Hidden Ghost Loaf Cake – Spooky Halloween Hidden Design Cake

This hidden ghost loaf cake is a Halloween showstopper, with a ghostly surprise in every slice.

If you’re looking for a Halloween bake that’s both spooky and surprising, this Hidden Ghost Loaf Cake is a recipe worth bookmarking. From the outside, it may look like a sleek black cocoa loaf topped with swirls of buttercream and playful white chocolate ghosts. But the real trick is hidden inside it. Once you cut into it, you’ll discover a vanilla sponge ghost reveals itself in every slice.

This style of cake, often called a hidden design loaf cake. Now don’t get spooked, is simpler to make than it appears. Essentially, you bake one sponge cake. Then once cooled you will cut your design from that and bake it into another sponge cake. What makes this style of cake work well, is having bold colours for each of your cakes. The contrast between the dark, biscuit-like flavour of the black cocoa and the sweet vanilla sponge not only creates a striking design; but also delivers a cake that tastes as good as it looks. It’s the perfect centrepiece for a Halloween table, guaranteed to raise a smile (or a spook) when you cut into it.

Star Ingredient

Black cocoa gives this loaf its deep, almost midnight-black colour. Thereby making it the perfect backdrop for a Halloween bake. Unlike natural cocoa, it has a smoother, less acidic flavour and a biscuit-like richness that balances beautifully with the sweet vanilla ghost hidden in the centre. The bold colour contrast between the dark sponge and the pale vanilla ghost is what makes the design so striking once you slice into it.

But black cocoa isn’t just used in the sponge. It also brings depth to the buttercream, creating a dark, dramatic base that lets the white chocolate ghost decorations stand out. Together, the black cocoa sponge, the creamy frosting, and the white chocolate accents work in layers. It creates both a spooky visual and a flavour combination that feels indulgent with still feeling comforting.

How to Purchase Ingredients to be Conscious to the Planet

This great thing about this cake, is that it is essentially 2 sponge cakes. And sponge cakes require cupboard staples to make.

Caster sugar, icing sugar and self raising flour are purchasable in paper or cupboard packaging even in the supermarkets. They are also fantastic to pick up in bulk from refill shops if you bake a lot.

For your eggs, try and shop local. Think farm shops or markets. Some refill shops even have eggs if they stock some fresh produce; this can vary shop to shop. If you are shopping in the supermarket, go for a cardboard carton option. Some supermarkets do have stations where you can refill your egg carton. If you are not reusing it, consider repurposing it. They can be used for starting of seeds, or handy for crafting.

Now black cocoa is still the illusive ingredient for me. I am still searching for a refill shop that has it. In the meantime, I am working from a big bulk bag of it. If you have to buy plastic, try where possible to buy the biggest quantity that you can (that you can responsible store/use). This makes it have a better product to packaging ratio.

Chocolate is one of my favourite plastic free swaps. Refill shops can have button or chip forms to buy. Alternatively, pick a bar that has paper or foil packaging. These are easily recyclable.  

Equipment You Will Need

• Rectangle Cake Tin
• 2lb Loaf Tin
• Baking Parchment Paper
• Reusable Loaf Liner or Paper Loaf Liner
• Freestanding Food Mixer or Bowl with Handheld Mixer
• Spatula
• Measuring Spoons
• Mini Ghost Cookie Cutter or Ghost Template and Sharp Knife
• Piping Bag
• Large Round Piping Nozzle
• Microwavable Bowl / Ramekin
• Small Bowl
• Board or Tray
• Teaspoon

Tips and Tricks when Baking Hidden Ghost Loaf Cake

Cutting out your Ghosts

I would recommend having a ghost with some arms to go into the loaf cake. I feel it helps with the appearance to know that it is a ghost inside. However, you can go for whatever ghost style you like best or that you have a cutter of.

As it is being baked inside another cake, it is a mini ghost that you need. If you haven’t got one, you can always create a template. This is as simple as finding a ghost outline online and printing it. Then cut it out. As you will be cutting out multiple ghosts, I would recommend that you use your paper template to create one out of card. Paper will observe moist from the cake, so can then be difficult to use over and over. A card template is more robust. You can recycle a cardboard box that you have like a empty cereal or icing sugar box.

The ghost I used for this loaf cake was 4 ½ cm wide and 4 ¾ cm tall.

Positioning your Hidden Ghosts inside the Loaf Cake

This cake works by not being able to see the design before the cake is cut. So, as you add them inside you need to leave a gap at either end (so not flush against the tin sides. Pop a bit of your black cocoa sponge mix in the loaf tin first and cover the base. This creates base that you ghosts can stand up in, before you add in the rest of the mix around them.

Buttercream Decoration

I have done a sweeping buttercream top to this loaf. This allows the white chocolate ghosts to be sat within the ridges. However, you can have fun. You can try using an open star nozzle and piping simple kisses all over the top to give a different texture and effect.

If you really wanted a contrast, you could even do a different buttercream. If you feel that there is too much black cocoa for you, create a white vanilla buttercream instead (change the black cocoa amount to icing sugar, and add vanilla). You could then create kisses with the large round nozzle to cover the cake to make a topping that looks like lots of ghosts.

Hidden Ghost Loaf Cake

This hidden ghost loaf cake is a Halloween showstopper, with a ghostly surprise in every slice.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Equipment

• Rectangle Cake Tin 10” by 6 ½” by 1 ¼” deep
• 2lb Loaf Tin
• Baking Parchment Paper
• Reusable Loaf Liner or Paper Loaf Liner
• Freestanding Food Mixer or Bowl with Handheld Mixer
• Spatula
• Measuring Spoons
• Cooling rack
• Mini Ghost Cookie Cutter or Ghost Template and Sharp Knife
• Piping Bag
• Large Round Piping Nozzle
• Microwavable Bowl / Ramekin
• Small Bowl
• Board or Tray
• Teaspoon

Ingredients

Vanilla Ghost Cake

• 100 g Butter / Plant Butter / Margarine
• 100 g Caster Sugar
• 2 Eggs
• 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 100 g Self Raising Flour

Black Cocoa Loaf Cake

• 150 g Butter / Plant Butter / Margarine
• 150 g Caster Sugar
• 3 Eggs
• 125 g Self Raising Flour
• 25 g Black Cocoa Powder

Black Cocoa Buttercream

• 75 g Butter / Plant Butter
• 130 g Icing Sugar
• 40 g Black Cocoa Powder
• 1-2 Teaspoon of Water

White Chocolate Ghosts

• 25 g White Chocolate
• ¼ Teaspoon Black Cocoa Powder

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 170 degrees and line the rectangular tray with baking parchment paper.
• In a bowl cream together the sugar and butter for the vanilla cake until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs one at a time along with the vanilla extract and beat well.
• Add in the flour and fold through until no pockets of flour remain.
• Pour into the rectangular tin and level out to the edges.
• Bake in the middle of the oven for about 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
• Allow to cool for 5 minutes in the tin before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
• Once cool, either with a cookie cutter or template cut out at least 8 ghosts from the sheet cake and set aside.
• Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.
• Line the loaf tin with a reusable liner or baking parchment paper.
• In a bowl of a free-standing mixer beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition.
• Add in the flour and black cocoa powder, and fold in until no pockets of dry ingredients remain.
• Pop a small amount of the cake batter in the bottom of the loaf tin so that it covers the base.
• Living a gap at one of the short ends, start to create a row of vanilla ghosts making sure that they touch and leave a gap at the end.
• Careful add in the rest of the black cocoa cake batter around the ghosts to fill in around them as well as cover the top.
• Smooth out the top but ensure that the ghosts remain covered.
• Bake in the middle of the oven for 50-60 minutes until a skewer comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed (you may want to cover the top of the cake with a piece of foil after 30 minutes of baking).
• Cool in the tin for 5-10 minutes before removing and allowing to cool completely.
• As the cake cools, melt the white chocolate in a microwavable ramekin for 10-20 seconds on heat.
• Using a teaspoon, spread white chocolate onto baking parchment that is on a tray / board to create chocolate ghosts.
• Keep teaspoon of white chocolate back, and add in a tiny amount of black cocoa powder to it and stir through to cool it black.
• Pop the black chocolate into a piping bag and pipe eyes on to the chocolate ghosts.
• Pop the chocolate ghosts in the fridge until ready to decorate.
• To make the buttercream, cream the butter until pale.
• Add in the icing sugar and black cocoa powder and careful beat in until fully incorporated.
• Add in the water and beat for about 5 minutes.
• Pop the buttercream into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle.
• Pipe buttercream across the top of the loaf cake start at one short end weaving across until the whole top is covered.
• Gently press the white chocolate ghosts into the buttercream to decorate.
• Store in an airtight container.

Other Halloween Cakes you may be Interested in

• Chai Spiced Mummy Mini Loaf Cakes

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