Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan and line three 20cm/8inch cake tins with baking parchment – leave to the side.
In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and light brown sugar until light and fluffy.
Add in the flour, cocoa powder, beaten eggs, baking powder and beat again briefly till combined – try not to over beat the mixture!
Divide the mixture between the three tins and smooth it over – bake for 25-30 minutes until a skewer comes out clean when poked, and when the cake springs back.
Once baked, leave the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, and then remove and leave to cool fully on a wire rack. If the cake has domed slightly, leave the cake to cool upside down to flatten it slightly.
For the Frosting!
In a stand mixer, beat the room temperature butter with an electric mixer until it is smooth and loose and then beat in the icing sugar 1/3 at a time until its fully combined.
Keep beating the buttercream for a few minutes so it starts to get fluffier and lighter. If the mixture is really stiff, you need to add in a tablespoon of boiling water at a time till you reach a smooth, and light consistency that's good for spreading.
Add in the orange food colouring (or red and yellow Colouring) and beat the buttercream again until smooth, and there is a consistent bright orange colour throughout.
For the Decoration!
Once the cakes are cooled, put the first layer on the serving plate spread some of the buttercream onto the top of the first layer, add the second cake on top, and then top again with some of buttercream and then add the final sponge layer. Only use about 2 tbsps of buttercream per layer so that you have enough to decorate with!
With the leftover buttercream, as you can see, I covered the sides (and top) too! Do a first layer of around the edge and top using a large metal scraper and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
Repeat again with a slightly thicker layer of buttercream. I slather it on all over using an offset spatula, and then run the metal scraper round until its smooth. You put more on than will stay on because when you smooth it over, you will naturally scrape some back off again.
Once finished, melt the milk chocolate, dark chocolate and double cream together until smooth
Using disposable piping bags, pipe it around the edge of the cake, edging over slight bits to create the drip. You don’t need to use too much per drip as it’ll drop quite far down by itself! Fill in the top in with the rest of the chocolate so the top is also covered.
Melt the white chocolate and drizzle it in a spiral from the inside out, and then run the point of a cake skewer through it from the middle outwards to create the look of a spiders web. Refrigerate the cake for about 10 minutes so the chocolate has a chance to set slightly.
Using some left over buttercream, pipe little rosettes of buttercream onto the top and add a spookily delicious ghosty marshmallow and then sprinkle on some Halloween sprinkles! Enjoy!
Notes
All of the decorations are completely optional – but I love this style of cake! To make a smaller version of the cake, use:
Two 8″cake tins
300g butter
300g sugar
245g flour
55g cocoa powder
1.5tsps baking powder
It might take an extra 5-10 minutes to bake
Use 2/3 of the decoration recipes!
You obviously don’t have to make straight edged buttercream if you don’t want to, but I just like the look of it! You can slather it on, and it’ll still taste damn delicious.
However, if you do want to make it like this, I seriously recommend using a metal scraper for the decoration of the buttercream, and the disposable piping bags.. I wouldn’t be anywhere without them!
This cake will last in an airtight container for 3 days!