THE CURSE OF FRANK BLACK WEEK DAY THREE: TRICK R TREAT?

Readers of Frank Spotnitz's Big Light Blog will know that X-Files fans have a penchant for mixing baking and the paranormal and not to be outdone we thought it long overdue that Millennium had a cake of its own, and now it does. Our good friend Laura, of the superb podcast Spooktalkular, donned her industrial strength oven gloves and borrowed Ricardo Clements' microwave oven for a spot of something wholesome. Want to celebrate the spooky season with an edible version of Frank's Jack-O-Lantern. Over to Laura...

THE HELLISH INGREDIENTS

1 box of Trick or Treat cake mix.
1 Pumpkin cake mold.
1 Can of white frosting or make your own (recipe below).
Yellow and red food coloring.
1 Tube of cake icing to decorate the face of the pumpkin cake or you can use a ziploc bag and fill it with your icing, snip the end off and pipe it onto the cake.
Last but not least 1 artistic soul who made this cake with lots and lots of love!


THE GOOEY BIT

Homemade frosting recipe:

1 cup shortening
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar (sifted)
4 tablespoons milk

THE NEFARIOUS METHOD

Preheat your oven to usually 325 or 350 degrees according to the directions on the box.
Grab a mixing bowl and mix your cake according to directions. Grease and flour your cake pan, I use Pam spray or something similar. Pour the mix into the cake pan and pop it into the oven and bake according to the directions on the box.

When it is done and while it is cooling mix up your frosting. I used two bowls, one for mixing the stem color and one for the actual pumpkin color. For the stem color, I used green food coloring but it is your preference as how to how dark or light of a green you want to use for the stem. I used several drops of green until I had my right color. I also dropped a few drops onto the frosting on the stem and used a toothpick to streak it through the stem to give it that authentic vine look... don't think you can actually tell in the picture but it did look pretty cool.

Next I mixed up the orange frosting for the pumpkin color. Now for this, the box of food coloring said to use 12 yellow drops and 4 red but that is really too bright of an orange so I adjusted it according to how dark of an orange I wanted it and I think it turned out pretty well. So, after frosting the cake I began to decorate the face. I used chocolate icing for the "carving" and I used the small cake decorating tubes to make it a bit easier but like I said you can also do the same thing with a ziploc baggie.

And there you have it. One way to celebrate Halloween, Millennium-style. I'm sure you will agree with me that Laura did some amazing work and I know you will join with me in wishing her and Frank a wonderfully, spooky Halloween. They wouldn't have it any other way I'm sure!

This post is dedicated to our good friend Josef in honour of the keen eye he has cast over the X-Files Cakes over the last year. This one's for you!