It's late October, the costume is half finished, and someone has just asked you to bring "something spooky" to the party on Saturday. Or it's a Halloween birthday, and the birthday kid wants a cake that looks scary but tastes like chocolate.

Good news. Halloween cakes are some of the most forgiving cakes you'll ever make. Drips are supposed to run. Webs are supposed to be a bit wonky. A graveyard is meant to look like someone's been digging in it. Messy is part of the look.

Here are six easy Halloween cake ideas, plus cupcakes, cake pops and a few shortcuts for when the party is tomorrow.

First Things First: Black Buttercream

Half the cakes in this post start with black buttercream, and it's the one bit that catches people out. Squeeze black gel into white buttercream and you get grey. Keep squeezing and you get a slightly less grey buttercream that turns everyone's teeth black.

The fix is to start dark.

1. Make chocolate buttercream, not vanilla: A brown base needs far less colour to get to black.

2. Swap half the cocoa for black cocoa: Our Callebaut Black Cocoa Powder does most of the work for you.

3. Add about ¾ teaspoon of black gel: A concentrated black gel colour goes a long way.

4. Leave it overnight: It will look like wet concrete when you finish mixing. Cover it and walk away. Gel colours deepen as they rest, and by the next day it will be properly black. In a hurry? Warm about a quarter cup of the buttercream in the microwave until just melted, then mix it back through. The heat helps the colour develop faster.

Or skip all of the above and grab a tub of Over The Top Black Buttercream. Nobody at the party will know.

What You'll Need

Equipment

• Two 20cm round cake tins

• Offset spatula and a bench scraper

• Piping bags and tips, including a 233 grass tip for monster fur

• A skewer or toothpick (for spider webs)

• Fondant cutters in Halloween shapes

• 25cm round cake board

Colours and Icing

• Black cocoa powder

• Gel colours in black, orange, purple and green

• Oil based colours if you're colouring chocolate or candy melts

• Fondant in black, white and orange

• Ready-made buttercream if you'd rather not colour your own

• Chocolate drip in black, purple, orange or green

Decorations

• Halloween sprinkles and themed sprinkle mixes

• Candy eyes in a few sizes

• Edible pens for writing "RIP" on tombstones

• Halloween cake decorations like moulds, cutters and wafer toppers A note on colouring chocolate: use oil based colours only. The water in gel colours can make chocolate and candy melts seize, and once they seize there's no saving them. For black or deep colours, start with a coloured melt like Colourmelt Black instead of trying to tint white.

6 Easy Halloween Cake Ideas

All six start with a stacked, crumb coated cake. If you need a refresher on getting a smooth finish, our guide on how to frost a cake covers it step by step.

1. The Spider Web Cake

This one looks impressive and takes about ten minutes.

Cover the cake in black or chocolate buttercream and chill it until firm. Fill a piping bag with white buttercream, or melted Colourmelt Bright White, and snip a small hole in the end.

Starting in the centre of the top, pipe circles that get bigger as you work outward, about 2cm apart. Then take a skewer and drag it from the centre out to the edge. Wipe it clean, move around a little, and repeat all the way around the cake. The circles pull into points and suddenly you have a web.

Finish with a spider made from black modelling paste and two candy eyes. Chill again before slicing so the web lines stay sharp.

2. The Graveyard Cake

The kids' favourite, and the most fun to put together.

Frost a chocolate cake in chocolate buttercream. Crush a packet of Oreos and cover the top with the crumbs for dirt. Halve some chocolate coated biscuits and push them in upright for tombstones, then write "RIP" on each one with a white edible pen.

Add a few gummy worms crawling out of the dirt and a row of chocolate fingers along one edge for a fence. For ghosts floating over the graves, the Katy Sue Ghosts Silicone Mould turns white fondant into little ghosts in seconds.

Don't tidy the dirt. It's a graveyard.

3. The Monster Cake

Pick a monster colour. Green and purple both work well, and our ready-made green and purple buttercream save you the mixing.

Fit a piping bag with a 233 grass tip. Hold it against the side of the cake, squeeze, and pull away to make short tufts of fur. Work in rows from the bottom up, overlapping as you go, until the whole cake is shaggy.

Then add eyes. Lots of them. Mix large, small and mini eyes and press them in at random. A monster with twelve eyes of different sizes is much funnier than one with two neat ones.

4. The Ghost Cake

Cover the cake in smooth white buttercream or white fondant. Roll out black fondant and cut two ovals for eyes and a longer oval for a mouth. Place them on the front of the cake and you have one big friendly ghost.

For a cake that's more boo than cute, cut a handful of small ghosts using the Ghost Cutter & Embosser Set or the Ghosts & Witches Fondant Cutter Set, and scatter them over a black buttercream cake instead.

5. The Halloween Drip Cake

The fastest cake in this post, and one of the most striking.

Frost the cake in a contrasting colour, like orange buttercream with a black drip, or black buttercream with a purple one. Chill it well. A cold cake sets the drip faster, so your drips stop halfway down instead of pooling on the board.

Warm your chocolate drip following the pack instructions. Test one drip on the back of the cake first, then work your way around the edge and fill in the top. Pile a Halloween sprinkle mix in the centre while the drip is still soft so it sticks.

Our Trick N Treat, Pumpkin Lantern and Witches mixes all do the job.

6. The Jack-O'-Lantern Cake

Cover the cake in orange buttercream. Over The Top Orange Buttercream gets you there without a whole bottle of colour. To make it look like a pumpkin, press the edge of your offset spatula into the sides from top to bottom to create curved ridges, evenly spaced around the cake.

Roll out black fondant and cut two triangle eyes, a triangle nose and a jagged grin. Sketch the face on baking paper first and use it as a template. Top it off with a stalk rolled from brown or green fondant.

Halloween Cupcake Ideas

If you're feeding a crowd, cupcakes are easier to transport, easier to serve and easier to hand to a kid in a costume.

The Base

Bake your cupcakes in black, orange or purple cupcake papers. It's the easiest bit of Halloween decorating you'll ever do. Top with a swirl of coloured buttercream, and you're halfway there before the decorations go on.

Spider Cupcakes

Frost with black buttercream, press two candy eyes on the front, then pipe four thin legs on each side with a small round tip. Done.

Monster Cupcakes

Same trick as the monster cake, just smaller. Pipe green or purple fur with the grass tip and add eyes. Use one eye per cupcake for a cyclops, or mini eyes all over for something creepier.

Topper Cupcakes

A white buttercream swirl and a Halloween Edible Wafer Topper takes about thirty seconds per cupcake. Halloween Royal Icing Decorations or a pinch of Halloween sprinkles work just as well.

Transporting them? A cupcake box with inserts stops them sliding into each other on the way.

Halloween Cake Pops

Got leftover cake? Turn it into cake pops.

1. Crumble the cake and add frosting a little at a time: You want it just sticky enough to hold together. Too much frosting and the pops slide off the stick.

2. Roll into balls and chill for about 2 hours: A tablespoon of mixture makes a pop about 3cm across.

3. Dip the stick first: Dip the tip of each lollipop stick in melted candy, then push it into a ball. The candy sets like glue. Chill for 10 minutes.

4. Dip and decorate: Coat in melted Colourmelts, then add eyes or sprinkles before the coating sets. If your coating cracks, the cake balls were too cold. Let them sit out for a few minutes before dipping, and leave dipped pops at room temperature for 5 to 7 minutes before they go back in the fridge.

Short On Time? Try These Shortcuts

If the party is tomorrow and you haven't bought flour yet, this section is for you.

Ready-Made Buttercream

Our Over The Top buttercream comes pre-coloured in black, orange, purple, green and white. Frost a store-bought cake and nobody will ask where it came from.

Sprinkles and Eyes

A plain chocolate cake covered in Halloween sprinkles and a handful of candy eyes is still a Halloween cake. It might even be the one the kids fight over.

Moulds and Cutters

A silicone mould or cutter set turns fondant into ghosts and witches in minutes. Make them the night before and they'll be firm enough to stand up on the cake.

Custom Edible Images

Want a specific scene, or a photo of the birthday kid in their costume? Our edible image printing service will print it for you. Lay it over smooth white fondant and you're done.

Five Tips That Can Save Your Halloween Cake

1. Make black buttercream a day early: It needs the time to darken. Rushing it gets you grey.

2. Buy black fondant, don't make it: Colouring white fondant black takes a lot of gel and a lot of kneading. Pre-coloured black fondant is easier and more consistent.

3. Chill before every drip, web or ridge: Cold buttercream holds its shape. Warm buttercream smears.

4. Use oil based colour for chocolate: Gel colours can make melts seize. Oil based colours won't.

5. Frost dark cakes on a board, not your good cake stand: Black buttercream stains. So do black fingers.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make black icing? Start with chocolate buttercream, swap half the cocoa for black cocoa, and add about ¾ teaspoon of black gel colour. Cover it and leave it overnight. The colour deepens a lot as it sits.

Can I make black buttercream without black cocoa? Yes, but you'll need more gel. Use regular cocoa for a chocolate base, add black gel gradually, and give it at least a night to develop. Warming a small amount and mixing it back through helps too.

Will black icing stain teeth? The more gel you use, the more it stains. Starting with a chocolate or black cocoa base means less colour, which means fewer black tongues at the party.

What's the best icing for Halloween cupcakes? Buttercream. It holds a piped swirl, takes colour well and gives decorations something to stick to. Chocolate buttercream is the best base for black.

Can I colour candy melts with gel colour? No. The water in gel colours can make candy melts seize. Use an oil based colour, or buy Colourmelts already coloured.

How far ahead can I make a Halloween cake? Fondant ghosts, spiders and faces can be made a week ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature. Bake, fill and decorate the cake a day before the party and keep it in the fridge.

Where can I buy candy eyes? We stock edible eyes in large, small, mini and anime styles, plus an Eye Medley with mixed sizes in one jar.

Whichever cake you make, remember that Halloween is the one time a little mess actually helps. A drip that runs too far or a web that goes a bit wonky just makes it spookier.

Ready to get baking? Browse our Halloween cake decorations for sprinkles, moulds, cutters and toppers. Left it to the last minute? Our Nunawading, Castle Hill and Campbelltown stores are open Saturdays from 9am to 3pm.