Spider Cake

I apologize for being so slow in posting lately. I actually have about 6 recipes marked as "drafts", so hopefully I'll be able to pick up the pace soon. Anyway, I did want to get this recipe out because I've gotten a few emails about it.

If you remember a few posts ago, I wrote about this great blog called Culinary Covers....well, when I first went on the site this spider cake really caught my eye. When I got the chance to put a party together for Foodbuzz, I knew this cake would be perfect.

A few things about this recipe and the instructions...I didn't use the doctored up box pumpkin cake from the original recipe. The author of Culinary Covers didn't really like it and I thought a devil's food cake would look beautiful when cut into. While I don't mind using a cake mix from a box, I really hate canned frosting and went with my new "go-to" frosting, Martha Stewart's Swiss meringue buttercream.

I followed the advice about printing the template on heavy cardstock but ran out of time and didn't get a chance to laminate it. If you make this cake, DO try to get the template laminated. It will make using it much easier. With that said, it was a bit of a PITA but at the end of the day I was happy with the results and the guests seemed to like it too.

Ingredients:
1 box of Devil's Food Cake Mix
1 can of white vanilla frosting or your favorite homemade frosting (I used a homemade Swiss meringue frosting)
black sanding sugar
print out template here

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat two 8-inch pans with cooking spray.
2. Prepare the cake according to package directions. Divide batter between the two prepared pans.
3. Bake 30 to 35 minutes, or until cakes test done when toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Let cakes cool for 10 minutes before removing to racks to cool completely.
5. Transfer frosting to a bowl and fluff it up with a hand mixer for about 15 seconds (this will make the frosting more silky and easier to spread).
6. Ice top of one cake layer with with frosting; place second cake layer on top. Ice entire double-layered cake, smoothing out the top as much as possible. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes (to set the frosting).
7. Print spider template on heavy card stock (here). Cut as directed, lightly spray back side with cooking spray and center stencil on cake. Sprinkle black sugar to cover image, keeping rest of cake clean. Press sugar lightly with fingers to make sure it adheres. Brush off excess sugar and carefully remove stencil.

Source: adapted from Culinary Covers, originally from Country Living.