For me, Halloween is 365 days a year, so when I found a 1:1 silicone skull mold, I knew I had to make a skull cake out of it.
And since I can't eat the whole thing by myself, I took it to work...
More info: eatthedead.com | Instagram
A chocolate skull cake that I made
I made it to see if the new skull mold I bought was worth what I paid for it. I'd say yes. And then I got carried away...
It takes approximately 3 bags of white candy melts to make the skull. I melt them down using a fondue pot
To make sure I have a good thick layer for my base, I always start by first filling the base and letting it cool
I do the same thing to the top half of the mold as well. Once the first layer in both the top and bottom of the mold has solidified, I pour in more chocolate. I assemble both halves of the mold and strap it together. Time to start rotating it. In order to get a consistent layer of chocolate on all parts of the mold and to seal the two sides together, I spend the next two hours rotating the mold around and around 360 degrees, flipping it every 2 minutes. It's tedious, but the results are worth it. By the way, I found this mold on Ebay. It's 100% food safe silicone and is life sized.
If you've done it right, you will have a completed skull made out of white chocolate 2 hours later
I used a skewer to carve in some symbols and a mixture of vodka and cocoa powder to give it a dirty, worn, realistic look.
I set the skull down on top of the cake I made, gently pressing it into the top
This lets me know where I need to carve it down so the skull sits the way I want it to.
I cut out spots in the cake where I want the skull to sit lower. Time to cover it in frosting
LOTS OF FROSTING
I smooth on the frosting and grind up some chocolate cookies to make my "dirt."
To make the moss, I grind up plain Nilla wafers until they're nothing more than crumbs
Once they're nothing more than crumbs, I add in enough green food coloring to get them to the color I like
I have a terrarium (terror-arium) I made that I really liked and decided to use as inspiration for my cake
Using it as a reference, I start assembling my final cake. I sprinkle crumbled chocolate cookies on top of the frosting to simulate dirt.
Once I'm happy with how the skull looks on the dirt, I sprinkle the green Nilla wafer crumbs down on it
I also tucked a few green silk leaves onto the cake to see how it looked. I'm pretty happy with it so far, but it needs more color. Then I go over the skull with my airbrush, adding darker green, yellow and black food coloring to add depth and make it look more aged and worn.
The cake is finished! I replace the silk leaves with edible mint
Cutting into the skull
Mmmm...
Bone Appetite!
