Happy halloween!

In order to get this up before Halloween is completely over this year, I will quickly post my Halloween/Birthday cake for my son's shared birthday/Halloween party on Saturday. THE IDEA: Pretty clear :) Based on this recipe from blogger I Am Baker.
THE RECIPES:
Cake: Red Velvet Cake
Frosting: Italian Meringue Butter Cream
Ganache: Just plain Ganache
Ghosts: Spooky Meringues with green frosting pen eyes

THE RESULT:
All in all ok, but a few lessons learned:

1. Frost cake before hitting the punchbowl.


2. Use just a little bit of ganache. You can always add more. I still have some that dripped down off the cake, off the cutting board onto the garage floor. I really must go clean that up before the cats get at it! (Then I will have a whole different kind of mess to clean up, but that is really not the most important point here...)


3. Red velvet cake really needs allot of red food coloring. I used everything I had at home (3 tubes/bottles) and it was not enough. The result was a bit more on the pink velvet side!


4. I really must stop hurrying. The effect and effort would be so much better if I slowed down while decorating. I will get there one day. A yummy messy cake is in the end, still yummy.

NEXT UP:
Good question. I have a bit of a pause from family birthday celebrations right now, but a national independence day torte (Latvia) may revisit the red velvet cake again! I need to experiment more with different frostings. The IMBC is great, but getting a bit old.