Chocolate and Hazelnut Halloween Sea Monster Cake
Perfect for sharing with your family or household for a sophisticated Halloween dinner!

Ingredients:
For the cake:
- 175g unsalted butter, softened
- 175g caster sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 175g self raising flour
- 1 tsp vanilla essence or extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 45g cocoa powder
- 6 tbsp boiling water
For the whipped chocolate hazelnut ganache:
- 175g unsalted butter
- 100ml double cream
- 230g dark chocolate
- 100g hazelnut chocolate spread
To Decorate:
- 250g modelling chocolate
- Gold spray
- Guylian Belgian Chocolates
Method:
Chocolate Cake:
- Pre-heat the oven to 180 C (fan)
- Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, mixing them in one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
- Sift in the flour and baking powder.
- Lastly, mix the cocoa powder with the boiling water to form a paste, then add this to the mixture and mix until thoroughly combined.
- Divide the mixture between 3 6inch cake tins (or 2 8inch) and bake for 25 minutes, or until risen and baked through.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin. Then leave them to cool thoroughly before decorating.
Whipped Chocolate Hazelnut Ganache:
- In a bowl over a pan of simmering water, melt the butter, cream and chocolate until fully melted.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the chocolate hazelnut spread until it is smooth.
- Leave to cool - the ganache will firm up as you do so.
- I like to whip my ganache which makes is super smooth and light, perfect for piping and spreading onto cakes, so with an electric whisk, beat the ganache for a few minutes until slightly paler and airy.
To Assemble:
- Level the cakes so that when stacked they are straight.
- Spread a thin layer of ganache between each layer, and then smooth it all over the sides of the cake.
- Use a cake scraper or palette knife to ensure it is smooth around the edges.
- Leave to chill in the fridge while you make the tentacles as this firms up the ganache!
- For the tentacles, use modelling chocolate, warming it up slightly in your hands until it is fully pliable.
- Make around 8 tentacles and an eye to make it all look as though it is bursting out of the cake.
- Use ganache to secure them onto the cake and then transfer any leftover ganache to a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.
- Pipe 'coral' shapes on the cake, to help attach the Guylian Belgian Chocolate Sea Shells - place these all around the cake and inside the tentacles.
- Use edible gold glitter spray or shimmer dust to spritz all over the tentacles.
- Enjoy! The perfect halloween treat for a sophisticated dinner party!
Head to my Instagram @alice.fevronia for a video on how to make this, and if you give it a go, please tag me as I would love to see!