Easy Double Layer Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting and Spooky Marshmallow Spider Webs
I made this fun, and incredibly spooky little beauty on The TODAY Show with Jenna & Hoda (airdate Oct. 30, 2024). It’s so fun and fantastic and RIDICULOUSLY chocolate-y! The marshmallow spider webs are so unique and cute. And this Apple Cider French 75 batch cocktail is perfect for the punch bowl at your grown-up Halloween celebration! Have a happy Halloween, everybody, and make this cake!
Prep time 20 minutes
Bake time 28-32 minutes
Cooling time 2-4 hours
Yields 2 9-inch cake pans
Ingredients
Chocolate cake:
1 cup melted butter
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup very hot water (boiling is best)
Fudge Frosting:
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 ounces semi-sweet bakers’ chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
Marshmallow fluff spider webs:
2 cups marshmallows
Decoration ideas:
Googly eyes
Candy corn pumpkins
Candy corn
Halloween sprinkles
Plastic spiders
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and line baking pans with parchment paper.
- In a large mixing bowl, gently mix butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder, Greek yogurt, vanilla, eggs, baking powder, and salt.
- Once it comes together, add hot water. Mix until smooth, making sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Pour the batter evenly into pans, then bake roughly 28-32 minutes.
- While cakes bake, prepare fudge frosting. Heat butter, sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate, and salt in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat.
- Heat butter, sugar, cocoa powder, chocolate, and salt in a medium-sized sauce pan over medium heat.
- Cook 4-5 minutes until it starts to bubble around the edges but isn’t boiling.
- Slowly add the cream. The grainy texture will melt away, and you’ll be left with thick, glossy chocolate sauce. Stir in the vanilla.
- Cool completely (2-4 hours) before frosting a cake or you’ll get a thin glaze instead of a frosted look. To cool the frosting quickly, place the warm frosting in a bowl, then place the bowl in a larger bowl of ice. Whisk until chilled.
- Cool cakes completely before assembling. To assemble, set one cake onto a plate and top with half the frosting, smoothing it all the way to the cake’s edge.
- Top frosted cake with second cake. Spread remaining frosting over the top and add some swirls with a spoon or butter knife. Leave the sides of the cake unfrosted.
- To prepare marshmallow webs, place marshmallows in a microwave safe bowl and zap 20-30 seconds.
- Pick up about ¼ cup of the mixture with your fingers and gently knead by gently pressing your hands together and then spreading them apart to create long “webs”.
- Lay the webs across the frosted cake and continue until desired webby-ness is achieved. Decorate with candy corn, Halloween sprinkles, googly eyes, or plastic spiders. Enjoy!
Apple Cider French 75
This recipe makes enough for a 1-gallon drink urn or punch bowl.
Ingredients
12 ounces Florescence Grapefruit & Pomelo Vodka
1 64-ounce (1/2 gallon) jug good apple cider
1 750ml bottle of sparkling rosé
8 cinnamon sticks
1 apple, sliced very thin
Ice to taste
Garnish:
Sprigs of thyme or rosemary
- Add all ingredients to a drink urn or large punch bowl and stir gently. In addition to garnishing the batch itself, place additional sprigs of thyme and rosemary nearby to garnish individual servings.