This black buttercream Cat Cake is super simple to make. With layers of pumpkin and chocolate cake inside it’s perfect for the fall and Halloween. With a full video tutorial including recipes and instructions on how to get black frosting!
How I created this black cat cake.
honestly I was looking to do a twist on the popular unicorn cakes for various holidays. I’d been trying to think of something that hadn’t already been overly done when my daughter asked if we could make a special treat together for National Cat day. Yes it’s a thing… Anyway we have 3 cats, 2 are pure black and my daughter LOVES them. So basing a cake off your pet isn’t too weird is it? So the two ideas came together beautifully. And because it’s fall we decided to fill the cake with alternating pumpkin and chocolate layers. But of course you could do just chocolate, or any other flavor as well.
After leveling the cake layers I sliced them in two to get even thinner layers so that the slice of cake would have fun thin lines. BUT for stability, esp with tall narrow cakes, I’d probably leave them full thickness next time. My daughter loves fondant and wanted to cover the whole cake in black fondant but I wanted to share how I achieve black frosting instead. It’s easier than you think BUT it’s a huge mess! Even now I’m still finding blobs of black frosting everywhere!
Just take me to the Recipes and video already!
If you’d rather skip my written tips and tricks for making this cake and links to other great cake recipes and tutorials and get straight to this delicious recipe – simply scroll to the bottom of the page where you can find the printable recipe card with the full video tutorial.
How to make Black Frosting
- Make the frosting the day before to achieve the best black frosting ever – food dye strengthens over time so anytime you want to achieve like black, navy bright red make it the day before – BUT keep it out of the light – keep it someplace dark – cause light will cause the reds in dyes to fade.
- Use black gel dye or even better black POWDER dye (or a mixture of both) – both of these are much stronger than liquid dyes and you’ll be able to achieve a much better black.
- Make a dark chocolate frosting as a base before starting to add the black. You can get black frosting from a vanilla cake, BUT it will be much harder, more expensive and have a weird after taste with that much dye.
- STAY CLEAN – I recommend constantly cleaning while you work on cakes (to keep crumbs out of frosting) but ESPECIALLY anytime your using dyes it’s amazing how much it spreads so you’ll def want to stay on top of keeping it under control (I’m still finding black smears as I clean my kitchen to day)
- Don’t be afraid to add a touch of red – I feel the black tends to have a kind of greenish hue at the beginning.
Black Buttercream Cat Cake Video Tutorial
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Tips for baking face cakes – like this cat or unicorn cakes
- Make it TALL… the end result of these face cakes looks so much better when the cake is tall vs short and squatty.
- Use smaller pans – if you start with 8 inch cakes you’ll want it to be about 10 inches tall to get that tall look THAT is a lot of cake. That’s why I use 7 inch layers, I’m only trying to get about 8-9 inches tall and it’s amazing how just a few inches taken off all the sides uses much less batter! Personally I think 6 inches is a little TOO small, and can get a little unstable that narrow but I’ve made it work before.
- Prepare your baking pans with non stick spray (I like bakers joy) and parchment circles underneath and use
- make the ears and other decorations that you want to hold their shape (like a horn or if your making the whiskers out of fondant) early and lay on something that will hold their shape (like a rolling pin for the ears) – the day before is best, but even just a few hours will help.
- For fondant decorations that will sit against the cake – the eyes in this case – you have 2 options – make it at the end when you can put the fresh shape right onto the cake so they wrap around the form or make them early and let them dry. IF you make them early don’t let them dry flat – they wont look right when you go to add them to the cake. Instead let them dry around the outside of the cooled cake pan.
- use a bench scraper to smooth the buttercream OR use fondant – you want a smooth surface with nice corners the face.
- here is the cat eyes, ears and nose pdf I created if you want to use them!
If you love Cake you’ll love these other decadent recipes and tutorials too!
Ultimate Peanut Butter Cake | Rich Dense Chocolate cake with Ganache Buttercream | Cinnamon chocolate chip cake
Mickey Mouse Jack O Lantern Cake | Lego Head Cake | Santa Head Cake
To watch me make this cake with my daughter play the video in the recipe card
Pumpkin and Chocolate Black Buttercream Cat Cake
Ingredients
Pumpkin cake
- 1 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 1 7/8 C all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 2 lrg eggs
- 8 oz pumpkin puree
- 1/2 C Mayonnaise
- 1/2 C water
Perfect Chocolate Cake
- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 2 C granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 C all-purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 C HOT water
- 5 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 C sour cream OR greek yogurt
- 1/2 C oil
- 2 lrg eggs slightly beaten
Chocolate Ganache buttercream
- 20 oz chocolate chopped
- 1 C heavy whipping cream
- 2 tbsp light corn syrup
- 2 C butter slightly softened
- 3-4 C powdered sugar
- Black gel food dye
Instructions
Pumpkin Cake
- Preheat oven to 350
- Prepare 2 seven inch round cake pans, I use parchment paper circles on the bottom and a non stick spray on the sides
- Mix the dry ingredients together
- mix the wet ingredients together
- pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth and combined
- pour into two 7 inch round pans
- bake 35-40 mins, until tester comes out clean
- Let Cool
Perfect Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350
- Prepare 2 seven inch round cake pans, I use parchment paper circles on the bottom and a non stick spray on the sides
- Melt the baking chocolate in double broiler (or in a bowl over a simmering pot of water) then let it cool.
- In a large bowl, or bowl of a mixer add the sugar, flour, soda and salt and whisk together.
- In a separate bowl (or a large glass measuring cup) mix the hot water and cocoa
- Then add the sour cream and oil and whisk.
- Add the wet mixture in a stream to the dry ingredients and mix until blended.
- Add the lightly beaten eggs slowly while beating on low.
- Add the cooled melted chocolate and mix until uniform in color.
- Bake at 350 35-40 mins
Chocolate Ganache Buttercream
- Place the chocolate into a large bowl
- in a saucepan heat the cream - until just about to simmer
- Pour it over the chocolate and let it sit for 5 mins - then stir
- Let the ganache cool to room temp
- Beat butter and add 2 C powdered sugar
- beat in the corn syrup
- add more if needed to achieve a thick buttercream
- pour the ganache into the buttercream and beat.
- Add the black dye until you get a dark brown
- Let the frosting chill In the fridge overnight to achieve a better black
- Bring the frosting out about 30-45 mins before using – beat smooth and frost cakes
Video
Nutrition
Anthony Allen
This recipe was relatively easy and caused rave reviews when served at my pumpkin carving party; it is rich and chocolatey with just the right amount of pumpkin pie flavor for the holiday. My son even requested it for his birthday cake!!…Thanks for your sharing and wait a new your post!
Ashlee Marie
I am so glad you enjoyed the cake as much as my family did!
Kori
What did you use for the whiskers?
Ashlee Marie
black pasta!
Scarlet
How cute! I am pinning this to make for my daughter’s next birthday party!
Ashlee Marie
I hope your daughter enjoys it as much as mine did!
Rose Martine
Wow! That looks super delicious! Great recipe! My hubby is a huge sucker for shrimp dishes!
Rose Martine
Looks beautiful and delicious! I do some prep ahead meals but not that many. I think this is very worthwhile and nice to know you always have a meal on hand!
Regards
rose martine