Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Halloween Cake

In collaboration with SKIPPY® Peanut Butter.

I confess that when it comes to Halloween I really am still a child at heart. I grew up in rural Eastern Canada where Halloween, and all things Autumnal, were A. Very. Big. Thing. 

Cape Breton, where I grew up, is famous world wide for its beautiful Autumnal leaf colours – the reds, golds, yellows and oranges of the forest canopy are something truly wondrous and attract American tourists in their droves to view them. Those Autumn colours and the feelings they evoke still hold a place in my heart.

Halloween in our rural village was highly anticipated. All of the children used to dress up in costumes and go out trick or treating, and every single home in the village was open to us trick or treaters. We’d go out with pillow cases and would often have to return home once or twice to empty them of our candied treasures.

Then, afterwards, we’d all gather in the village hall for our annual Halloween party. There was a costume judging, bobbing for apples and all sorts of fun fantastic childhood games. Then we’d go home and make ourselves sick over the following days by gorging on sweeties. I have a mouth full of fillings to prove it.

Gosh I loved Halloween.

Fast forward a few decades and I’m living on a remote North Sea island where Halloween is most definitely Not. A. Thing. In fact, it’s often actively shunned as some ludicrous money making American custom and not for the civilised folk of the British Isles.

<Insert sad face here.>

Don’t get me wrong, there is still a village Halloween party but no one really goes trick or treating (there was one year where we had six trick or treaters but I think they were the regular three who dressed up in different costumes and came back again). No one but us in our village decorates their house up with Halloween decorations.

It’s just not a custom here. Now, kale casting is a custom here on All Hallow’s Eve. Older children go and steal some kale out of folk’s gardens and chuck it in their front door, dirt and all. I reckon that if folk left bowls of Halloween candy in their front porches they wouldn’t have to clean up the mess left from a well aimed kale stalk. Kidding!

They don’t carve pumpkins either. They carve neeps. Have you ever tried to hollow out and carve a neep (aka turnip)? Why!? Why would you even want to suffer through that?! And incidentally, did you know you can cook a turnip in a microwave?

Ach well. When in Rome.

So, despite the fact Halloween is a rather muted affair on my remote island, I like to make the best of it at home and I like to treat my children to the most over the top American-style celebration cakes and bakes. I did manage to find two shops in our local town selling a small selection of Halloween themed decorations, and so I stocked up.

My ideal Halloween is spent at home with my family, dressed up in our Halloween costumes and surrounded in our decorated house. We like to watch a themed movie like Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie or Corpse Bride (I see a Tim Burton theme going on here…!)

Another fond memory I have from my rural eastern Canadian childhood is growing up on Skippy peanut butter. Well, before Skippy it was Squirrel peanut butter – remember, “the one with the peanut on top”? The company that made Squirrel peanut butter started making the American Skippy brand and then they eventually discontinued the original Squirrel range. Canadian jars of Skippy peanut butter still have a picture of a squirrel on it in homage to the previous brand though.

Remember during the late 1980s early 90s when Skippy peanut butter came in bear shaped glass bottles? We had a whole row of those jars that my mother used to use as storage containers. Ah, the memories! I’d love one of those on my counter top now – filled with sweets or something.

So, this year I’ve created a rather over the top extravagant Halloween themed cake for my children using Skippy peanut butter (you can get it from Amazon – a great big 1.13 kg jar retails for £11.99).

So yes, my cake – it’s a three layered chocolate and peanut butter swirl cake sandwiched together with peanut buttercream frosting and topped with a layer of plain chocolate ganache. It’s a really simple ganache to make too, none of that fancy heating double cream up to the right temperature nonsense – simply melt the ingredients in a bowl suspended over hot water and pour over the top.

The showstopper, I think, is the giant Halloween spider decorating the top made from a Scottish Tunnocks teacake for the body (for you overseas readers, that’s a chocolate covered marshmallow cookie), a single Malteeser for a head and some Quality Street Matchmakers for legs. The Tunnocks teacake and Malteeser are covered in chocolate frosting and then rolled in Halloween sprinkles.  Rather effective, no? Mega chocolate overload!

Oh, another tip is to pop your cake into the fridge to chill once you’ve put the peanut buttercream on it (don’t forget to reserve a little to pipe a cobweb on the top of the cake!) – the chilled icing makes the hot chocolate ganache set much quicker, giving you those lovely chocolate drips.

Make sure your chocolate frosting isn’t too warm either when trying to fix the legs onto the spider, or you’ll spend ages trying to keep them upright. Experiment – if they keep falling over pop the icing in the fridge for a few more minutes to harden some more.

Use the photo above as a guide for leg placement – four blobs of frosting on either side of the spider body and then four more blobs where you want the ‘feet’ to be located. Use another blob of frosting for the ‘knees’.

So there you go. My over the top extravagant Halloween themed cake – just in time for National Chocolate Week! This year National Chocolate Week runs from the 10-16th of October and celebrates all that is wonderfully fantastic about chocolate.

Personally, I think chocolate and peanut butter are a marriage made in heaven (you have no idea how excited I was when peanut butter Kit Kats finally made it across the pond to us!). And Reeses peanut butter cups? Swoon!

Do you have any Halloween customs in your family? Let me know in the comments!

In the meantime, for more peanut butter inspired recipes visit the SKIPPY® website and find them on Facebook and Twitter.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Swirl Halloween Cake

Print Recipe

Votes: 0
Rating: 0
You:

Rate this recipe!

Three layers of peanut butter and chocolate flavoured cake swirled together sandwiched with peanut butter frosting and topped with milk chocolate and a giant Halloween spider.

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Swirl Halloween Cake

Print Recipe

Three layers of peanut butter and chocolate flavoured cake swirled together sandwiched with peanut butter frosting and topped with milk chocolate and a giant Halloween spider.

Servings	Prep Time	Cook Time
10servings	45minutes	35minutes

Servings	Prep Time
10servings	45minutes

Cook Time

35minutes

Ingredients

• for the cake batters
• 175 grams unsalted butter room temperature
• 175 grams caster sugar
• 175 grams plain flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 3 large free range eggs room temperature
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp Skippy smooth peanut butter
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp full fat milk if needed, to thin the batters
• peanut butter frosting
• 400 grams vanilla flavour frosting
• 2 tbsp Skippy smooth peanut butter
• 1 tbsp full fat milk
• for the chocolate topping
• 100 grams milk chocolate 40% cocoa solids
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 25 grams unsalted butter
• for the Halloween spider
• 100 grams chocolate flavour frosting
• 1 Tunnocks Tea Cake or other dome shaped biscuit
• 4 Quality Street Match Makers broken in half
• 1 Malteeser or other circular chocolate sweet
• chocolate flavour sprinkles for the body
• black and white hundreds and thousands for the head
• 2 sugar eyes

Servings: servings

Units:MetricUS Imperial

Ingredients for the cake batters 175 grams unsalted butter room temperature 175 grams caster sugar 175 grams plain flour 1/4 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 3 large free range eggs room temperature 2 tbsp sunflower oil 2 tbsp Skippy smooth peanut butter 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tbsp full fat milk if needed, to thin the batters peanut butter frosting 400 grams vanilla flavour frosting 2 tbsp Skippy smooth peanut butter 1 tbsp full fat milk for the chocolate topping 100 grams milk chocolate 40% cocoa solids 1 tbsp golden syrup 25 grams unsalted butter for the Halloween spider 100 grams chocolate flavour frosting 1 Tunnocks Tea Cake or other dome shaped biscuit 4 Quality Street Match Makers broken in half 1 Malteeser or other circular chocolate sweet chocolate flavour sprinkles for the body black and white hundreds and thousands for the head 2 sugar eyes Servings: servings Units:MetricUS Imperial

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 180 C/ 160 C fan and grease and line three 15 cm cake tins with baking parchment.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar until and light and fluffy.
3. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder in another bowl.
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, to the butter mixture, along with a spoonful of the flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Add the remaining flour and the sunflower oil. Mix well.
5. Weigh the batter and divide evenly between two bowls.
6. Add the peanut butter to one bowl of cake batter, and beat well. Add the cocoa powder to the other bowl and beat well. The batters should be of a soft dropping consistency - add a little milk to thin them, if required.
7. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30-35 minutes until well rise and golden. A wooden skewer, inserted in the centre of the cake, will come out clean when its ready. Leave to cool in the tins for 15 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. To make the peanut butter frosting beat the ready made vanilla frosting with the peanut butter and milk. Sandwich together the three layers of the cake together with the peanut butter frosting, reserving a little for the spider web decoration on the top of the cake. Cover the sides too with a thin layer of frosting so that you can still see some of the cake edge peeking through. Chill for 15 minutes in the fridge.
9. Boil a kettle. Break the milk chocolate into a heat proof bowl and add the butter and golden syrup. Pour boiling water into a pan and pop the bowl over the top so that the steam from the water melts the chocolate and butter.
10. Pour the melted chocolate mixture over the top of the chilled cake, allowing some to drip down the sides. Leave to harden.
11. Using the remaining peanut butter frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip, pipe a spider web on the top of the cake.
12. To assemble the spider, cover the Tunnocks Tea Cake in chocolate frosting and then cover in chocolate sprinkles. Repeat with the head, using the black and white hundreds and thousands.
13. Place the spider parts in the centre of the piped spider web.
14. Using a piping bag filled with chocolate frosting, pipe eight dollops of chocolate frosting on the back of the spider where you want the legs to attach. Pipe eight corresponding dollops on the cake. Pop the cake into the fridge for a few minutes if you need the icing to harden up a bit, if your kitchen is warm.
15. Break your chocolate match makers into half, and pipe a small dollop of frosting on the join. Arrange the legs on the spider. Persevere - the legs might want to fall over. Chill your frosting some more if this keeps happening.
16. Affix the sugar eyes to the spider head with a little chocolate frosting.

OTHER HALLOWEEN TREATS YOU MIGHT LIKE

Chocolate Orange Pumpkin Bombe
A Spooktacular Halloween Feast
Naturally Green Peanut Butter Witch Finger Cookies
Zombie Brain Chocolates
Halloween Biscuits
Jack Skellington Crochet Cat Toy
Halloween Pumpkin Mini Muffins
Vampire Lady Fingers 
Peanut Butter Ghosts
Halloween Peanut Butter Cupcakes

SHOP THIS POST

Skippy Peanut Butter
Ceramic Cake Stand with Green Foot
Tunnock’s Milk Chocolate Tea Cakes
Six-inch Round Cake Tins
Edible Candy Eyeballs
Quality Street Matchmakers Candy
Spider Web with Four Large Spiders
Black & White Sprinkles
Halloween Mix Sugar Strands
Halloween Pumpkin Napkins
Vanilla Buttercream Style Frosting
Disposable Icing Bags 

This is a commissioned recipe for Skippy Peanut Butter, although all thoughts and opinions expressed are our own. Thank you for supporting the brands who make it possible for me to do what I love: mess up my kitchen and share recipe stories.