Today is day two in our new cake series, EEEK It’s Halloween Week!  Five talented bakers were asked to create new designs inspired by Halloween.  To bring the spirit of the holiday to life in a modern cake design like none we had seen before.  Each baker was given a basic black and white color scheme and a specific genre, creating a week of inspiring cakes for everyone.  Yesterday’s cake was all about Classic Halloween Fun.  And today’s cake is made Modern Chic!

This second Halloween cake comes to us from Jacki Fanto, owner of Blissfully Sweet in Sydney Australia.  You probably remember Jacki from previous features on our site (like her incredible design in our Beach Week Series).  Jacki once again amazes us with her creative style and artistic interpretation of the theme.  After finding her inner Van Gogh, Jacki captures the beautiful darkness of the original Starry Night painting, but with a chic Halloween twist.  It is sugar art, DEFINED!  Seriously, you are going to flip out at the brilliance of this design.  And then by the flawless execution.  I honestly don’t think words can do this cake justice.  It is beyond exquisite and you simply must see it!  So without further ado…. I’m honored to present this Starry Halloween Night Cake!

Seriously, I cannot stop swooning!  From the ingenious concept to the incredible technique, I am in love!  Jacki brings her concept to life with with small impressionistic-style dots and dashes of buttercream.  Shades of black and grey swirled with purple and orange.  Flanked by a pumpkin patch at the base and a bright crescent moon at the top.  What a gorgeous Halloween scene!  Let’s see more, shall we!

Jacki of Blissfully Sweet shares the inspiration for her design:

“I was very excited to be asked to design and make a cake for Halloween week and even more excited when I learned that my genre was “Modern Chic”. Let the fun begin!

I wanted to create something that was not overtly Halloween with all the usual bits and bobs, but something that was sophisticated enough that it has a Halloween feel while being chic and glamorous. I am a HUGE art fan and especially impressionism. I love Van Gogh and his painting “Starry Night” is one of my all time favourite paintings. It always had a dark look to me and when I was thinking ideas, I knew I wanted to have an art focus to it and I kept coming back to this painting. I decided to make a Starry Night cake version.”

Jacki of Blissfully Sweet shares the scoop on her display:

“I started to think about my back drop and how this cake would be displayed.  I wanted it to look like it was framed in a gallery.  Therefore, my backdrop was a simple black fabric wall with empty gold gilded frames that we used to both frame and adorn the cake.  A willow branch just gave that extra touch.”

Jacki of Blissfully Sweet talks about the structure and technique:

“When it came to the structure of the cake, I decided on ultra modern with tilted and extended tiers.  Those top tiers really did help to tell the story of the painting.  I wanted to challenge myself also and do something a little out of my own comfort zone.  For me, this is piping!  The Starry Night scene was all hand piped in different shades of black, white with orange and purple being my highlight colours.  To add dimension, I gave the entire cake a watercolour finish first to give the 3d illusion.  For my playful touch, the village that is usually in the bottom of the painting, became a pumpkin village and the pumpkins were all handmade from fondant.

When it was all finished and I looked back, I was thrilled with how this cake turned out.  To me, it is a modern and chic ode to Halloween.”

You’re speechless, aren’t you?!  That’s because this cake is beyond words!  I seriously cannot come up with an adjective worthy of describing this cake.  Spectacular?  Phenomenal?  Mesmerizing?  Needless to say, I am in awe!  Aren’t you?

A huge thank you to Jacki of Blissfully Sweet for inspiring us with her stunning Starry Halloween Night Cake!  It is most definitely a modern and chic ode to Halloween!  And to One Love Photography for the gorgeous images!

VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake :  Blissfully Sweet
Photography : One Love Photography

I’m crazy excited because we’re kicking off a brand new cake series today!  EEEK, It’s Halloween Week!  An entire week of innovative Halloween cake inspiration, created by some of your very favorite bakers!  Five swoon-worthy designs that will have you inspired, plus one new easy DIY for you to try!

The first cake of Halloween Week comes to us from one of my favorite bakeries of all time.  Many of you, including myself, have been fans of Anne Heap, owner of Pink Cake Box in New Jersey, for years now.  Because really, how can you not love her playful, whimsical style?  Pink Cake Box’s website is filled with hundreds of incredible designs, showing Anne and her team know a thing or two about cake!  And I must admit that their blog is one of the reasons I started blogging about cake… way way back in the day.  So needless to say, it is a real treat (ha, pun intended) to have Anne design a cake especially for Halloween Week!

Inspired by classic Halloween fun, this design brings back happy childhood memories… of trick-or-treating all night aiming to fill your pillowcase with candy.  (Yes, that’s right,  I said pillowcase!  What?  You mean I was the only one to use a pillowcase for trick-or-treating?  Surely not, right?)  Whether your memories include a pillowcase or a cute little jack-o-latern bucket, every kid loves Halloween!  From picking out a costume to wearing said-costume for days leading up to Halloween, to the excitement of ringing the doorbell hoping your favorite candy was waiting on the other side.  Anne captures this nostalgia in her Classic Fun Halloween Cake!

EEEK, it that not the cutest little trick-or-treating ghost ever!  She is sweet from her head to her toes.  With her pigtails and bows and chocolate-loving smile!  And just look at those wide-eyes…. there’s no hiding that sugar high!  With a chocolate bar in one hand and a sucker in the other, she’s living the Halloween dream!

Anne from Pink Cake Box shares a little about her design:

“The classic ghost costume of this trick-or-treater is reminiscence of Halloween’s past and the childhood excitement of coming home with jack-o-latern full of candy.”

Oh my goodness, that chocolate-coated smile is ridiculously adorable!  Even her sweet little hand shows evidence of her chocolate love affair.  Her jack-o-latern bucket is overflowing with a mix of classic goodies.  Traditional candy favorites like peanut butter cups, kissses, suckers and candy corn.  This little treat-or-treating ghost has played the ultimate trick and stolen our hearts!  Good thing she is such a treat to look at!

A very special thank you to Anne Heap and Pink Cake Box for creating this adorable cake for us!  It would not be Halloween Week without some straight-up candy fun!

VENDORS & CREDITS
Cake  :  Pink Cake Box

Beware:  BOO-tiful cakes lie ahead!  We’re kicking off a brand new series here on The Cake Blog… an entire week of fabulous Halloween cake inspiration created by some of your favorite bakers!  Five talented cake artists were asked (pretty, pretty please) to create innovative new designs, appropriate for a sophisticated yet spooky Halloween.  Armed with a basic Black & White color scheme and a predetermined category, each baker set off to create something spooktacular!  The end result is a week full of Halloween cake fun!  Five swoon-worthy designs that will have you inspired, plus one new easy DIY for you to try!

These bakers went for fabulous and created some amazing inspiration!  Especially for you!!  From glittery glam and voodoo goth to classic Halloween… this week includes something for everyone.   You’re going to love how each baker transforms their respective category into a cake.  Each design is different yet totally amazing.  So prepare yourself because, EEEK!  It’s Halloween Week!!!

Starting today, the cakes will make their big debut!  One cake, each day from Monday through Friday.  Plus a new DIY somewhere in the middle!  Before we even get started, I want to thank the five talented cake artists who created these cakes!!  Thank you for helping me bring this new cake series to life!  I’m excited beyond words and cannot wait for your cakes to be seen!

I hope you’ll join us for some spooktacular fun…. Halloween Week begins soon!!

	Carrie Sellman is the Founder & Editor of The Cake Blog. Her work has been published in BRIDES Magazine, The Bride and Bloom, on DIYnetwork.com, TLC’s Parentables and more. Read more about Carrie on her bio page.