The whole cake was inspired by a sprinkle mix I was sent by darling Rosie at @NeonYolkShop. They had different hues of purple, grey, black, and the cutest little ghosts! I knew immediately I wanted to make a stripe cake with them using some kind of ghost component on the side.

There’s a couple elements to this cake that I’ve come to really love. Some are more tricky than others, but all can be mastered with a little point in the right direction. Let’s dive right in!

How to make the buttercream ghosts:

First up are those darling buttercream ghosts! They’re pretty simple, but might take a couple times to get it just right. I used a Wilton 1A round piping tip. The buttercream I used is my classic vanilla buttercream.

What you’ll need:

buttercream ghost Method:

  1. Apply a little pressure with the piping tip to the cake until you’re starting to see a circle form, then immediately pull in a curl (just like a comma or apostrophe), and then lessen the pressure as you curl around and pull away.
  2. If your buttercream is breaking off and not creating a cute little ghost tail, that means your consistency isn’t right. You need medium consistency, for the most part.
  3. Next, add on a couple little nonpareils as the eyes! You can always use any kind of black sprinkle, but I found the dainty little black nonpareils to be the cutest for this particular cake.
  4. That’s it! You can always practice on a sheet of parchment, freeze them, and then hand place them onto the cake, too. Either way works great! Just make sure to put on the eyes before you freeze them. After they freeze, they won’t accept any sprinkles into the surface very easily.

STRIPE SAGA

I feel like stripes can either be any baker’s favorite technique, or bitter nemesis. I’ve been there on both sides, and let me tell you – YOU CAN DO THIS. It just takes a couple little tips to get you all the way there to clean stripes all around the cake. It may take a couple cakes with stripes before you completely nail it, but I promise you – don’t give up, and you’ll make the stripe magic happen!

How to not suck at stripes:

Here’s what you’ll need:

  • First, you need a quality stripe cake comb. For this cake, I used the HENRY cake comb from CakeSafe (use the code BLONDIE if you’re ordering from their website). I love this one because it has thick indents for the stripes. I use other cake combs for my thinner stripes, but
  • Next, you need to have the right consistency of buttercream. It needs to be smooth and without any air bubbles.
  • You will need a cake turntable for stripes on a cake. I’ve tried it without and it was practically a horror movie.
  • Piping bags. Adding the color between the stripe grooves will go best if you pipe them in. No piping tips required. Just add your buttercream and snip the end to the thickness of your stripe.
  • Cake scraper. You will need this to scrape off the colors you’re adding between the cake stripe grooves. I prefer the metal ones so you can control the temperature on them, if needed.

Here’s how to do it:

  1. Crumb coat your cake, freeze for 5 minutes. Add on a thick final layer of buttercream around the entire cake
  2. Using your stripe cake comb, scrape around the entire cake, creating clean grooves all around. I do this at a 45 degree angle, and make sure that each stripe is perfect. If it’s not, I’ll add on more buttercream in that particular spot, and then I’ll go around the cake again with the cake comb. It may take a couple times to get it right, but work quickly. When your buttercream hardens against the cold cake, that’s when bakers run into problems and the stripes start to peel off.
  3. Freeze the cake for 10-15 minutes until super firm.
  4. Pipe in the colored stripes, then use your cake scraper to scrape around the cake (as if you would without the stripes there). I know. It looks messy. It’s supposed to right now. Keep scraping. Keep scraping. Keep scraping. Don’t scrape too hard, but keep scraping.
  5. You’ll see the stripes begin to peek through! That means you’re doing it right. Keep going until you have that same look around the entire cake!
  6. If any spots are not filled in, use your buttercream to fill in the spot and keep going.
  7. That’s it! You made it!

Add on those cute sprinkles, pipe on your buttercream on the top of the cake using a Wilton 6B tip, and you’re good to go!

I absolutely love this cake, and hope my tips for the ghosts and stripes help you on your way to creating it! As always, if you create a cake inspired by mine, I’d love to see it! I’m your biggest cheerleader in the kitchen, and it makes my day to see other bakers creating memories and delicious bakes in the kitchen.

Tag me @bakingwithblondie or #bakingwithblondie on Instagram.

As always, happy baking! And Happy Halloween!!!

xo,

Mandy