Recipe: Halloween Themed Surprise Loaf

Today's post is yet another Halloween recipe. Ever since I started baking again in the Summer I've been thinking of what Halloween bakes I could make. Sure I'd seen a ton of recipes on Pinterest and other baking blogs but none of them appealed to me. Then I found a picture on google as I googled Halloween bakes that caught my eye. It was off a 'Surprise Loaf'. I couldn't find the exact recipe to match the picture so attempted to make it with a simple victoria sponge recipe. It didn't work, the cakes were both flat and there was no way it would have worked. So I changed the self raising flour to plain flour and added baking powder. From there, it worked like a dream and whilst it didn't exactly turn out like I wanted it to, I'm still happy with how it turned out.

Ingredients
- 250g Margarine (Not Stork)
- 250g Caster Sugar
- 5 Eggs
- 25g Cocoa Powder
- 2 Tsp Baking Powder
- 3-4 Tsp Orange Extract
- 2 Tsp Orange Food Colouring
- 225g Plain Flour

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180C. Grease and line a 7 inch square tin and a 2lb loaf tin with parchment/baking paper.
2. To make the inner cake you'll need to put 100g margarine, 100g caster sugar and 2 eggs into a bowl. Over top of that you'll need to sieve 100g plain flour and a teaspoon of baking powder. Mix together all the ingredients with either a stand mixer, hand mixer or a silicone spatula. I'd also advise softening the butter for 10 seconds in the microwave so it's easy to beat into the mixture. 
3. Once that's well blended add in your 3 teaspoons of orange extract and mix until well combined. Then add in your 2 teaspoons of orange food colouring and mix until well combined. You can add more depending on how bright you want it to be or you could even choose a different colour completely. 
4. Spoon the mixture into the square tin and smooth over with a spatula or pallet knife so the top is smooth. Then bake for 25 minutes or until it's lightly risen and firm to touch. Leave to cool in the tin for five minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. Whilst you wait for that cake to cool, in a clean mixing bowl place the remaining margarine, eggs, caster sugar, plain flour and baking powder. Add the cocoa powder and mix until well combined, adding more cocoa powder if you think it's necessary. Once you have your mixture, place to one side. 
6. Place your now cooled cake on a board and with a cutter of your choice (I went with a bat) cut out a minimum of six shapes. You may have to cut them out diagonally across the cake to get enough to fit inside the loaf tin. Also make sure your cutter of choice fits both width and height wise inside your loaf tin. 
7. Now they're cut out, spoon a third of your chocolate cake mix into your loaf tin. Smooth over with a pallet knife or spatula so everything's even. Arrange your shapes upright down the length of your tin. They should fit snugly together and cover the mixture at the base. 
8. Carefully spoon the rest of the mixture on top, smoothing gently over with a pallet knife as not to disrupt cake shapes. Once everything is covered, shake the tin gently from side to side so everything is smooth and settled inside the tin. 
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until lightly risen and firm to touch. Because this cake contains cocoa powder, keep an eye on it towards the end as cocoa powder can tend to dry a cake out if cooked for too long. 
10. Once it's cooked, leave to cook in the tin for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely. 
11. Once cooled, slice and enjoy the hidden surprise. 

As you can see my inner cake did get squashed ever so slightly by the weight of the loaf so I could have done with using a bit more mixture on the bottom of the loaf. However baking like everything takes practice and patience. I'd probably also use a different shape cutter if I made this again before Halloween just to see how well it worked within the loaf. You could even make this for other occasions including Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day and Birthdays. It's all about the surprise inside.