Ethan's Skull Birthday Cake

I can't believe that another year has passed since my handsome nephew Ethan cut into his Blue Birthday Cake.  That means he wants another cake, even bigger and better because he's now into double figures at the ripe old age of 10.  Hitting that milestone means that his tastes are changing too and he politely requested a red cake with a skull on top.  Heavens to Murgatroyd, what has happened to the little boy who ran around at our wedding with a soother firmly shoved into his mouth - a SKULL???

Being the lovely, ever obliging Best Aunt In The World Ever that I am, I said yes and immediately started to fret over how I was going to make this scary cake happen.  After a restorative drink (draw your own conclusions as to what it was...) I started to surf d'interweb for inspiration and I found a skull which turned into a perfect stencil to adorn the top of the cake.  After that, it kind of fell into place.

The sponge itself was my trusty Chocolate Sour Cream Cake with a violently red Chocolate Icing.  I sneaked in a little layer of popping candy into the middle of cake, just for added effect.  Finally, with the help of a skewer, I marked out the outline of the stencil on the iced cake and used some sparkly black gel icing to fill it in.  Don't forget the many many chocolate fingers use to decorate the sides.  Hey presto - Ethan's Skull Cake was ready to be devoured by a horde of screeching pre-teens.  It was the talk of the school the next day.

A secret surprise 

Skulltastic

All dressed up and ready to go