Halloween

I love Halloween. I love this holiday mainly because of my love of everything horror. Movies, TV shows, books, you name it. If it has ghosts, supernatural beings, demons or killers, I'll watch it and I'll read it.

Some of my favorites include books by Stephen King and the classic movies like Halloween. Some of my all time favorite movies includes vampires. I know what you're thinking, another stupid lame vampire movie, but it's not to me. My 2 absolute favorites are The Lost Boys (and no! this has nothing to do with Peter Pan!) and Queen of the Damned. Some of my favorite shows include The Walking Dead, Ghost Adventures, and American Horror Story. I just can't seem to get enough of this horror stuff as for me it's basically Halloween all year round.

There are many other factors to why I love this holiday besides the horror. The candy. I love candy and it helps sustain my immense sweet tooth. Like candy corn or the best version of candy corn which are the ones shaped like pumpkins! Love those!

The weather. I love the weather during the fall. The leaves change colors and start to collect in piles on the ground. It's also the time of year where it becomes sweater weather. I love sweaters and they are so comfy and come in many different cute styles.

The food! Or in my case the baked goods, such as apples, cinnamon, and this cake. I love pumpkin cake, (I actually like it a lot more then pumpkin pie) especially when it's combined with chocolate ganache. It's just one of the flavor combinations that doesn't sound good but actually is amazing together and I make this every year! That's how good it is. 

I really wanted to do a glittery type effect as the decor on this cake and I tried many different homemade glitter methods I could find online and didn't pan out since I don't own a coffee grinder and don't want to fork over the money for it. The next best solution was sprinkles that I finally realized that I had in my cupboard. I love the contrast between the black and purple and the red frosting. It gives it that Halloween vibe to me.

So what's not to love about this time of the year? I absolutely love it and really appreciate it more since I'm not home and stuck in North Carolina where it basically goes from summer to winter.

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Pumpkin Cake (adapted from The Novice Chef Blog)
3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cloves
3/4 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla
1 15oz can pumpkin puree
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup milk

Preheat oven to 300*F and grease and line cake pans. In a bowl mix the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. In a bowl of an electric mixer cream the sugar and butter until fluffy. Gradually add the eggs and mix until combined. Add in the vanilla, oil, and pumpkin puree and mix until combined. Alternate the flour mixture and milk starting and ending with the flour. Divide the batter into the pans and bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

NOTE: In the original recipe there are no spices, so you can always just use the original recipe if you don't have the spices on hand or have an allergy.

Chocolate Ganache
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream

Bring the heavy cream to a simmer until warm in a small pot. Once warm to the touch, not boiling, pour over the chocolate chips in a small bowl. Stir until combined. Cover and put into the fridge to let set.

Frosting
Truly Red Frosting

Assembly
Trim the tops of the cakes. Pipe a dam around the edges of the first layer of cake with the frosting. Fill in the center with the chocolate ganache and top with another cake layer and repeat. Once you put on the last cake layer do a crumb coat then put into the fridge for at least 10-15 minutes. Frost the cake and decorate how you please.

NOTE: For the decorating I did I used fondant and traced this image of the cat skeleton. For the sparkly coating I just used black and purple sanding sugar sprinkles that I mixed in a bowl. I just used a big cake pan that I put the cake in to catch the sprinkles to make less mess and used my hands to smooth the sprinkles on the frosted cake. This does get messy, not gonna lie, my hands were black after doing this from the sprinkles.