rose cake

I’ve made plenty of ganache over the years, but black ganache is the messiest. It’s not that black ganache is made any differently than regular ganache, it just seems like my kitchen is a ganache disaster after using it, no matter how neat I try to be. I say this to poke fun, but really, black ganache is magical. Ganache, in general, has great texture – you can make it as smooth or as textured as you like. Enter my bloody rose cake.

Making black ganache only requires adding gel food coloring to the cream before adding it to dark chocolate. The cream will look a dark gray. The ganache gets this super inky black and I knew it would look amazing for this bloody rose cake tutorial. You can see the texture on this cake, and depth, which can be hard to achieved with fondant.

Though this cake is simple, it is meant to make a statement. I can imagine a cake like this being served at a wedding, or a elevated Halloween party. Looking just beautiful enough, until you realize the damage inflicted on this cake – a bloody spray. Maybe a wedding gone horribly wrong? Or a dinner party that ended on deadly terms?

Whichever this case, this cake was fun to make. I have been wanting to make this cake for a while now. I chose to go with a simple, but elegant, large white rose. I really wanted the “blood splatter” to show. I made this rose out of gum paste, as well as the stem. I’ve been loving the look of the exposed stem look on cakes, and I wanted this cake to make an statement with one stemmed rose.

The rose and the stem are two separate pieces. The flower is simply too heavy to be supported by just the stem against the cake. The stem is made with floral wire, wrapped in thin strips of paper towel, then wrapped with floral tape. I added thorns to my stem with gum paste and smoothed them out to blend into the stem. Secure the stem against the cake with a small piece of bent wire. Insert the flower into the cake above the stem.

I added a few rose leaves to complete the look, and then….

sprayed it with fake blood. It took me a bit to figure out the best way to do this for the effect I was going for. I placed a trifold poster board around my cake and lined my countertop with paper towels. Put on an old shirt, just in case you get back splatter. Then I dipped a large stiffer paintbrush (reserved for my sugar projects) in the “blood” and flicked it at the cake.

I stood back a couple feet before flicking the paint brush to create the spray. The part of the cake closest to you will the most of the spray, but the little flecks that ended up on the cake itself looked awesome and I was happy with the results.

In order to get a realistic blood spray look, the fake blood needs to resemble the viscosity and texture. Too watery and it will absorb into the flower, too thick and it will look spotty and, well, gloopy. Making it allows you to control the texture, and you likely have the ingredients on hand. You need red and purple gel food color, cocoa powder, corn syrup, water and cornstarch. I wanted the blood to look darker, with a tad bit of purple as a nod to the real deal. I’ve included the recipe below.

I love this morbid cake. Spooky season is my jam.

If you make this bloody rose cake, let me know! Drop a comment or tag me on Instagram. I love seeing your bakes and creations.

Enjoy!

Ash xx

For more Halloween tutorials, check out these posts:

Halloween Rice Paper Ghost Tutorial

Halloween Mummy Cake Tutorial

Easy Decorated Halloween Ghost Cookies Tutorial