BOOOO! Create a scary Halloween Bundt Cake for the Kids - just add Ants and Eyeballs. Made by an Aunt.
What could an Aunt make for some favorite little nieces and nephews for Halloween? Why not a Banana Chocolate Chip Bundt cake with Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting and giant ANTS crawling all over it? What a fun cake to make for a kids' Halloween party, or just to have for your own family. Make whatever flavor Bundt cake you like and decorate it with orange tinted Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting, and decorate it with scary plastic ants (non-edible, of course) and edible sugar eyeballs. I made this cake with chocolate chips and mashed ripe bananas inside. Yum!
Get the kids to help, too! First trick (or treat with promises of a fun A(u)nt Cake) them into washing their hands. Have them mash the bananas for you. I'm sure they would have fun doing that. To keep them busy, have them count how many mini chocolate chips are in a cup. And, have them break up the the pecans for you by hand. You can always rough chop them a little more if you need to. When you get to the stirring, have them help. And, especially when you get to the Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting they will love to help stir the sticky stuff. Don't worry about any spills, they can be cleaned up later. Just keep any puppy dogs away from all of this sugary sticky stuff. Lastly, send the kids off to wash up while you put the cake in the oven.
Preheat the oven to 350F degrees.
Prep your 10 cup Bundt cake pan:
- Thoroughly butter the cake pan. (I doubled the recipe and made two cakes at once, so that's why you see two pans here) I use soft butter and a pastry brush to get the butter into all the "crooks and crannies" (My Gram always used that phrase when instructing me how to butter a pan.)
- Dust the inside of the pan with flour, tapping it around and around to make sure the entire inside is covered with a thin layer. Tap the excess out over the garbage can, leaving a light film inside the pan.
- I do this entire prep process even if it's a non-stick pan. I was disappointed once with a non-stick Bundt pan by not buttering and flouring it. It still stuck in many spots and broke the cake apart when I turned it over to pop it out. Some chunks stuck in the pan. What a mess!
Mash those bananas!
3 Bananas, very ripe, mashed1/2 C Butter, soft
1 1/2 C Sugar
2 Eggs
1 C Chocolate Chips
1 C Pecans, rough chopped (optional)
2 C Flour
1 t Baking soda
1 t Baking powder
1/2 C Milk
1 t Vanilla extract
Time to mix:
- Mash the bananas on a plate and set aside.
- Whisk the flour, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.
- In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar together.
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one.
- Add the bananas to the egg mixture and mix well.
- Mix the milk and vanilla in a separate bowl.
- Add add and beat the milk mixture and flour mixture into the banana mixture. Beat well after each addition.
- Add the pecans and chocolate chips last, folding them in well.
- Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt cake pan, smoothing it so it's even around the top.
- Bake at 350F degrees for 50-60 minutes. I usually give it the clean toothpick test at the 50 minute point. Stick the toothpick in a middle spot and if it comes out clean, it should be done. If not, bake it another 5 minutes, test it again and make a decision to bake more or not.
- Cool the cake on a rack for 10-15 minutes.
- Loosen the sides with a thin plastic utensil. I use the narrow end of a plastic orange peeler.
- Turn it over onto a flat plate. (If you need to, it's up to you, turn it back over and trim off any rounded portion that has risen above the outer edges of the cake. (That can be used for a tasty snacking morsels later on.)
- Cool completely before frosting the cake.
Fluffy Marshmallow Frosting:
7 oz jar Marshmallow Fluff
1/2 C Butter, softened
1 t Vanilla Extract
1-3 C Powdered sugar
2 T - 1/4 C Water
Few drops of gel Food coloring
Fluff it up with frosting:
- Beat the fluff and butter together until well combined.
- Add the vanilla and stir in.
- Alternately add the water and powdered sugar until you have the consistency you like. If you want the frosting to cascade off the sides, make it a just a little runny. If you want it to stay in place when you frost it, make it a little thicker.
- Add a few drops of orange gel food coloring, or whatever color you like.
Decorate your S-C-A-R-Y cake:
After you've frosted your cake, have the kids help you decorate it with Halloween decorations like plastic ants, sugar eyeballs, wax lips, sugar skulls or whatever you find in teh candy or decorating sections of your favorite store. Make sure your decorations are age appropriate, especially if you put any plastic decorations on it. Make sure the little ones know any plastic decorations are not for eating. You may even want to include them in the shopping trip to pick out sugar candies to put on the cake. When I made this cake for my nieces and nephews, it was gone within a day, so I know they enjoyed it and had fun with it. It's an Scary Ant Bundt Cake lovingly made by their Aunt.