Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake; moist chocolate cake dressed up in salted caramel, creamy chocolate ganache, gooey marshmallow webs and chocolate spiders.
Welcome. Whether you’re a Halloween fanatic or just someone who wants to eat a chocolate cake, welcome.
Today’s recipe is just festive enough to let people know you’re not dreadfully boring…but also deliciously chocolatey enough to justify the faff of piping edible spiders. Though I’d argue the joy of destroying the creepy inanimate spiders justifies the fiddliness.
Filling your gob with cobwebs might not be top of your list of activities this spooky season, but making this Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake should be. It’s a proper proper chocolate cake.
Deliciously moist and fluffy chocolate cake, in two thick layers. A generous spreading of salty caramel sauce. A devilishly dark coating of creamy chocolate caramel ganache. Webs of gooey vanilla marshmallow draped on every surface. Creamy white chocolate arachnids. What more could a Halloween dessert need?
This is a great option if you’re not a fan of the hyper-artificial flavours that can often come with novelty food in late October. And that’s before we mention the neon orange and green and purple colourings that, while looking great in pictures, are a bit jarring to eat sometimes. This Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake is a nice balance between looking seasonally appropriate, and actually tasting nice. Plus, without the webs and spiders, it can just be a bloody good cake at any time of year.
Love a chocolatey Halloween recipe? Try out these Chocolate Halloween Candy Cookie Bars!
Melting marshmallows into gooey strings of edible web isn’t anything innovative on my part. This has been a clever technique shared on the internet for a while, but I’ve always loved the appearance it produces! After just a few seconds in the microwave, a handful of squishy marshmallows melt into a super-sticky liquid that stretches wonderfully around the cake. Some people like to grab it with gloved hands to stretch it, but I was a bit too clumsy to get a great result with that method. Instead, I used the prongs of a couple of forks to dip, pull, and stretch the joyous strings of sugar over the chocolate ganache exterior.
As for the wee spiders, a piping bag (or sandwich bag with the corner snipped off) is all you need to free-hand these chocolate decorations!
I hope you’ll have as much fun with this Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake as I did. From the delight of tucking into a proper rich chocolate cake, to the sweet silliness of ropes of melted marshmallow. It’s a great Halloween bake. Enjoy!
Want to save this Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake for later? You can pin the image below:
To make this Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake, simply follow the recipe below!
Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
- 200g (13 ½ tbsp) soft salted butter/margarine
- 180g (1 cup, not packed down) soft light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 160g (1 ¼ cups) self-raising flour
- 30g (¼ cup) cocoa powder (I like Cocoa Runners best!)
- 75ml (⅓ cup) milk or buttermilk
For the chocolate caramel ganache:
- 300ml (1 ¼ cups) double cream
- 300g (10 ½ oz) dark or milk chocolate
- 75g (¼ cup) salted caramel sauce (you can use store-bought or the Maverick Baking recipe!)
- ½ tsp sea salt
To assemble:
- 75g (¼ cup) salted caramel sauce (you can use store-bought or the Maverick Baking recipe!)
- Handful of white marshmallows
- 50g (2 oz) white chocolate, melted (optional, for the spider decorations)
Instructions
For the chocolate cake:
- Preheat your oven – 180°C / 160°C fan / 350°F / gas mark 4. Grease two 15cm (6in) round cake tins, and line the bases with a circle of greaseproof paper.
- In a large bowl, beat all the cake ingredients together until just smooth and combined. This is best done with an electric whisk or stand mixer but can also be done by a good old hand whisk!
- Spoon the mixture evenly between the two prepared tins and bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes until risen and springy to touch.
- Allow the cakes to cool completely in their tins.
For the chocolate caramel ganache:
- Pour your cream into a small saucepan and set over a medium heat until gently steaming and hot to the touch.
- Add the chocolate and caramel to the hot cream and allow to stand for 1 minute.
- Stir the mixture until smooth, and set aside to cool and thicken slightly at room temperature.
To assemble:
- Once cooled, place one of your chocolate cakes onto your serving plate.
- Slather it with your salted caramel sauce.
- Spread one third of your ganache over the salted caramel sauce.
- Sandwich your other chocolate cake on top.
- Spread the remaining ganache all over the cake and smooth it out.
- Place your marshmallows into a heatproof bowl and heat them in the microwave in 20 second intervals, stirring in between. Once they are melted and gooey, you’re ready!
- Using a couple of forks or spoons, carefully pull strings of the marshmallow, draping and sticking it to your cake. Be careful as the marshmallow can be very hot.
- Once you’ve finished draping over your marshmallow webs, use a piping bag to carefully create a few little melted white chocolate spiders.
- Allow a few minutes for your chocolate decorations to set, before positioning them on top of your cake.
- Enjoy!
BE A MAVERICK: why not add some fresh orange zest to the cake batter before baking for a nice bit of festive flavour?
This Chocolate Caramel Cobweb Cake will keep well in an airtight container for up to 4 days. I would advise keeping it out of the fridge as the ganache can become a bit too hard when it’s cold!
