Day of the Dead Cake

I’ve been really looking forward to making this cake. I was asked by the lovely Grainne to create something for her daughter’s 21st ‘Day of the Dead’ themed birthday party this past weekend. I LOVE this theme. Put simply it’s like Mexican Halloween or if you’re feeling particularly Spanish, Dias de Muertos. I adore it’s colourful vibe, patterns and of course the decorated skulls. I knew it would translate into a really cool cake. I wanted the design of the cake to be clean and bold so I chose a purple base to cover the 10” chocolate cake, as it was dark but not black and all the colours would stand out. For the skulls I used flower paste and these cutters to ensure they were all equal and hand piped all the decoration on top using royal icing. I surrounded the base of the cake with hand roses in bright red and pink to make sure it was still pretty and used as many of the classic Day of the Dead elements as possible. I also used a heart motif to tie the top and the sides of the cake together, finished with some piped dots. As well as a main cake I also made 50 cupcakes for the party guests with three different toppers. Some had mini roses, some had little hand decorated skulls and the rest had churros. Yes churros!!! This was the first time I had made them and they turned out super cute and delicious. I used this simple recipe and made them by piping the dough, deep frying them and sprinkling them with cinnamon sugar. So good. I’m really pleased with how it all came together and I hope everyone at the party enjoyed it. Happy 21st Birthday Maisie! xx