October 27, 2014
Halloween. The celebration of all that's spooky on the Planet of the Pudding Brains. And to celebrate, we asked our resident baker (and The Great British Bake Off winner) Edd Kimber to create a suitably gruesome cake for you to make!
To make the Pudding Brain Cake, you need both a standard sponge cake and plain cream cheese frosting. The recipe below tells you how to make these from scratch, but you can cheat and buy them from a shop too!
Vanilla Sponge Cake
- 225g unsalted butter
- 225g tbsp caster sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 225g tbsp self raising flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 375g tbsp unsalted butter
- 750g cups icing sugar
- 3 tsp vanilla bean paste
- a pinch of salt
- 300g ounces cream cheese
- Red gel food colouring
Plus…
- 150g seedless raspberry jam
To make the cake
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F (160C/320F fan). Grease two 8-inch round cake pans and line the bases with parchment paper.
Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat together until light and fluffy, should take about 10 minutes. Add the eggs, a little at a time, beating until fully combined before adding more. Mix in the vanilla.
In a separate bowl mix the flour and the baking powder. Add this to the butter mixture and combine gently until you have a smooth cake batter. Divide the batter between the two cake pans and gently tap to level out. Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out clean. Allow the cakes to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to
To make the frosting
Place the butter into a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat for 5 minutes, until light and creamy. Adding a little at a time, add the icing sugar. Once all the sugar has been incorporated, add the vanilla and salt and beat together for a further 5-10 minutes, until the frosting is light and fluffy.
To finish add the cream cheese and beat together until fully incorporated (don’t beat too much at this stage as the frosting will become too thin). Use a skewer to add a very small amount of red food colouring and mix together to turn the frosting a pale pink.
Assembling the brain
Follow the directions below, or Edd’s helpful video:
Use your hands to crumble the cake, rubbing with your fingers until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add half the frosting, a few spoonfuls at a time, mixing in more until when squeezed together it holds its shape. Line a clean bowl with cling film and tip in the brain mixture compacting down with the back of your hand. Turn out onto a serving plate or cake stand, remove the bowl and peel off the cling film.
To decorate place the remaining frosting into a piping bag fitted with a plain round nozzle and pipe in a random pattern all over the cake, to resemble a brain. Place the cake into the fridge for about an hour or until the buttercream is firm to the touch.
Put the jam into a small bowl and add couple tablespoons of cold water, mixing together to make a thin raspberry glaze. Use a pastry brush gently spread the jam over the entire cake, using a light touch as to not disturb the buttercream. Allow the cake come back to room temperature again before serving.
Remember to take a picture of your delicious brain, and tweet it using the hashtag #Wholloween.
Happy Wholloween, Pudding Brains!
